benefits. it allowed for negotiation for prescription drug prices which would ultimately bring down the price and the cost for medicare consumers, but i want to ask the next question can we finish that. dana, it cut $280 billion out of medicare. that means we ll have fewer lifesaving drugs, cut $280 billion out of medicare. they can say that they they cut $280 billion it did not cut benefits. it will reduce life saving drugs. it did not if you cut $280 billion out of medicare, something is going to happen. come on? we can debate that for a long time. i want to focus on you and the republicans and what you want to do right now. do you support raising the eligibility age for medicare and social security? no. do you support cutting back on medicare benefits or reducing social security payments in order to keep the program solvent? no, and i don t know one
screwed out of this. they need them to make this program solvent. it s the biggest bait and switch i ve ever seen aside from social security that obama care is carrying out here over the younger generation. and in st. louis, sean, in my city alone, because of obama care, we have a ton of people who have blue cross/blue shield in st. louis. the hospital, b jc, a big health system here, all the best hospitals, the cancer center, they re not now able to go to those hospitals because they re not in the obama care exchanges. so people who are getting cancer treatment in the city of st. louis, they don t have access to a cancer center. it is absolutely true. this is the city in which i live. one of the first it s absolutely true. it s not in the exchange. have you been to the website? one of the first questions is, do you want to keep i heard a spokesman who had a press conference and stated it. you have a computer. you can go on, right?
screwed out of this. they need them to make this program solvent. it s the biggest bait and switch i ve ever seen aside from social security that obama care is carrying out here over the younger generation. and in st. louis, sean, in my city alone, because of obama care, we have a ton of people who have blue cross/blue shield in st. louis. the hospital, b jc, a big health system here, all the best hospitals, the cancer center, they re not now able to go to those hospitals because they re not in the obama care exchanges. so people who are getting cancer treatment in the city of st. louis, they don t have access to a cancer center. it is absolutely true. this is the city in which i live. one of the first it s absolutely true. it s not in the exchange. have you been to the website? one of the first questions is, do you want to keep i heard a spokesman who had a press conference and stated it. you have a computer. you can go on, right?
style of presidential leadership. the president takes nosponsibiln sequester. he has had a year to fix t. he could fix it today. he could send us a plan tomorrow. we could have back to him a result within a couple of weeks. he could suggest that we spread it out over the discretionary part of the budget, 2%. he could suggest we spread it out over the whole budget. that would be a 7% cut. we could spread it out over the whole budget, 2% cut. he could do what senator corcorin and i have done, which is spending increases on mandatory, a favor to seniors and young people to make the program solvent and lower the possibility of a debt we can t pay. but he is doing none of that. he is not acting like a president of the united states is supposed to act. on your side of the hill in the senate, there has been no budget passed for years, now. senate majority leader harry reid has not moved one.
the elderly going forward and yet it did not take care of everything. in 30 years later in 1963, 56% of people 65 and older had hospital insurance and that left americans vulnerable if a crisis struck. medicare was enacted in 1965 after decades of debate and lack of political will for a federal health insurance program for the elderly, and the growth of the program has not kept pace with contribution contributions, and why medicare provided for more than 49 seniors last year, keeping the program solvent is a big issue. but are these fed cal expenditures really what is driving the deficit? according to former labor secretary robert reich, the answer is no. quote, he says, they are temporary. if anything, america s safety nets have been too small, and shot through with holes, and that is why the number of percentage of american in poverty has increased dramatically including 22% of our children. so at a time when people are pushing for cuts in social programs we must pause to show that t