President Trump Proposes Gutting Medicare, Congressmen Messer, Rokita Are Ready to Help

INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana, Feb. 12 -- The Indiana Democratic Party issued the following news release:

The latest White House budget that contains trillions of dollars of cuts to Medicare and other crucial programs has the attention of Washington Republicans like Congressmen Messer and Rokita who seem to be excited to gut programs that Hoosier seniors rely on.

President Trump's newly unveiled FY 2019 budget proposes massive cuts to critical programs that will disproportionately affect Hoosier seniors and those on the verge of retiring. The proposal slashes entitlement programs by $1.7 trillion, including $237 billion from Medicare alone.

President Trump's budget means that two of Washington's highest-ranking Republicans have now expressed interest in cutting Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. In December, Speaker Paul Ryan said that 2018 would be the year Republicans cut Medicare and Medicaid, suggesting that a bill may be in the works soon.

Hoosiers should expect that any proposal from Paul Ryan to cut Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will have the support of Congressman Messer and Congressman Rokita. Not only do both men hold high-ranking positions in Congress, but they've both expressed interest in the past in cutting these programs. Just this past December, Congressman Rokita went on WIBC to repeatedly echo Speaker Ryan's call to cut Medicare and Medicaid, saying that "we just gotta keep at it and at it and at it" when it comes to cutting Medicare and Medicaid.

"Hoosier seniors have worked all their lives and paid into programs like Medicare and Social Security expecting to have a stable retirement waiting for them. These massive cuts to Medicare proposed in the Trump budget would shatter the promise our nation has made to these seniors," said Michael Feldman, spokesman for the Indiana Democratic Party. "Congressman Messer and Congressman Rokita are prepared to blindly follow this White House budget off a cliff and wage a war on Medicare, but they ought to remember one thing: taking away Hoosier seniors' retirements doesn't mean they can't vote."