[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 72 (Wednesday, May 3, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H4518-H4519]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


               TIME TO KEEP CONTRACT WITH OLDER AMERICANS

  (Mr. TATE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  [[Page H4519]] Mr. TATE. Mr. Speaker, we were sent here to keep our 
word with the Contract With America, and that is exactly what we did. 
Now we plan to keep a contract with our older Americans. Bill Clinton's 
own Medicare Board of Trustees, which includes the Cabinet members of 
Mr. Rubin, Secretary Shalala, and Secretary Reich, came out with a 
report that said that Medicare will be insolvent in the next few years, 
within 7 years. But have we heard something from the President? I am 
still listening. I have heard nothing.
  This report that came out is not a Republican fact, it is not a 
Democrat fact. It is the Board of Trustees, and it is a fact.
  Now, the Democrats' proposal as well, we had health care reform last 
year and that had Medicare reforms. If you have a leaky roof, you do 
not tear off the entire roof, you fix the leak. And that is what we 
want to do. Republicans are committed to preserve, to protect, and to 
improve Medicare, not to bury our heads in the sand, and that is 
exactly what we are going to do.

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