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Since you are so strongly opposed to a single-payer, government-run health care program, are you willing to give up your Medicare, which IS a single-payer, government-run,efficient program?
Asked by: Kate B. from Saint Charles, IA
Asked of U.S. Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-IA) on Nov 3rd, 2009
Answer from: U.S. Rep. Steve King (R-IA)
King: Well, if you say get rid of Medicare, you have to say get rid of Social Security and Medicaid. Those policies are established, they have created constituency bases, our entire society and culture has been rearranged because of them. The family dependency that we used to have where we took care of our parents and grandparents among our family and we liked to have big families then, so we had plenty of kids to pass us around when we got older. That's all disappeared. It's not completely disappeared, but it's just dramatically reduced, so we don't have the social structure, the underpinnings any longer that we had that took care of our senior citizens for example or Medicare. So, the question doesn't really apply to today's society in the same fashion. What I'm saying is, 'Let's not create an entire dependency class because that further fractures the fabric of America.' Reporter: But you support Medicare? King: I support Medicare because I recognize that our society's not in any condition to go backwards on that.
Answered on Nov 23rd, 2009
