GWYNETH K. SHAW PHOTO

It wasn’t exactly revolution being plotted in the dining room at Tower One/Tower East, but senior citizens listening to U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro outline proposed changes to the Medicare system were ready to band together and take action.One elderly resident suggested putting a petition out at dinnertime.

“Yes!” DeLauro said, promising to take it to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Another, who doesn’t live at the housing complex near the train station, asked DeLauro if it would be a good idea to spread the word in other neighborhoods. Absolutely, DeLauro said.

How do we stop this? another asked.

“We need people on their feet,” DeLauro said.

DeLauro went to the complex Monday fire up seniors about Republicans’ plans for redo Medicare.

With a Senate vote looming this week, DeLauro, a New Haven Democrat, urged those in the room to learn about the budget framework proposed by House Budget Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan. The Wisconsin Republican’s plan would convert the existing Medicare system to a voucher program a decade from now.

The budget passed the House last month, on a largely party-line vote. Every Democrat, including DeLauro, voted against it.

She called the Republican-led plan “the end of Medicare as we know it.” The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, DeLauro said, estimated that out-of-pocket expenses for a typical 65-year-old would double. Republicans like Ryan argue that the system is going bankrupt and needs radical reform to save it.

While the Medicare changes wouldn’t take effect until 2022, DeLauro said, the budget also calls for a major shift in Medicaid funding to the states. Those changes would happen much sooner, she said, and could affect seniors whose nursing-home care is paid for by Medicaid.

DeLauro talked about her own 97-year-old mother and said younger generations “stand on the shoulders” of their older forebears. She said she wouldn’t turn her back on her mother, and neither should the nation on a larger level.

“This breaks that generational bond,” she said. “That’s not what we’re about.”

Rose Steinman (pictured, with DeLauro) is 96. She said she doubts that she’ll be around if the Medicare changes go through. But, she said, the proposal concerns her because of her children and grandchildren—and everyone else’s.“Somebody’s got to fight for it,” she said.

Ryan and other proponents say curbing Medicare and Medicaid costs are essential to curtailing the nation’s budget deficits, and emphasize that it wouldn’t affect anyone over 55.

Opponents, like DeLauro, say the ideas would hurt those who most need the government safety net, without doing anything to rein in health care costs. On Monday, DeLauro hammered on another point: Ryan’s budget proposal contains hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks for the wealthy.

Brandishing a letter from the AARP opposing the Medicare changes, Bimmie Herget, 70, told DeLauro that her congressional website needs to provide clearer information to constituents. After the event, Herget (pictured), a member of the Branford Democratic Town Committee, said she wants to make the ideas percolating in Washington part of an upcoming local election.

Democrats weren’t good at selling the health-care reform legislation that passed last year, Herget said. That contributed to their landslide losses in the House in November. “Clear and effective communication” is crucial now, she said.“This is important,” she said.

DeLauro told the seniors who oppose the changes to speak out, and to tell their friends in other states to do the same.

“People from Montana are not going to listen to people from Connecticut,” she said. “We need to get the Montanans to write and call.”

[To read this story at the Independent's website, click here]