[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 72 (Wednesday, May 3, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H4515-H4516]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      REPUBLICANS TURNING TO MEDICARE IN ORDER TO PAY FOR TAX CUTS

  (Mr. DURBIN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. Speaker, why have the Gingrich Republicans failed to 
meet the statutory deadline for passing a House budget resolution? The 
same Gingrich Republicans who were so proud of the fact that they met 
their hundred-day deadline for the Republican Contract With America, 
they read letters, fan mail, all sorts of comments from their districts 
about how proud they were, and yet when it comes down to the most basic 
thing, the spending bill for the Federal Government, the Gingrich 
Republicans have just dropped the ball.
  Well, Mr. Speaker, the reason is pretty simple. The last item in the 
Republican contract was a Republican tax bill which adds $600 billion 
to our national debt over the next 10 years. When they sit down and try 
to figure out this $600 billion and how to make it up, they run out of 
solutions.
  Well, where did they turn? They turned to one of the most important 
[[Page H4516]] programs in America, Medicare, a program not only 
important for seniors, but important for hospitals and doctors all 
across the United States.
  The Republicans have found themselves in this box, they have painted 
themselves in this corner, because they insist on tax breaks for the 
wealthiest people and absolving corporations from paying their Federal 
taxes, and they want to make up the difference by cutting Medicare. 
That is not fair.
  I hope the Republicans will get off this premise that they have to 
give these tax cuts to the privileged few and focus on the truly 
important programs like Social Security and Medicare.


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