INDIANAPOLIS – Congressman Rokita’s first priority when he returns to Washington this week after passing a tax bill that will ultimately raise taxes on middle class Hoosiers will be to cut Medicare and Social Security, even though they’re the backbone of many of those middle class Hoosiers’ retirements, according to interviews he did at the end of last year.
Congressman Rokita appeared on WIBC shortly after voting for the tax bill once again on December 20. Host Tony Katz brought up changes to Medicaid and Medicare, which Paul Ryan has expressed interest on cutting. When asked if cuts to those programs were next, Congressman Rokita responded by saying that “We just gotta keep going [on Medicare and Medicaid]… we just gotta keep at it and at it and at it.”
The remarks were a restatement of similar comments that Congressman Rokita made earlier in the interview, where he said that he was concerned about the impact on the deficit “caused by Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security… that is what is causing our debt and absolutely we’ve got to get to [them].”
His hypocritical words came shortly after voting for the McConnell tax plan, which will add as much as $2.2 trillion to the debt over 10 years; few nonpartisan estimates have said the bill will add less than one trillion dollars to the debt.
“Older Hoosiers have spent their working lives paying into Social Security and Medicare to secure the promise of a stable retirement, and they expect those programs to be there for them. For his first act in Congress this year, however, Congressman Rokita will apparently seek to make sure that our government doesn’t hold up its end of the bargain,” said John Zody, Chairman of the Indiana Democratic Party. “Hoosiers have said time and again they want Medicare protected, and any attempt by Congressman Rokita to cut it certainly won’t make voters happy.”
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