[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 72 (Wednesday, May 3, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6020-S6021]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          THE MEDICARE PROGRAM

  Mr. SANTORUM. I thank the Senator for yielding. I would like to 
address a specific issue in the next 100 days in the Senate that I 
think is going to attract a lot of attention. It has already attracted 
a lot of attention. It is an issue of great importance to this country 
and people rely on this program--that is the Medicare Program. There is 
a lot of discussion going on in this town--and I hope across America--
about Medicare and where it fits in with the scheme of things here in 
Washington.
  Is Medicare going to be used to balance the budget? Is Medicare a 
program that is in trouble? What is the truth? What is the real story 
and who do you believe? Unfortunately, in Washington, that is a problem 
we have a lot, which is that every issue, irrespective of the 
importance of the issue, turns into a partisan battle, and one side 
says one thing and the other side says another. You would think with an 
issue such as Medicare, with the information we have before us, that we 
could act as adults and face the problem squarely, maturely, discuss 
it, debate it, and come up with a solution to the problem.
  But as is the case around here all too often, political gain comes 
before responsible action. We have folks who think we can make 
political gains from Medicare, so let us delay responsible action for a 
while and see how much hey we can make in the process.
  Here are the facts. The facts are that the Medicare trustees issued a 
report that says that Medicare will be insolvent by the year 2002. In 
other words, it will not have any money left in the trust fund to pay 
out benefits to anyone. That is not 25 years or 30 years from now, 
which is the problem of Social Security. Americans seem to be tuned 
into that Social Security is in trouble in the long term and that we 
cannot sustain it. The insolvency of Social Security is a little over 
30 years away. It is a problem and we have to deal with that. We have a 
little bit more time.
  Medicare is an immediate problem. Medicare runs out of money in 7 
years. You would think, as I said, as mature adults elected here to 
govern the country, we could sit down and accept that, accept the 
findings of the trustees. Four out of the six Medicare trustees are 
Clinton administration officials. They have issued this report that 
says, ``The Medicare trust fund will be able to pay benefits for only 7 
years and is severely out of financial balance in the long-range.''
  That is what this chart shows. Here is where the Medicare trust fund 
is exhausted, 2002. Here is the gap. It grows and grows. This is the 
revenue shortfall. It only gets worse, particularly in the outyears 
when the baby boomers start to retire.
  There are less people working to support the Medicare trust fund. It 
is obvious that we have to do something; it is obvious that the time to 
act is now while we have a meager surplus that is going to be 
exhausted, as I said before, in 7 years. You would think that we could 
come to the table, accept the Clinton administration's own findings 
that this is a problem that must be solved, accept their own 
recommendation--again, the recommendation of the trustees--that says we 
need urgent action. But, no, you are going to see the big dance that 
goes on around here, the big dance on how we are going to scare 
seniors, lie to them; and anybody who wants to touch Medicare is not 
going to try to save Medicare. Oh, no, they just want to take the 
program away from them. They want to ruin Medicare. They want to break 
their promises to the American public.
  Why? Why would people say things that are blatantly false? Why would 
they say that? Well, it is certainly not to preserve the trust fund, 
certainly not to make sure Medicare is there for future generations--I 
should not even say future--this generation of seniors. That certainly 
is not the reason they are saying it. Why are they saying it? Very 
simple: Political gain.
  Political gain. It is a tried and true American maxim in American 
politics, and that is if you can square seniors enough so that they 
will vote against the other side who wants to take their programs away, 
you can win elections and then after the election, you will discover 
the problem. After the election is over, after you have reaped the 
benefits by scaring seniors that these bad guys out here who want to 
touch Medicare are out really to kill the program, after you have 
accomplished the scare tactics and succeeded in victory, then come to 
the floor, come to the American people after the election, after you 
have won and lied, and after you have accomplished what you wanted, and 
then say, look, the Medicare trust fund is going to be out of money, we 
have to do something. That is what is going to happen. That is what 
happened on Social Security in 1982. It is going to try to happen in 
1996.
  I just hope--I really hope--that the American public is smart enough 
to see through these scare tactics, not only by the Clinton 
administration, by the Democrats here in Congress, by these 
[[Page S6021]] shameless, shameless seniors organizations who pray on 
the fear of seniors to swell their membership and get contributions and 
be able to fund their lobbyists and TV commercials and continue to go 
out there and feed on this frenzy. I hope the American public and 
seniors can see through this. It is a scare tactic that should not 
succeed. See through this. See that there is a problem, and see that 
those who want to tackle the problem now are doing it because we care, 
not because we want to destroy a program.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under a previous order, the Senator from 
Montana is recognized to speak for up to 10 minutes.
  (The remarks of Mr. Burns pertaining to the introduction of S. 745 
are located in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. CAMPBELL. Mr. President, there will be several people this 
morning who have reserved time to speak on the potential sale of the 
Power Marketing Administrations.
  I ask unanimous consent to also speak on this issue during morning 
business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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