[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 76 (Tuesday, May 9, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H4556]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THE HEALTH CARE DEBATE

  (Ms. NORTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, nobody was home on the other side of the 
aisle last year when the President pressed health care reform as the 
only way to contain runaway costs. Suddenly Republicans have discovered 
the cost side of his equation, but it will not balance without health 
care reform.
  Tax cuts for the rich just passed by the House make this a mass 
problem with no possible solution. In the Senate some Republicans are 
trying to dodge the bullet by disowning the tax cuts while other 
Republicans over there would rather die than give them up.
  This is no way to celebrate May, which is Older Americans Month. 
Their equation is already out of balance with 20 percent of their 
income going for out-of-pocket health care expenses.
  The only way to relieve them and cut costs at the same time is to mop 
up all the inefficiency in health care with across-the-board reform.
  Medicare is not out of control. The health care system is. Tax cuts 
for the rich make a bad situation worse.

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