[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 76 (Tuesday, May 9, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S6317]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        MEDICARE AND THE BUDGET

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, the Senate Budget Committee is meeting 
today, and they are involved in, I think, a gripping, wrenching debate 
about how they will try to find a route toward a balanced budget. It is 
an effort that I think needs to involve all of us because I do not know 
of anybody in this Chamber who has stood on the floor and said they do 
not agree that a balanced budget is necessary and desirable for this 
country.
  There were some presentations on the floor of the Senate earlier this 
morning talking about the issue of Medicare, and I wanted to stand and 
respond to a couple of those comments, because part of this issue of 
balancing the Federal budget involves the question of Medicare.
  We are in a circumstance described, interestingly enough, by E.J. 
Dionne today in the Washington Post. I would like to read a paragraph 
or two from his column:

       When the House Republicans passed their big tax cut earlier 
     this year, they were not at all interested in what President 
     Clinton or the Democrats had to say about it. They wanted 
     credit for doing what they said they would do in the Contract 
     With America. And they got it.
       But now the time has come to pay both for the tax cut and 
     for even a bigger promise, a balanced budget by year 2002. 
     Suddenly, the Republicans are whining that the President has 
     refused to take the lead in cutting Medicare and Medicaid, 
     which is what the GOP needs to do to make any sense of its 
     budget promises.

  Mr. Dionne says:

       Let's see: When it comes to passing around the goodies, the 
     House Republicans are prepared to take full responsibility. 
     When it comes to paying for the goodies, they want a 
     Democratic President to take full responsibility. And they 
     act shocked, shocked when he refuses to play along.
       You can't blame the Republicans for trying. It's a clever, 
     if transparent, strategy.

  The point is, there has been a lot of protest on the floor of the 
Senate and the House in the last few days about concerns many of us 
have about the Medicare Program and the tax cut that was passed 
recently by the House of Representatives.
  It seems to me that at least some in Congress dived off the high 
board and showed wonderful form as they did their double twists and 
have now discovered there is no water in the pool.
  A tax cut first, for the middle class they said. Of course, the chart 
shows something different. Who benefits from the tax cut bill? If you 
earn over $200,000 as a family, you get $11,200 a year in tax cuts. If 
you are a family earning less than $30,000 a year, you get $120 a year 
in tax cuts. This is not a middle class I have seen anywhere in 
America. The fact is that it is a tax cut for the wealthy. That was 
passed, and now they say we should cut Medicare to pay for it.
  Well, we are going to have to reduce the rate of growth in Medicare. 
No one disputes that. But before we engage in a discussion about what 
you do about Medicare and Medicaid, many of us believe that the first 
thing you ought to do is get rid of this tax cut for the rich. It is 
time to deep-six this kind of a proposal, then let us talk about 
Medicare. Otherwise, what you have is a direct circumstance that cannot 
be avoided.
  The comparison is obvious: $340 billion in tax cuts, for $300 to $400 
billion in Medicare and Medicaid health care cuts. Let us back away 
from the tax cut. As soon as the majority party does that--and I hope 
they will--then I think this Congress ought to begin, in a joint effort 
on Medicare and Medicaid and virtually every other area of the Federal 
budget, to sift through these things to find out where we achieve the 
means by which we balance the Federal budget.
  But you know, some of us have been through all of this before. Talk 
is cheap. Talking about balancing the budget is very, very easy. 
Everyone talks about it.
  Last week, I proposed a series of budget cuts, real budget cuts in a 
whole range of areas that totaled some $800 billion, and I am going to 
propose more. That package does not include Medicare and Medicaid, and 
I know we have to reduce the rate of growth on both of those. But I 
also feel very strongly that as we approach this problem, we should not 
allow the other party to pass a very big tax cut first and then say to 
others later, ``Now help us pay for that by taking it out of the hide 
of your constituents.''
  Let us join together and work together, but let us do it in a way 
that gets rid of the tax cut that was ill-advised, bad public policy, 
not middle class, but essentially a tax cut that benefits the wealthy. 
Get rid of it, disavow it and then move on together in every single 
area of the Federal budget and do what is right for the country.
  That is what the American people expect and deserve, and I think that 
is what will benefit this country's future in a real and meaningful 
way.
  Let me thank the President for allowing me to extend the time. With 
that, I yield the floor.

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