 Good morning. My name is Leon Brzezinski. I'm the president emeritus of the Wisconsin Alliance for Retired Americans. And I thank you for coming this morning to hear about what's being planned for Social Security Medicare. I'm going to talk about the Social Security piece. Before I start, I hope you all grabbed a handful. There's handouts on the counter over there that touch each of the topics that I'm going to allude to. First of all, I just need to let you give you a little information on who the Wisconsin Alliance for Retired Americans is. We represent over 107,000 Wisconsin retirees. A majority of them are union retirees through their local union retirement programs. But we also represent tens of thousands who are not union retirees. Our two organizations that were closely aligned with the Citizen Action of Wisconsin and CWAG, the Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups. And that gives us numbers in an area of 340,000 to 350,000 residents of Wisconsin who are part and parcel of the information process that we have. Our main goal is to provide public education and advocacy for current families and current seniors and their families. People ask me, why have I been involved in this? I've been retired for several years. It's because a lot of people work really hard to get the benefits that I enjoy in retirement, that we enjoy in retirement. And the way it stands right now with what's been happening the last several years, our children and our grandchildren are going to work till the day they die. And that's really important to me because my children and grandchildren should have what I have and that was a little better lifestyle than my parents and my grandparents. And so it's important to me that we get this information out and let people know that how important these programs are. When we talk about the discussion that's going on and you hear it on the radio or TV every day now and in the newspapers about the deficit and the debt and the federal, all federal, but federal spending. First of all, Social Security had nothing to do, didn't bring a single dime into that deficit. The whole idea of the budget problems have to do with what took place from around 2002 to 2010. And that was two wars that weren't paid for, large tax cuts, a huge tax cut in the early 2000s that wasn't paid for. The Medicare Part D program that wasn't paid for, that's over $500 billion, and double digit increases in healthcare over the course of the 2000 to 2010. And all of that money that provided those programs and paid for those wars was borrowed. That's why we owe the Chinese about $3 trillion. So when they talk about the budget, Social Security has nothing to do with that. Social Security does have a $2.7 trillion fund, the trust fund, and that trust fund was established by the Greenspan Commission in 1983 because in 1983 Social Security was in trouble for its funding. And the Greenspan Commission was put together by President Reagan to look at Social Security and figure out how they could make it so it would last well into the future. And their recommendations, and for those of us that work and remember that, that's when the Social Security deduction on your check was increased. And because all the baby boomers were born, and we knew the baby boomers were coming. So we had to put money aside to make sure that the baby boomers who are retiring now would be covered during their retirement lifetime. So the Greenspan Commission recommended that. They recommended putting this money aside. And they recommended one other thing, and that was to index the Social Security cap, and I'm going to talk about that cap a little more later, to 90% of the median income. Had they done that, we wouldn't even be having this discussion. But the one thing that Congress took out was that indexing. And right now Social Security, the cap is equal to about 82% of the median income. 8% doesn't sound like much, but when you look at the kind of dollars, the trillions of dollars we're talking about in gross domestic product, it's a huge number. We talk about Social Security when they say, this is the politician's favorite term, is we want to fix Social Security and Medicare. Fix means the same to Social Security and Medicare as it does to dogs and cats. Think about that for a minute. Fixing Medicare, fixing Social Security is the same thing as fixing a dog or a cat. It means cut. Cut, cut, cut. That's what they're talking about. And there's three, four ways that they're talking about cutting Social Security. Privatizing, increase the retirement age to 70. The use of the chain CPI, and I'll talk about all these in a little bit, and means testing. First of all, privatizing. That's been on the table since the first Bush years, and then again in the second Bush years. And Paul Ryan's been pushing that, our own Wisconsin congressman, by privatizing as you want to put all the money in Wall Street. Well, look at it this way. If Social Security funds of that $2.7 trillion had been in Wall Street in 2008, when Wall Street, when the value of Wall Street dropped 49%, that would have cut that fund right in half. And it wouldn't be back today to where it was then. Wall Street, the dollar's higher, but the value isn't. Retirees lost around $6 trillion in their nest eggs in the crash in 2008. And they haven't got it back. The means testing. Means testing, what they're saying as well, if you already make a lot of money, we shouldn't give you quite as much Social Security. Unfortunately, when you look at what means testing, actually the impact of it, it means that if you made $40,000 while you were working, you're going to have your Social Security cut. That's the bottom line of means testing. So I'm going to say, well, if you made $40,000, you must have some money put away. There's all this that we must have money put away. And that whole must have money put away. We're the last generation to have money put away. The savings rate has been zero for years and years now. The dollar that a person makes today is worth the same as it was in 1973 when you factor in inflation. So in other words, for more than 30 years, working people have been going backward with their earnings. When you talk about the increase in your retirement age to 70, you recall that, and some of us have already come out of this, the increase in retirement age is part of the Greenspan Commission to 67. And they did it a one month a year for however many years it took to seal the process. Increase, that was a 15% cut in Social Security. Increasing it to 70 would be another 15% cut. And I can't for the life of me. I was a construction electrician my entire career until I toward the end of my career when I worked for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. But I can't imagine doing electrical work till I'm age 70. I'm 71 now and I'm physically in a different way. The idea of people that work in factories that work in any kind of job that requires standing all day school teachers. Folks that are on their feet all day to work till they're 70, because that's when they can first get their full Social Security in no sense. The chain CPI, that is really something that most people don't understand. And right now the cost of living formula is based on the standard consumer price index increase from year to year in the third quarter. The chain CPI that they're recommending changing to is based on the premise that if something costs too much you'll buy the next cheaper thing. Let me explain that in real words. If Cadillacs cost too much and you like Cadillacs when you can't afford it you buy a Chevy. When a Chevy is too expensive you buy a Ugo. And when you can't afford a Ugo I guess you buy a bicycle. That's how the chain CPI works and I'm not exaggerating. If steak is too expensive you buy chicken. When you can't afford chicken you buy canned spam. I guess for us, since retirees a major part of our expenses are healthcare, if you can't afford a quadruple bypass that you need we'll give you two this year and maybe two years from now. If you can't afford knee replacement or hip replacement we'll get you a wheelchair. I mean that's the mentality of the chain CPI. And that's being pushed by Republicans and Democrats. And in fact the word is that even the President bought into this song and dance about how we got a quote unquote fixed social security. The problem with the chain CPI, for instance the last little increase member last year we finally got an increase of 1.7%. If they had used the chain CPI it would have been 1.3%. It doesn't sound like much but that's several hundred dollars over the course of it. It's just like compounding interest. Each year you go further and further down a ladder. You lose more and more. So this whole idea that we should buy into quote unquote fixing social security a program that really doesn't need to be fixed. Prior to the inaction of social security almost 50% of the seniors lived in poverty. I'm sure many of you I remember most of us had a family member an elderly family member living with us. That was the way the elderly were handled warehouse in those days. And in the rural communities that worked because families were close together and you could shift mom and dad around or mom and dad owned the farm. You had kids to go over part of the deal as well you got mom and dad also. And you can drive through central Wisconsin where I live and you'll see a lot of farms with another house built next to a farm house and then a house built next to it. Where the kids lived in the house and mom and dad lived in a new house. That worked then but in today's society with the children moving away and to be quite honest with you I got seven kids and I don't want to live with anyone. The idea that living with our kids is is is the answer to this flies in the face of reality. The other thing about social security what if we don't do anything. If we don't do anything when the trust fund finally is runs out is finally spent in 2034 2035 depending on whose numbers use. Retirees at that time will get 72% of what they're being promised today when they get their social security. 70% is more factored for inflation than we're getting right now. Based on the fact that the economy is going to continue to grow. So it isn't like they're going to be left homeless or helpless or penniless. It's just they aren't going to get quite as much as they thought. I'm not advocating that but the fact is social security is not in trouble. It's a program that we use an actuarial study for 75 years when no one has an idea of what's going to happen 75 years out. I can say this. The actuaries come up with three different possibilities for 75 year of financing. Being actuaries is a high, medium and low. They always take the medium one saying well we don't want to be too low and we don't want to be too high. And there's only about a 2% or 2.5% difference between each one of these from here to here and here to here. So they always take the middle one. If you look back for the entire life, 78 years of social security, the financial system, the United States financial system has mirrored the upper estimate of the actuaries through the entire time. So there's a possibility that we don't have, there's not even a problem using this actuarial study over 75 years. The long and the short of it is social security needs some attention. If in fact we're going to follow the recommendations of the actuaries. And what they really should do is look into the, I got it here, a couple of the proposals that are in place. One is Senate Bill 117, the Medicare prescription drug price. Oh that's Medicare, I'm sorry. 567. Which is Senators Harkins and Begich, which propose increasing the benefit formula. So it averages, that average increase would be $65 a month. Not a great amount, but for people that are getting a small amount to start with the average is around $12,000 a year. This is the document that Leon's talking about. It says at the top, Strengthening Social Security Act of 2013. And the major way to pay for that would be to increase the cap. That cap that I talked about earlier, that's now capped at around $113,000. And it moves according to some little formula that doesn't keep up with inflation. As I said, when the Greensman Commission finished their study, Social Security was at 90% of the mean income. Today it's at 82%. And the other thing would be to adopt what's called a CIPE, which is a cost of living adjustment geared toward goods and services typically used by seniors. In other words, medical expenses and those types of expenses. Given that, I guess I don't want to take too much more of your time because Billy's going to talk about Medicare. Any questions on what I just talked about? Yes? Well, it's not a question, it's a statement, but I did some looking up on this cap. And I took an average CEO salary of around $6 million a year. How long it would take him to pay his social security taxes? Probably about two hours. No, actually six days. Okay. Then he's done. Any more social security taxes for the year? Yeah, it's amazing the number of, you know, I remember, a lot of us remember in construction. I think that my social security paid by June or July. We got that little couple of $3, $4 bump on the check and it was like, boy, this is great. And then of course it kept going up, up, up towards like say a little over $113,000 now. Any other questions or comments? With that, I'll turn it over to Billy. Just one more comment from what Leo was saying. You also have a document that's the members of the Wisconsin Congressional Delegation. And one of the bills is Senate Bill 567, which you have a copy of. After I get done, we're really looking for help. We're doing these town hall meetings and we're going to the senior center in Green Bay today. And the idea is, is if people agree with the bills that we're talking about, we're asking each of you to either call or write a note to, I think your congressman is Petri, right? And then there are two US senators, Baldwin and Johnson. So if you do agree with what we're talking about in terms of these bills, which I'm going to talk about two of them, please contact them and let them know your feelings about that. So as Leon said, I'm going to talk about Medicare and the Affordable Health Care Act, specifically as it relates to Medicare beneficiaries, but also how it relates to the general public. And as you know, the Affordable Health Care Act, better known as Obamacare, passed the Congress back in 2010, March of 2010. And before I talk specifically the impact that the Affordable Health Care Act impacts on people like yourself in the room here, Medicare beneficiaries, I want to talk generally why that we think there's a number of good things about the law. And there's some things that we think should get changed, but here are some of the good things. One, under the law, a child 18 and under can no longer be banned or kicked off an insurance plan if they have a preexisting condition. The same thing will happen to adults who have preexisting conditions starting in 2014. Under the law, premiums, insurance companies have to spend revenues of the premiums, 80% minimally for paying for your medical expenses. Under the law, the insurance companies can no longer have a cap on the amount of money they spent on you for medical expenses' lifetime. In 2014, there will no longer be a cap on the amount of money annually that an insurance company pays on your medical expenses. Under the law, kids 26 and under can stay on their parents' insurance plan. Under the law, starting in 2014, Wisconsin uninsured people as well as other American citizens around the country which is roughly about 35 to 40 million Americans who are uninsured today, they will need to sign up with an insurance plan. If they have a certain income, they could get a subsidy to help pay for some of those costs. Small businesses that have 50 or fewer workers do not have to, they're exempt from the law. But if those small businesses decide they want to cover their employees, and the only reason they can't right now is because of the affordability, they will get a 35% tax credit for ensuring those employees that they work for, that work for the small business. Again, small businesses that have 50 or less workers are exempt from the law. But if they decide to cover their employees, they will get a 35% tax credit. And the most controversial piece before I talk about Medicare beneficiaries and the Affordable Health Care Act is that everyone is required to sign up for a plan. In our state currently, there's about 13 insurance plans right now. That doesn't mean that in Sheboygan that there are 13 insurance plans, but around the state, there are 13 private insurance companies right now that people can sign up for depending on where they live. If they decide not to do it, they will be penalized. One of our concerns is that the penalty is not very big the first year. Now some people might be upset when I say that. But right now, everybody in this room, if they're insured, pays for the uninsured. And if Billy Feilinger is uninsured and my child gets hurt playing soccer, where do I go? If I don't have a primary care doctor, I go to the emergency department in a hospital. Well, guess who pays for all that? Everybody here helps pay for my daughter's injury because I don't have a primary care doctor. And besides that, if I did have health insurance and go to a primary care doctor, it'd be significantly less for the cost for those medical services going to a primary care doctor than I would as a responsible father taking my daughter to the emergency room to have her injury taken care of. Now it relates to Medicare beneficiaries and the impact the Affordable Health Care Act has on people in the room here. First, under the law, if you want to have a wellness checkup or certain preventive services like mammograms and colonoscopies, you will no longer have to pay a copay or deductible for certain preventive services. I didn't say an annual physical. I said a wellness checkup. 15 or 20 minutes that you have counseling with your primary care doctor. That and certain primary care, primary preventive services like mammograms, like colonoscopies, there will no longer be a copay or a deductible. Why is that important? The reason it's important is because 75% of health care costs, spending, not just for Medicare but the entire health care system is due to chronic disease. So there are people in our country today who unfortunately were born genetically with chronic diseases or they're not taking care of themselves a senior and if they keep on gaining weight they're going to get closer to becoming a diabetic as an example. So why do we think these preventive services hopefully with no copays and no deductibles hopefully can manage the person who God forbid had genetic chronic disease when they were born and then those who are not taking care of themselves, those preventive services can help hopefully do a better job in preventing them going down the path of becoming a diabetic. Obviously if people don't take some personal responsibility we will not be successful in what I've just said basically. Anybody here on Medicare Part D? If you remember back in 2003 Medicare Part D, that's not the exact technical law but Medicare Part D was passed in 2003, didn't get started until 2006. It passed by one vote in the middle of the night by one vote Medicare Part D and I'm going to explain why I just said that in a couple of minutes. So under the law today in 2013 if you spend in 2013 $2,900 for your medications up to $7,600 that's called the donut hole, it's the spending gap where until the law changed people had to pay 100% for their medications from $2,900 to $7,600. In 2013 because the law passed back in 2010 if you fall into the donut hole which means $2,900 up to $7,600 if you're using a brand name prescription drug you will get a 50% discount for a brand name prescription drug if you fall into the donut hole. If you have a generic prescription drug you will get a 14% discount. Under the law which we're not happy about, under the law the donut hole will be totally closed and no longer exist by the year 2020. We think it should be much sooner than that but that's what the law says. Now just a sidebar for a quick second. The president's budget which will now be debated as Leon and I are talking about about the federal deficit, the debt ceiling debate. In his budget, he has a provision that says that the donut hole will be closed by the year 2015. Since none of us know what will happen and you can just, as you know, we've been following Congress and the problems trying to solve some of these problems. We're hoping that will stay in at least his budget because then the donut hole will be closed by the year 2015. Anybody on Medicare Advantage? Medicare Advantage, okay. Under Medicare Advantage, which, and this is not fair to compare, traditional Medicare and people on Medicare Advantage. But under the law, we, including the people who are using Medicare Advantage, we're paying a 13% to 18% tax subsidy to private insurance companies who do Medicare Advantage. We, all of us, pay that subsidy. It's not fair to compare traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage. You get better benefits under Medicare Advantage, but not to the tune of 13% to 18% tax subsidies that we all pay the private insurance companies, including the folks who are covered under Medicare Advantage. Under the law, Medicare Advantage will continue. In fact, it's actually grown. People have signed up more in Medicare Advantage since the law passing in 2010. But that tax subsidy to those private insurance companies like Humana, Lycoror, a whole range of different private insurance companies, that will be reduced the subsidy. Medicare Advantage will still exist. There will still be tax subsidies, but there will be a savings from some of the tax subsidies being reduced for Medicare Advantage. All those subsidies that get reduced gets put into your trust fund. And that's really an important thing, because under the law, Medicare Trust Fund, Part A would have become not defunct, but would not remain solvent through the year 2017. Because of the law, your trust fund, Part A, will remain solvent to the year 2026. So there are two bills that I want to talk about real briefly. One is to do, if you look at your pieces of paper, look at the one on one side that will say Budget Battles 2013 Medicare Drug Discounts. And then on the back, you'll see a letter that three of our officers at the National ARA signed to Senator Klobuchar. Two things I want to mention before I stop talking. Under the law that Medicare Part D passed, and again, you know, there's some really good things about Medicare Party. It helps pay for some of seniors' medications, obviously. But under the law that passed in 2003 by one vote in the middle of the night, they basically, the Congress took out the following. Before the law passed in 2003, those consumers, seniors and people with disabilities, who were both Medicaid and Medicare eligible, we call it dual-eligibility, those consumers who were getting medications, the pharmaceutical companies had to rebate those consumers who are Medicaid Medicare eligible, dual-eligible, and all those rebates had to be put in your Medicare trust fund. Senate Bill 740, again, if you look at the Medicare Drug Discounts that was introduced by Senator Rockefeller from West Virginia, restores that anyone who's on Medicaid and Medicare, dual-eligible seniors or people with disabilities, pharmaceutical companies had, again, had to rebate all those people and all those dollars go into your Medicare trust fund. So this is a second bill, if you agree with this, that we're asking you to talk to your congressman, Petri, and your U.S. Senators Johnson and Baldwin. Now I'm going to talk about Senate Bill 117. Now remember what I said a couple of minutes ago, and I'm going to stop in two minutes so we get a chance for questions and concerns of what Leon and I have said. Under the law in 2003 that was passed by one vote in the middle of the night, three o'clock in the morning, there is a provision in that law that said the following. The federal government, through Medicare, cannot negotiate lower prices for the 50 Americans or Medicare beneficiaries. They could not negotiate lower prices for the medications that many seniors in our country get today with the pharmaceutical companies. The Veterans Administration does exactly that, and the veterans have earned that the Veterans Administration negotiates lower prices for its veterans. In fact, Leon Brzezinski, a veteran, and Billy Feilinger, a Medicare Part D consumer, buy the same medication. Leon, a vet, spends 35% less than I would as a Medicare Part D consumer. Now Leon, as a veteran, and all the veterans, earned that right. But the 50 million Americans who are Medicare beneficiaries should have that same thing happen to them through Medicare to negotiate lower prices. And the reason why I brought up the whole issue of the middle of the night that Medicare Part D law passed back in 2003, two of the people, one of them specifically, his name was, he used to be a representative from Louisiana, named Billy Tazine. Billy Tazine and someone from the former president Bush's office now work for the Pharmaceutical Society of America. Billy Tazine, back in 2005, 2006, had an annual salary of over $2 million. I'm an idealist, but I do really understand why people are cynical about government. That these two people could then work for the pharmaceutical companies. It was not in their interest, the pharmaceutical companies, to allow Medicare to negotiate. Senate Bill 117, which was introduced by Senator Klobuchar, who's a US Senator from Minnesota, would actually then have the Medicare negotiate for lower prices, just like the Veterans Administration that does for the veterans. So we're asking you, if you support the idea that we talked about with Leon, with Senate Bill 567, Senate Bill 740 talking about the pharmaceutical companies rebating, which is in the document you have, pharmaceutical rebates have to go to the Medicare trust fund and then be able to negotiate through Senate Bill 117, we ask you to call or write Congressman Petri and Senators Johnson and Senator Baldwin. At this point, I'd be more than happy to answer any questions that you might have or concerns or something that I've said or Leon have said that's confusing. We need to leave around 20 after 10, we're going to Green Bay after this. Any questions, comments, concerns? The last time we were here, the whole meeting room was totally filled. And thanks to the Sheboygan News, they had done a story. So obviously we wish more people would come because obviously a lot of people who have heard different stories and we're trying our best to give you the best facts that we know of at this point in terms of Social Security and Medicare. End of September and into October, Congress will be debating the deficit and the debt ceiling and we're going to push back and work hard and that's why we're asking each of you to help us here today to make sure that our congressional elected officials know where we stand on these important earned retirement programs as well as the Affordable Health Care Act. We had a great turnout in La Crosse and Eau Claire because the traditional media really publicized. And we're very limited in how much we don't have a lot of money. We can't do paid media. We do some mailing to some people to get some of our members to know about it. We use the Internet online ways but it's hard. They did a big story the last time we heard about two years ago. We had 75 people here. They did a front page story. Yes? I have two things to say. One, just to let you know how. I heard about it. It was a volunteer board at the senior center of Sheboygan and it was just a notice. I don't know if it came from one of the two. It came from me. And so that was... Oh, Ron back there too. That's right. Thank you, Ron. So that's the only reason I heard about it. Number one. Number two. I want to have a question. Sure. I'm 67. I find this area so incomprehensible. I had four years of math in high school including advanced math to four years of college. You can talk. And I call myself a political. I read three newspapers including a national newspaper. I just find this. I don't know if any of you find this. I just find it. I get stymied. I wish I had a great question to ask you. So you basically are saying you get overwhelmed about the health care system in general and then the specifics as it relates... Well, I was very interesting. I was able to follow this when I took care of my mother for 12 years. And I did monitor her bills. And I of course have the same story as all of you have. Massive amounts of mistakes. Including being in a nursing home under private pay and then falling while her alarm bill is ringing but nobody will come and help her. Falling and breaking a bone in her pelvis. And then she was kicked back on Medicare of course to pay the bill but then she got double billed. I mean she got billed for her private care which she had been paying and then Medicare was billed too. I mean I just find... And I never thought people were being purposely obfuscating trying to cheat. It just seemed like they were overwhelmed. And I'm having a little bit harder time with myself because it's easier to do something for another. Is there some place that somebody like me can just... I mean I know it's there's the government pamphlet but even all of I just find this... And the other thing I'm... And what are you looking for? Just keep up finishers. Oh okay the other thing I worry about is I believe in... I don't even call it Obama here. I call it the Affordable Health Act. I always say that. I don't shortcut it. But I always wonder we know all that the pharmaceutical companies and the private insurance companies and stuff have this lobby and are producing documents and propaganda all the time but who speaks for the government? I mean who in the government just... We're not the government. Well I absolutely understand. But I mean I'm just expressing it as a person who supports Medicare and Social Security and realizing that there is no equal voice to I feel get all of the information about what affordable health care actually is outside of thank you for coming but do you see what I mean? I mean I mean three or four points right now. Right. I hear you. If you're really confused about your bills and you think something's wrong you can call the ADRC and ask them to add half of them. She's a benefit specialist and she will always try to straighten out any medical problems that you're having. And it's really important because if we can get a hand on the fraud and duplication our hope is that we will save money and or put money back into the trust fund for people who have been fraudulent. And we had we organized in Leon when he was the president led a panel discussion with Secretary Sebelius in Milwaukee from the Health and Human Service Department and even in the first short period of time with the law they've recouped a lot of money from fraud and we need to keep on doing better jobs with that be more efficient not have duplication because all those kinds of savings or revenue that comes back into the trust fund means that we don't have to even look at any kind of cuts for specific benefits for Medicare beneficiaries. But I think she's absolutely right. The county elder for it does everybody know the county elder benefit specialist? Well who they are? And we're the only state in the union that has that. That's right. The only state. If you went to the aging department here in Sheboygan if you wanted to look at what are your possibilities for your health insurance plans as a Medicare beneficiary? Every year there's a window of opportunity where you can decide to change your plan and not be penalized. But to the point that Carol was raising it's also a person who one has only your interest at heart but also can help with questions like what should I do with these duplicative bills? I mean it doesn't make any sense or why they have on there saying this when I was told I was going to pay this much. Those county elder benefits and as you said we're the only state in the country that has at least 72 for every county each has one person at least one maybe more. So if anybody has any questions or is considering thinking about wanting to change their plan Pat Hefferman is there listening? From the aging department the elder benefit specialist for Sheboygan would be a great source for any of you to talk to. I think one thing you need to understand about the two issues we just talked about and any issue that has food stamps is there's an ideological battle going on. There's a whole group of folks that believe there should be no programs whatsoever that help anyone. That's what this really is about. Ever since the day Social Security was enacted the Republicans have been trying to do away with it. The whole idea you probably don't know this but there was a national health plan included with Social Security by Roosevelt at the time but he knew he couldn't get both through Congress so he decided that Social Security was the most important for him. That's why we didn't get Medicare until in the 60s. But ever since Medicare has been enacted there's been another group and right now you have a group of about 40 people in Congress and the entire country has raised this whole ideological issue to the top of the list. You've got a leader of the Republicans in a Congress that has no control over his membership whatsoever. He's doing things that he don't even agree with because they're so afraid they're going to have somebody run against them in a primary. So this whole ideological thing I worked for the union for a long time we could never understand people voting and I still can't. I can't, to me a senior voting for someone that wants to cut your programs is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders. I just can't understand that folks don't understand what's going on here. And I know that people don't know what the chain CPI is it doesn't make sense and even after I explain it I've had people say well no it's not really that bad. Well it's never that bad till your ox is gored and it seems to me sooner or later but I'll give you one last example I sat in a Senator Feindl meeting a few years ago in Waukesha County where I live which is a hell of a place to live if you're a Democrat. And the guy sitting next to me, this elderly couple the guy's telling me how he don't want government in his healthcare. After all his wife just had a $70,000 operation of Medicare paper to whole work so he don't want government in his healthcare. Now think about that for a moment Medicare is the government program for healthcare. And he's earned the right to have. That tells you how disconnected people are with the benefits. And part of the major problem with this entire Affordable Care Act is we have never had to think about health insurance. We always had it where we worked and you know how we got it does anybody tell me how we got healthcare to start with health insurance? We got there in the Second World War when Roosevelt froze wages job owned the unions and employers into giving no wage increases while they were up getting this manufacturing machine up and coming. And so health insurance is what they got in lieu of wage increases. It was a few cents an hour in those days because of course we didn't have all these fancy systems we have. That's how we got employer funded health insurance in the first place. And it kind of took over in the meantime to help the whole health system took off and the cost got skyrocketing and basically if you went to a doctor under health plan over the last 20 years or so whether you got coverage or not was decided by some bureaucrats sitting on the third floor in an office in a cubby hole and the health insurance companies admit this. Their entire goal was to see if somebody else to pay. And that's why bills would be submitted two or three times and rejected and finally paid because the perfect example is the California case where the lady had health insurance where the employer had cancer being treated for cancer a couple months in the health insurance drops her says we don't cover you anymore she ended up winning several million dollars and this was golden rule insurance the largest health insurer in the country and for them paying a five or six million dollar settlement is nothing. I mean it's pocket change to these folks but there are whole floors on I just drove by three insurance companies on the way up here I think on I-43 and everyone's got a whole floor whose only job is to see if we can get somebody else to pay that we don't pay and I defy any health insurance executive to deny that because it's been admitted in testimony before Congress and in these court suits so that's what we're facing here we're facing folks that are not educated about the entire issue of health insurance we just know that when we get sick we want to go to a doctor and get taken care of and if we don't have insurance the emergency room is where it takes place and it's a shame that as a country the wealthiest country in the world on health provision scale we're 29th or 30th in the world in health performances or 33 well it depends I guess who you are the last I wrote was 29 but again it depends who you are whose scale you're using the fact remains is 29 or 33 neither one of those are very good and yet we all think we got the greatest thing going because after all we just walked to the doctor's office and if we got a medical card or we got an insurance card we handed it to him the emergency room is the only place to go for health care if you don't have, if you don't have but so many things especially for elderly I mean the weekends when you do you can't sit at home until Monday so you use the emergency room it's a doctor because they kind of say well if you need a doctor we're always here so we're not talking about cases like that, that's a whole different story we're talking about Billy's kid playing soccer and he don't have insurance I was an EMT a volunteer EMT in my little town I lived in for ten years, nine and a half years and I could tell you that even in those days it was surprising because nobody ever thought that where we live in Washington we should have anybody that's poor and yet I was on the United Way board and one in four people they service in a course of a year they do a study every year and we had several folks that we took to the hospital in that time I was there that I never would have thought that they didn't have insurance until we got them an ambulance and started filling out the forms could you just maybe quickly tell us are you giving this presentation in surrounding communities and if so where and when well we're doing them throughout the state we're doing this next one and we got to leave in about two minutes here in Green Bay we are going up to Superior and Spooner on Monday over the last few weeks we've gone all over the state to from Racine to Appleton we're doing one in October 10th in Warsaw any in Sheboyton County no not another one we don't have the resources I wish we could but we are going at least one time around many of the places throughout the state thanks so much for coming and have a great weekend thank you