Medicare: Our Bedrock Promise

Medicare: Our Bedrock Promise
On Tuesday, House Democrats held a hearing to discuss Republican proposals to end the Medicare guarantee and its potential impact on seniors and Medicare beneficiaries. Republicans in the House have voted six times to end Medicare as we know it, costing seniors $6,400 more as they give tax breaks of $160,000 to people making over a million dollars a year. Voting to give seniors a voucher and put them at the mercy of the insurance companies is not the way to honor our nation’s seniors. After a lifetime of work, Americans deserve to count on the stability of reliable, affordable, high-quality health insurance.

For over 45 years, Democrats have sustained and strengthened Medicare and we will always protect this crucial program. To learn more about our work to provide comprehensive and affordable health care coverage to seniors today and future generations, please visit my website.

Congresswoman Pelosi joins the President of the University of San Francisco (USF), Father Stephen A. Privett, S.J. , faculty and students at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the USF Nursing Skills Simulation Laboratory.

More Private Sector Growth
Today, the Department of Labor announced that the economy added 114,000 jobs and the unemployment rate fell to 7.8 percent in September. Last week, the Department also announced that the previous year saw 400,000 more jobs created than originally estimated. With private businesses adding 104,000 jobs last month, this marks the 31st consecutive month of private sector growth. Due to President Obama's leadership on the economy, we avoided another depression and have registered 31 straight months of private sector job growth. Now, we must keep fighting for more jobs and a stronger middle class. Congress should be in session right now working to create jobs and grow our economy. Yet, rather than do the work of the American people, Republicans decided to head home early – without extending middle class tax cuts, without acting to prevent the fiscal cliff, and without passing a jobs agenda.

Leading the Way to Worldwide Democracy
More than 15 years ago, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said to the world, “Please use your liberty to promote ours.” With sanctions and boycotts, with rallies and legislation, and with direct dialogue and engagement, we did. On Saturday, I was honored to deliver remarks at the University of San Francisco at an event honoring Daw Aung San Suu Kyi with an honorary doctorate. San Francisco has long been a leader in promoting democracy for Burma and for supporting Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Earlier this month, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor Congress can bestow.

Training Tomorrow’s Healers
California is currently facing a nursing shortage crisis. The University of San Francisco (USF) currently graduates 160 new nurses every year, nurses who are essential to the health of our city, our state, and our nation. I was pleased to deliver remarks at a ribbon cutting ceremony for the USF Nursing Skills Simulation Laboratory on Saturday.

The USF Nursing Skills Simulation Laboratory will give students the clinical experience they need to excel by training students to master electronic medical records, which will be essential to practicing medicine in the 21st century. The laboratory will also provide high-fidelity mannequins that give the most true-to-life experience and cutting-edge simulators that can also be used for disaster preparation training for our region.

Please feel free to forward this information to your family and friends. To learn more about these efforts, to express your views, or to sign up for email updates, please visit my website. I am also on Twitter at https://twitter.com/NancyPelosi.