Standing Up For Arkansas Seniors

Our nation’s seniors face increasing challenges in these difficult economic times.

Regretfully, instead of working to address these problems, the current administration continues to pursue a misguided political agenda that only makes things worse.

From a wasteful $787 billion stimulus bill and a $1.5 trillion, unfunded healthcare “reform” bill, to new bureaucracies and budget-busting deficits, the Obama Administration believes we can tax, borrow, and spend our way to solvency. Their recipe for recovery is more government, more mandates, more regulation, and much, much more debt.

We need a recipe for recovery, not disaster.

Our long-term economic security rests squarely in our ability to stop the runaway spending and get our fiscal house in order. Economists understand that we cannot continue with record-setting deficits and still afford our Social Security and Medicare obligations.

And, it’s not just economists. Seniors have figured out that we cannot create massive government entitlement programs like ObamaCare when we cannot ensure the solvency of the current programs that are a lifeline for our nation’s seniors. If we keep spending at this rate, there will be no money left for Social Security and no money left for Medicare.

That’s why I support a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution as well as the line-item-veto for the President. That’s also one of the many reasons I support a full repeal of ObamaCare. This legislation cuts more than $528 billion in Medicare funding and extends a new $200 million-a-year Medicaid mandate on the state of Arkansas that we cannot afford. It also does nothing to control costs and bloats the size and role of the federal government.

Moreover, apart from gutting $528 billion in Medicare funding, I also opposed this massive government takeover because it failed to address the rampant fraud throughout the system. Any sincere effort to lower costs would tackle this serious problem. Regretfully, President Obama was more interested in growing government and advancing his liberal agenda than solving this problem.

From scam kickback and phantom patients to unlawful equipment purchases and inflated billing, Medicare fraud is a serious problem that must be addressed. More than 10% of Medicare funds are squandered through waste, fraud, and abuse. I have fought for stiffer penalties against those who commit these crimes that threaten the future of this critical program. I will continue this fight in the U.S. Senate.

In short, the challenges we face are serious, but I have confidence that we can address them. As Senator, I pledge to fight for smaller government, balanced budgets and fiscal responsibility. This was the recipe for America’s past success, and this is the proven path to our future prosperity.

Read more at John Boozman for US Senate