Submitted by Tom on Thu, 2011-05-26 08:32
Latham was given a phoney award recently by a petroleum industry front group, but he gets called on his true attitude towards senions in a letter to the Des Moines Register by Robert Connett, Vice-President of the Iowa Alliance for Retired Amercicans:
I was interested to read that Rep. Tom Latham supports Iowa's seniors ("Latham Steps Up for Iowa's Seniors," May 14 Iowa View by Steve Ackerson).
Perhaps the co-sponsorship of this legislation is an act of contrition on his part for having voted in favor of the Paul Ryan 2012 budget plan that privatizes Medicare and turns it over to insurance companies, that drastically increases out-of-pocket payments, eliminates many Medicare benefits, repeals health care and removes all of the benefits for seniors that have already gone into effect. It promotes rationing by private insurance companies that get the money and decides what and what not to cover and for whom.
A new report released by the Congressional Joint Economic Committee on May 20 concluded that under Ryan's plan, older Americans' health care costs would double in 10 years. Under traditional Medicare, a typical 65-year-old would pay $5,805.97 out of pocket. Under the Ryan budget plan, that amount would increase by $5,999.37 to a grand total of $11,805.34.
Perhaps Latham will reconsider his vote in support of that plan and stick to his claim of supporting Iowa's seniors by changing that vote to "No."
-- Robert L. Connett, vice president, Iowa Alliance for Retired Americans, Des Moines