Trends in Long-Term Care - U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging

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You will excuse me, I hope, if I say to you at the outset that it is
rather hard for me to believe that my appearance before you today is
not a result of an <strong>in</strong>credible nightmare that must soon come to an end.
Over the past few months I have been the target of a program of
litigation and abuse from public officials and especially by the media,
which I th<strong>in</strong>k has no parallel <strong>in</strong> modern American history s<strong>in</strong>ce the
days of Senator Joseph McCarthy.
On totally unfounded, baseless, and false allegations, I have been
charged with abus<strong>in</strong>g or ignor<strong>in</strong>g the health of patients <strong>in</strong> nurs<strong>in</strong>g
homes, of associat<strong>in</strong>g with organized crime and with be<strong>in</strong>g a chief or a
czar <strong>in</strong> a nationwide syndicate of nurs<strong>in</strong>g homes.
All of these allegations-and the many that follow <strong>in</strong> their wakeare
false, are <strong>in</strong>correct, are untrue.
Mr. Senator, I f<strong>in</strong>d it <strong>in</strong>credible that <strong>in</strong> the United States one can
so easily be accused without anyone even stopp<strong>in</strong>g to consider the
facts. And, therefore, I s<strong>in</strong>cerely welcome the opportunity to be here
today.
I welcome it because I have full confidence <strong>in</strong> this dist<strong>in</strong>guished
committee, <strong>in</strong> its fairness and impartiality. I trust to the process of the
U.S. <strong>Senate</strong>, just as I trust to the processes of the judiciary where I
have already taken the first step <strong>in</strong> try<strong>in</strong>g to establish the true motives
of certa<strong>in</strong> ambitious and unpr<strong>in</strong>cipled public officers and journalists.
Indeed, a rul<strong>in</strong>g yesterday by a judge <strong>in</strong> the New York courts has, I
hope, begun to br<strong>in</strong>g to public attention the true nature of what is
go<strong>in</strong>g on.
The entire history of this barrage of accusations distresses me for
many reasons, beyond the great personal discomfort and anguish it
has caused me and my family.
It has proved to me and to those who know me that the average
citizen of the United States is powerless <strong>in</strong> the face of a big lie repeated
often enough from sources that seem at least superficially
respectable.
That is, I th<strong>in</strong>k, a great danger to freedom <strong>in</strong> this country.
Second, I move to stress that these charges have smeared, not just
me and my family, but many <strong>in</strong>dividuals whom I have known, bus<strong>in</strong>esses
I have dealt with, and even attorneys I have reta<strong>in</strong>ed.
That is another sign of dangerous times and attitudes. Third, I am
horrified to see and to hear that public servants to whom I may have
turned-as any citizen has a rirht to do-to request assistance <strong>in</strong> deal<strong>in</strong>g
with stifl<strong>in</strong>g bureaucracy, had their motives questioned and their
characters impugned because they did what any elected representative
has an obligation to do-mak<strong>in</strong>g queries on behalf of constituents
and seek to get some form of action, whether favorable or not, for
someone who is entitled to a response from bureaucracy.
It is true that when applications on behalf of a nurs<strong>in</strong>g home facility
<strong>in</strong> which I held some k<strong>in</strong>d of <strong>in</strong>terest were be<strong>in</strong>g delayed and choked
off <strong>in</strong> the State department of health, I made some reouests to elected
representatives on the basis of noth<strong>in</strong>g more nor less than justice of a
request that pend<strong>in</strong>g application be considered on their merits only.
I exercised a right that your constituents also exercise <strong>in</strong> the hundreds
and thousands each day-I ask that public officials judge the
bureaucracy to get decisions out of it.