our colleague, allison schwartz. >> thank you. and i just want to i guess do a little bit of cleanup here. i want to speak specifically to seniors. before i do i want to share my -- associate myself with my colleagues' comments that budgets are about values and about our priorities. and to me, and i have served on the budget committee for three terms now and my fourth term on the budget committee. and i have seen each year as we deal with the budget and the fact that the budget should be about three things. they are about meeting our obligations, as a nation, it is about being fiscally responsible, and that's particularly important as we have the challenge of the deficit before us. and it's about growing the economy and preparing for the future. and this budget fails all three. i'm going to speak specifically about the fact that this budget really puts seniors, american seniors, at great risk. they have as you may remember, that the republicans railed against the health reform law, that's now the law of the land. and yet they scar

our colleague, allison schwartz. >> thank you. and i just want to i guess do a little bit of cleanup here. i want to speak specifically to seniors. before i do i want to share my -- associate myself with my colleagues' comments that budgets are about values and about our priorities. and to me, and i have served on the budget committee for three terms now and my fourth term on the budget committee. and i have seen each year as we deal with the budget and the fact that the budget should be about three things. they are about meeting our obligations, as a nation, it is about being fiscally responsible, and that's particularly important as we have the challenge of the deficit before us. and it's about growing the economy and preparing for the future. and this budget fails all three. i'm going to speak specifically about the fact that this budget really puts seniors, american seniors, at great risk. they have as you may remember, that the republicans railed against the health reform law, that's now the law of the land. and yet they scar

our colleague, allison schwartz. >> thank you. and i just want to i guess do a little bit of cleanup here. i want to speak specifically to seniors. before i do i want to share my -- associate myself with my colleagues' comments that budgets are about values and about our priorities. and to me, and i have served on the budget committee for three terms now and my fourth term on the budget committee. and i have seen each year as we deal with the budget and the fact that the budget should be about three things. they are about meeting our obligations, as a nation, it is about being fiscally responsible, and that's particularly important as we have the challenge of the deficit before us. and it's about growing the economy and preparing for the future. and this budget fails all three. i'm going to speak specifically about the fact that this budget really puts seniors, american seniors, at great risk. they have as you may remember, that the republicans railed against the health reform law, that's now the law of the land. and yet they scar

our colleague, allison schwartz. >> thank you.nd i just want to i guess do a little bit of cleanup here. i want to speak specifically to seniors. before i do i want to share my -- associate myself with my colleagues' comments that budgets are about values and about our priorities. and to me, and i have served on the budget committee for three terms now and my fourth term on the budget committee. and i have seen each year as we deal with the budget and the fact that the budget should be about three things. they are about meeting our obligations, as a nation, it is about being fiscally responsible, and that's particularly important as we have the challenge of the deficit before us. and it's about growing the economand preparing for the future. and this budget fails all three. i'm going to speak pecifically about the fact that this budget really puts seniors, american seniors, at great risk. they have as you may remember, that the republicans railed against the health reform law, that's now the law of the land. and yet they scared se

finally, i just want to say with respect to medicare, excuse me, allison schwartz is going to talk in more detail about the medicare cuts and i want to turn to medicaid and karen will address those but simply put, turning medicaid into a block grant program is just code for cutting deeply into supports for seniors in nursing homes, seniors in assisted living facilities. low-incomed kids, disabled individuals and the most vulnerable population. it's a blank check to governors with a license to cut those individuals -- to cut the support for those individuals in our society. it is certainly not courageous to pick on some of the most vulnerable in our society. and finally, i'll just end by saying this notion, this orwellian notion that ending the medicare guarantee for seniors and block granting medicare in a way that will hurt seniors and disabled individuals in nursing homes and other settings -- to suggest that is done to save medicare is a little reminiscent of that twist saying you have to detroit the village in order to save it. this will do terrible damage to medicare and medicaid

i'm pleased to be here with my colleagues, allison schwartz, john yarmuth. paul tonko and a new member on the democratic caucus, karen bass from california. and we're here today to respond to the house republican budget. we welcome an honest, vigorous and respectful debate about the best way to move the country forward, to keep our fragile recovery going, to create jobs and to reduce the deficit. and we all agree that we must act now to put in place a plan to reduce our deficit in a steady, predictable and responsible manner. the question is how do you best do that? as the bipartisan fiscal commission has indicated, any responsible effort, any responsible effort to tackle the deficit requires a balanced approach that addresses both spending and revenue. this house republican plan failed that very simple test. you just have to hear the comments that were just made today by both allen simpson and ers kin bowls. i read from their statement, the republican house plan falls short of the balanced comprehensive approach needed to achieve the broad bipartisan agreem