Hat tip to CrooksandLairs.com

Well, ladies and gentlemen, that might be the rationale for our Republican friends wanting to eliminate Medicare, but none of those things are true. It is not a ‘construct to develop a plan’ it is the proposal of the Republican party of the United States of America to eliminate Medicare as a guaranteed entitlement. If you don’t believe me, go get the book that they wrote, go get the budget that they wrote, go get the bill that they wrote, and if you believe it is not about your program, listen to their own members talk about it. The Medicare program today is not, as I say to my friends, "one size fits all". My good friend from Georgia, Mr. (Republican Rep. Phil) Gingrey, was on the floor before talking about how it's "one size fits all." How can it possibly be you can be a member of the United States House of Representatives and not understand how Medicare works? Each individual senior gets to go to the doctor of their choosing, gets to go to the clinic of their choosing, gets to decide for themselves where they go, and then the doctor and the patient make decisions. The only question is are we going to say to citizens who are 65 and older "Here is a coupon, go buy private insurance at 25 and 30% overhead", rather than the Medicare program which the actuaries say costs 1.05% in overhead.

We've also heard them (Republicans) say, "You're demagoguing! We don't really want to get rid of it!" But you do.

Now, there is a saying here in Washington that a gaffe is when the Republicans actually say what they think. So there have been plenty of opportunities to see this gaffe in full play. Now they have been tying themselves into intellectual knots trying to get out from under the basic fact. By the way, I hope your insurance plan, the Ryan plan, covers the twisted arms and limbs you get tying yourselves in knots explaining this. It is a radical departure from where we are today. Mr. Gingrich was right! Even a blind squirrel can find a nut once in a while. He was right, it's a radical . . . OWN IT! Show a little, a little gumption, show that you are prepared to own your own proposals! But now that you want to do it and the American people are seeing the difference between Democrats and Republicans, now you're trying to squirrel your way out of it, no disrespect to squirrels. You say we don't have a plan? Not only did we pass a health care plan a year ago that extended 10 years the life expectancy of Medicare, but I'll go one better, I'll give you a plan. How about Medicare not starting at 65, what about 55? Or 45? Or 35?

What is it that Health Insurance Companies do in this country?

Now I know my Republican friends are wholly owned subsidiaries of the Republican party, but that should, should, of the Insurance industry, but that should not mean that our seniors lose their Medicare because of it. So my friend, Mr. Sessions, Mr. Gingrey, were trying desperately to try to figure out how to get out from under your own beliefs.

We believe in Medicare. We created it.

We believe in Social Security. We created it.

We believe in the Health Care act. We created it.

As a matter of fact, every improvement in health care in this country, Democrats proposed, Republicans opposed, and now they have a chance to get rid of it, and they're doing it.

But at least, if you're gonna do it, at least, if you're going to try to do it, don't try to silence people who point it out. And I think the lesson here is that it might be later, if you had me come back at Midnight I would have said it, if I came back at 2am I would have said it, because the American people are going to see what's going on.

You have a proposal to eliminate Medicare. A proposal to privatize a portion of Social Security by investing it in the stock market. A proposal to roll back the expansion of prescription drug coverage to seniors. You have a proposal to take away the benefits of of those 25 and younger to get health insurance. That is you proposal. Own it. Live with it. Embrace it. Because we're not going to let you get out from under it, and you may delay me, you may gavel me, you might tell me you gotta come back at 2 o'clock in the morning, it's not gonna change the fundamentals of this debate, that if you believe fundamentally in Medicare, at this point you've got two choices, tear up your Republican party membership or give up the control of Congress, and frankly some of you are going to have to do both."