tv International Programming CSPAN August 8, 2012 7:00am-7:30am EDT
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gone bankrupt trying to do so. one day i will be well enough to go back to work because of obamacare. my preexisting condition won't excludes me from employer insurance plan. and though i am getting better the battles for making health care available to all americans is still raging. so many people still need help. and the medicaid expansion. we need scientists to make funding decisions for the future biomedical research to make sure high-tech drugs like the one that saved my life that would continue to be developed. we need the public to understand
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obamacare privileges. tax credits and public exchanges will help reduce the impact of annual premium increases that some employers have blamed on obamacare rather than taking responsibility for their own business decisions. as i look back, my illness has completely changed how i look at health care in america. if you remember anything i say today please remember this. i am just an average person. i am a daughter, a wife, a sister and a friend. my illness was a total fluke but it could happen to anyone. even to you. and our health care system needs
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to be ready both for you and for all america. thank you for listening. my husband, rock daniels, will now speak. >> distinguished members of the platform committee, i would first like to thank all the democratic members of congress and so many others who put their own political careers on the line to support the affordable care act for all americans. you represent the finest examples set by two of my personal heroes, senator robert kennedy who said there are those who look at things the way they are and ask why, i dream of things that never were and ask why not. and senator edward kennedy who made the passage of health care for all americans his wife's work. we thank you from the bottom of our hearts and are at your service and implore you to
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please enlist our help in whatever way you deem fit. there has been so much noise surrounding the affordable care act which our own senator tom harkin called one of the most compassionate pieces of legislation in generations. amy and i feel it is our personal and moral obligation to share our story in the hope that by doing so americans will finally be able to put real human names and faces and stories with the law that has already benefited millions of middle-class and struggling americans. separating out the truth of the law from the malicious, heinous and in excusable lies, yes, why is surrounding this law. as amy so eloquently and courageously shared we know the truth about obamacare. a term i use with the utmost
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private. we know the truth far better than most. amy and i are and have been tremendously fortunate to have excellent health insurance through our employers. however, prior to the signing of obamacare her insurance was capped like that of over 1 hundred five million americans. her is at $1 million. had it not been for the immediate relief on these cats once the president signed this legislation we would almost certainly have needed to declare bankruptcy to cover the expenses necessary to save amy's life. i ask you, panelists, to please imagine for just one moment the stress of sitting in intensive care praying with your entire sole for the life of your spouse, partner or child.
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this was my agony. now, worrying about how you will pay an immense hospital bill when your insurance finally runs out. imagine the heartbreak of telling your partner or a child as they finally awakened from a life-threatening illness that simply because they're bad luck or freak accident the dreams of retirement, a college education, even keeping your home are now gone. you may lose everything because you chose to keep them alive. imagine their feelings of shame and guilt at hearing what their illness has cost there family. finally, imagine hearing while your wife lies in a coma the heartless cries of whatcom die followed by applause during a discussion of a hypothetical situation eerily similar to ours
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in one of the early gop presidential debates prior to our state's caucus. this too unfortunately was my agony. thanks to obamacare these additional financial fears were not part of the agony i faced. i remember clearly soon after amy awoke from her comb of when she was just beginning to wonder stand all that happened her asking me with tears in her eyes how are we going to pay for all this, look into her eyes and told her lovingly don't you worry about a thing. obamacare saved us. on the run during the election cycle the republicans would rather have voters hear anything other than the true stories like ours of real middle-class americans being saved from financial ruin or even death by
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the president's signature achievement. amy and i both hope that by sharing our personal story about this landmark legislation that has been so ruthlessly distorted for so long that normal middle-class americans will finally learn and listen up to the truth about this law. i will happily put our real experiences against any multimillionaire political pundits anytime, anywhere to help america do just that. thank you. >> i want to thank you for sharing your story. we need to move along, folks, because we have many people to hear from. what i am going to do is start inviting may be a couple up at a time to testify together and so are there any questions for amy
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or ross at this point? thank you for your testimony. what i am going to do is to invite carol berman and leon z brzins brzinski. carol is a west palm beach volunteer with the national committee to preserve social security and medicare. leon is the president of the wisconsin alliance of retired americans. we are happy to hear from the two of view. we will be holding up the time card at an appropriate time. but please share from your heart and be as concise as you can and we look forward to hearing what you say to us. >> i know this comes with bill grace from someone in my line of work but to the extent people could diminish repetition i think that would be helpful.
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>> thank you, congressman. we will hear first from carol. >> i am carol berman from west palm beach, florida. mine is a sad but not very unique story. before moving to florida i lived in ohio and while there my husband became incapacitated with alzheimer's. for two years i managed a full-time job getting assistance with specialized day care programs and an occasional paid care giver. to make ends meet, i sold our modest home and moved us to a small apartment. soon after my husband broke his hip when he was in day care and even after surgery and some rehabilitation he could no longer walk. i was forced to place him in a long-term care facility. the average cost per month ran
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$4,000 to $5,000 depending on medication and extra services such as laundry. and each and every month i was forced to sell something else of value just to get by. for two more years i managed by cashing in all of our assets except for my own individual 401(k) which sins i was not yet eligible for social security was all that i had left. and when it became clear that our funds would not last much longer and my financial future was in serious jeopardy i hired an elder care attorney who advised me to contact a state welfare worker. to my chagrin, this person could not understand why i was concerned about depleting my funds down to the last dollar. she told me the state of ohio would take care of me by making
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me eligible for section 8 housing and food stamps and other welfare programs. in addition they would take care of my husband in the nursing home. and this was my only option. this is not what i dreamed of for my retirement years so i went back to the elder care attorney and asked him if there was any way at all that i could avoid impoverishment and taking welfare benefits and still preserve my only remaining source of money, my 401(k). that is when he told me that to do this i would have to do the unthinkable. i would have to divorce my husband. and so i did. thankfully sins my daily visits to the nursing home never wavered my husband never knew it
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the change in our marital status. he greeted me the same way every day during this terrible period with here comes the pretty lady. because he could not remember my name. it is sad and i feel guilty to this very day that the only avenue left open to me was to take such a drastic measure to avoid poverty in my retirement years. this is why i do not understand why so many in washington want to cut already modest medicare and social security benefits. we should be looking for ways to improve these programs, including long-term -- long term benefits so if we get sick, we won't have to go on welfare. seniors want to remain independent but that will remain harder if the programs we paid
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into our entire lives continue to be the focus of cost cutting plans in washington. i lived on the edge of financial disaster for a long time just because my husband needed long-term care. social security and medicare were the lifelines' i needed to come through this difficult time. and future generations will need. they should be protected and they should be strengthened. they should not be cut and they should not be privatized and i thank you for allowing me to testify. >> thank you for your compelling testimony. i think your testimony has touched all of us in a very deep way. leon, we are ready to hear from you. >> i am a member of the alliance for retired american, in four million-member grassroots
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organization advocating for seniors and retirees with 1500 local chapters. i am also president of the 107,000 member wisconsin alliance of retired americans. appreciate this opportunity to say a few words about our organization. as you probably know the 2012 elections will beef the first in american history in which the majority of voters are over age 45. forty-seven years ago this monday president johnson signed medicare into law paving the way for quality affordable health care for millions of retirees and august 14th we celebrate the 70 seventh anniversary of social security. a lasting legacy of franklin delano roosevelt in one of america's great social anti-poverty programs. socials and 30 and medicare are rooted in old-fashioned american values. they embody the advice we give to the younger generations. work hard, save some money for the long term and when you are older you will be able to relax and enjoy a break and after decades of hard work stenson time with family and friends.
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the passage of president obama's affordable care act was a victory for america's seniors and families. since 2010 millions of seniors and people with disabilities save $3.9 billion on medication. last year over thirty two million seniors receive that least one new preventive care benefits for medicare. a test discovered my cancer and happy to say that after two years i am cancer free. social security is of program that represents the best of american values. reward for hard work and responsibility for ourselves as well as for our families and neighbors through sharing of risk. the alliance for retired americans rejects the notion of the republican nominee that we should turn social security from an earned right into welfare. social security benefits are earned and when the time comes retiree guaranteed benefits are there for you. the steering committee of social security works, which and the
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alliance for retired americans fully addresses the platform submission to this committee. to all of us social security and medicare promise our society made to middle-class men and women who worked hard and played by the rules but mitt romney and bain capital of this world social security and medicare are two more funds that can be privatized and rated for their own personal gain. think about mitt romney's for for raising medicare and social security ability age to 70. for me, an electrician who worked for years with tools climbing ladders and carrying pipes i can't see myself working to the age i am today. what does this mean for workers in minnesota or in my state wisconsin or across the country? this would be a full and terrible way to treat those who work physically demanding jobs of their lives. the alliance for retired americans urges the democratic party to include a strong forceful platform unconditionally committed to preserving, protecting and strengthening social security
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and medicare. these programs are the bedrock of the democratic party. we owe it to our children and grandchildren. the future older americans that this party, the democratic party stands ready to keep klystron and vibrant. thank you for this opportunity and i will answer any questions you would take an hour to tell you how to save social security and medicare but it is pretty simple. >> thank you for your compelling testimony. are there questions for carol or leon? thank you very much. for coming with your testimony. next we will hear from chief warrant officer charlie morgan and karen morgan and their problems as a same-sex couple despite the fact they're legally marry in their home state of new hampshire. we look forward to your testimony.
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>> good afternoon, mr. chairman and members of the drafting committee. mining is chief warrant officer charlie morgan and this is my wife karen. i am in the new hampshire national guard and serve our great nation in uniform for more than 17 years. i would like to congratulate representative frank on your recent marriage. my wife karen is a special-education teacher who has been forced to quit work so she can care for our 5-year-old daughter as i battle stage 4 breast cancer. karen will do most of the speaking today because as you can hear my voice is very weak due to a tumor pressing against my vocal chords. >> thank you, charlie.
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my wife charlie and i have been together for 17 years and throughout this time we have been committed to each other in a way that is similar that you have been committed to your own spouses and life partners. we were joined the civil union in vermont in 2000 and when we finally felt it was safe to be legally married last year following the repeal of don't ask don't tell we did so immediately. celebrating our marriage with family and friends, affirming and strengthening our commitment to one another and making the universal from a to share all of life's joys and sorrows together has made our relationship strong her and also made our family strong. that is just it. we are a family just like any other family. we based our relationship on love and honor and respect. my commitment to charlie and our commitment to kc elena is the
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most important part of our lives. when charlie and i swore our lives to reach the we meant forever. for better or worse, in sickness and in health. we also believe in serving our country and that is why charlie is an active guard reserve education officer. we saw it as part of our duty as a military family when charlie deployed to mobilization training at fort mccoy wisconsin and then at kuwait for a year as part of operation new done. it is why i took leave from my career as a special-education teacher to support her deployment, take care of our daughter and now take care of charlie during her sickness. but in spite of all that and in spite of the fact that we are legally married the united states government still treats us as legal strangers. our government will not allow me to access health and dental insurance under charlie's
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coverage meaning we must shoulder the huge expense of purchasing at full cost or go without. sadly and quite frighteningly right now i am without health insurance because we simply can't afford it. i am unable to get a military id to have access to facilities and services other families automatically enjoy. when charlie and kc elena going to the commissary on base to buy groceries i am forced to stand outside and wait for them. i cannot even go inside. in our government, the one that charlie serve every day even now with her cancer won't provide survivors' benefits to me should she not win her brave battle. i need those benefits in order to care for our daughter. perhaps this is the scariest part of all. in 2008 charlie was diagnosed with breast cancer. a double mastectomy and baltimore rounds of chemotherapy saved her life.
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declared fit to serve in 2010 she fulfilled her duty in kuwait and returned home to our family. last september there was more bad news because her cancer was back. it was metastatic and incurable. she has undergone multiple rounds of chemotherapy and radiation since and frankly we don't know how long she will be with us. military survivor benefits cannot save charlie's life but they can make sure our family is able to keep going if she loses her battle with cancer. charlie traveled to washington in february to meet with a staff of house speaker john boehner. she told them about her service to our country and her battle with cancer and asked him to drop his legal defense of the so-called defense of marriage act which renders our marriage a second-class union in the eyes of the federal government. he ignored her pleass. hearing president obama express
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his support for the freedom to marry in may we have new hope. here was our commander-in-chief standing behind our family asserting that we're just as deserving of the special commitment as any other family. as a military family through and through we carry that statements of solidarity with us as we keep pushing every day to be treated just like every other family in the united states. we are asking you today to stand with our family and so many other loving and committed same-sex couples and families by making marriage for all committed couples. part of the party platform. we're asking you to take a stand for equality, for love and for families like us all over the nation. >> ladies and gentlemen, i am not afraid to die. as a soldier i accepted that possibility when i before it but i am afraid that karen will not receive the benefits that we
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have earned as a family to take care of casey elena when i am gone. thank you for the opportunity to share our story. >> thank you so very much for coming and sharing your personal story. you have i am sure touch all of our hearts and -- >> mr. chairman, we appreciate your service to our country and your commitment to each other. thank you for being here. >> no greater service people can perform than to share their personal pain in the service of trying to help other people. we are deeply grateful. i want to put on the record the house as barbara remembers a week ago thursday voted on a motion by a republican member of the house to reaffirm the defense of marriage act mainly -- one correction to that eloquent testimony. the federal government did not
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consider your marriage second class. it considers it nonexistent. it is of no weight whatsoever. the vote in the house to reaffirm don't ask don't tell, from 2 republicans voted in favor of reaffirmation. five voted against. on the democratic side, 17 voted to reaffirm, 161 voted against. one of the 17 lost a primary to someone who will be with us next time. you have republicans 98% to continue to deny your rights. the democrats better than 90% and climbing on the other side. we are already there and we should be reaffirming. and when the house leadership which makes its decision voted whether or not to go to court, the vote was three republicans and two democrats. nancy pelosi and steady lawyer. this is a fight where we are on the rights are as far as the public is concerned that i
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wanted to say when we put this in the platform as we hope we will we reaffirm where the democrats already are. >> thank you. >> thank you. other questions. once again. [talking over each other] >> my husband. [laughter] >> thank you so much. next we will hear from aaron l zelhofer on behalf of stonewall democrats. he is a minneapolis-based lgbt activist in democratic politics and he will speak with us about his experiences and especially about marriage e. quality. thank you so much for being here. >> good afternoon. thank you for allowing me to speak today. i speak on behalf of the
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national stonewall democrats, national voice of lgbt democrats working with the democratic party to elect democrats. represent a number of others to testify today but we are not able to. we are here today to advocate for passage on our plate the speaks specifically to full marriage equality in the national democratic party platform. some may think this is a leap for our party. that our party is not ready for this or may be politically unwise to do this now. we say s lgbt individuals we are ready for marriage and 70% of democrats including president obama now agree. something that we as lgbt individuals want to change the definition of the word marriage. just as we didn't have to change the word army when lgbt
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individuals joined the army we are not seeking to change the word marriage. we are seeking simply to join marriage. families the law be personal commitment and responsibility supported by friends, family and the larger community. to me the idea of love and marriage equality is just that. love. to be sure there are numerous practical matters. provisions that allow us to care for and protect our families. in the state of minnesota alone there are 515 laws to which committed lgbt couples have no access. and examination conducted by government accountability office in the aftermath of the passage of the defense of marriage act revealed over 1,100 federal rights and protection from which lgbt couples are borrow. these range from areas that affect our lives as fundamental and far-reaching an end of life issues, healthcare, credit,
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taxes, legal relationships, public-service, raising children, property ownership and so on. it is important for me to tell you how much it means to me on a personal level. my brother adam will be getting married this september to the woman he loves. it is very heartwarming to see him plan for the day. i also have to admit i am a little envious at the same time because i can't wait to have the same opportunity that he does some day. i can't wait for that day that we all dream about when i am able to get down on one knee and instead of saying will you civil union me, or will you divested -- domestic partnership me, say the words that matter most. will you marry me. knowing that we have full support of the law and the community, this community. i ask you to say i do to allowing committed lgbt couples to be included in marriage equality. thank you for your
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