Illinois Congressmen Denounce Ryan Budget At Medicare Roundtable

Illinoisans in support of strengthening Medicare, Social Security and other crucial programs denounced the Ryan Budget at a roundtable discussion in Wheeling Tuesday afternoon, calling the GOP-backed fiscal blueprint a "highway to hardship" for senior citizens, disabled individuals and the poor.

U.S. Reps. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL,08), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL,09) and Brad Schneider (D-IL,10) hosted the talk about “keeping Medicare healthy” with their constituents and members of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. U.S. Rep. Bill Foster (D-IL,11) also held a roundtable discussion on the topic in Aurora with representatives from the organization. 

Back in April, Republicans in the GOP-led House approved the chamber's controversial fiscal year 2015 budget drafted by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI,1). Duckworth, Schakowsky, Schneider and Foster voted against the budget.

"I'm proud to stand up to Representative Ryan and his desire to spend taxpayer dollars on corporate tax breaks at the expense of working families and seniors," Duckworth said at the discussion, held at the Wheeling Pavilion Senior Center. "We're going to keep fighting him every step of the way."

Schneider noted that Ryan has proposed his budget "year after year after year."

"I have now voted twice against it," the congressman said. "If he brings it a third time, I'll vote a third time against it."

Disability rights activist Susan Nussbaum told the representatives that she is frustrated by the constant need to defend crucial health care programs. 

"I'm tired of being in a position to fight for things that were won a very long time ago," she said. "Just when you win that stuff, [it is] attacked and attacked."

No House Democrats voted for the Ryan budget plan, named The Path To Prosperity: A Responsible, Balanced Budget. Every Illinois House Republicans voted in favor of the bill that looks to scale back health insurance coverage and subsidies available as part of the Affordable Care Act and outlines cuts to a number of programs, including Medicaid.

Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, says the implementation of the Affordable Care Act meant "seniors on Medicare got more and paid less for it."

"This budget that Congressman Ryan passed ... it repeals that," he said. "All those [new] benefits disappear."

Ryan calls his budget "the path to prosperity," Richtman added. "I call it the highway to hardship because that's what it means for seniors, the disabled and the poor, and not just on Medicare. Medicaid would be cut dramatically, and who uses Medicaid the most? Seniors receiving home care."

The Ryan Budget would also end the Medicare guarantee and replace it with a voucher program.

Medicare recipient Ann Marie Cunningham, who lives in Schakowsky's 9th district, stressed that Ryan's plan to transform Medicare into a voucher system is not the way to go.

Cunningham injured her knee in 2007 and had to go to the hospital, where she contracted the Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) infection. Due to the MRSA infection, Cunningham had to have four knee surgeries over an 18-month period.

"The bills kept coming in ... and if I had to pay that, it would have been close to a half a million dollars," she said. "How much do you think a $6,000 [Medicare] voucher would have covered in that situation?"

Schakowsky said Cunningham is one of many "real people who are experiencing real health issues, and without Medicare and Medicaid, they simply wouldn't be able to survive."

"I think they don't know what would happen to them. I wonder about my colleagues like a Paul Ryan and all the Republicans who supported his budget," the congresswoman told Progress Illinois. "What do they hear when they go home? I'm sorry, they have these people in their district as well. People, ordinary folks, who for one reason or another, mainly because people get sick, life happens, need these programs, rely on these programs."

"Every single [Illinois] Republican voted for the Ryan Budget," Schakowsky added. "I think if people in their districts really understood the meaning of that, that Medicare as we know it would no longer be and that people would just get a voucher and say, 'you're on your own. Go out there and find insurance,' I think they would be absolutely shocked and would say, 'No, that's not American.'"