WASHINGTON – Congressman John Larson (CT-01) vowed to continue to fight Republican attempts to eliminate Medicare following passage of the Republican budget in the House of Representatives today without a single Democratic vote.

“Rather than attempt to address the real causes of our deficit, today Republicans pushed through an ideologically-driven budget that will end Medicare as we know it,” Congressman Larson said. “This is a defining moment for the nation in terms of whether or not we're going to stand with the elderly, whether or not we're going to stand with people who have paid into a Medicare system, or whether we will allow Republicans to unconscionably provide even more tax breaks for billionaires while balancing that on the backs of seniors.”

Under the Republican budget, Medicare’s guaranteed benefit is turned into a voucher program that will ultimately result in seniors paying over $6,000 more in healthcare costs every year, while millionaires get huge new tax breaks.  Additionally, the GOP budget puts insurance companies in charge of healthcare for seniors while giving tens of billions of dollars in tax breaks to Big Oil companies and businesses that ship American jobs overseas.

“To target seniors and the less fortunate, without asking the wealthiest Americans to sacrifice at all, is morally reprehensible,” said Congressman Larson. “This country was founded on a basic notion of fairness and shared sacrifice. What we see in the Republican budget is little that is fair and nothing that is shared. Under the Ryan plan the Americans that are being forced to sacrifice the most are seniors, children and the men and women that wear the uniform.”

Today’s vote in the House marks the start of the budget process for the year.

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