[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 78 (Thursday, May 11, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1009]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                       CUTS ENDANGER OUR ELDERLY

                                 ______


                         HON. RONALD D. COLEMAN

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 11, 1995
  Mr. COLEMAN. Mr. Speaker, the Republican party is certainly full of 
contradictions. Six months after signing a ``Contract With America'' 
that included a platform promising fairness for senior citizens, they 
propose a budget that will harm the poorest and the least healthy of 
our Nation's older population. The House Republican budget outlines 
cutting Medicare funding by $270 billion over the next 7 years. In the 
same period of time, they propose that we abdicate responsibility for 
the Medicaid to the States, while decreasing the funding by $184 
billion. In order to justify their cuts, they are insisting that 
without reform, the Medicare Program will be bankrupt by the year 2002.
  Frankly, their new position makes very little sense. After all, 
nothing is being done to actually reform the system. Capping Medicare 
spending is not reform. Last year, President Clinton and the Democratic 
leaders in Congress struggled to reform the whole health care system, 
and to prevent the very crisis in Medicare that the Republicans decry 
today. Republicans refused to assist in the health care debate, and 
preferred partisan sniping. They were hiding their heads in the sand. 
They were all too eager to criticize the Democratic reform that would 
have applied small Medicare savings to comprehensive health care 
reform.
  This year, we hear nothing of comprehensive reform. We are moving no 
closer to universal and affordable coverage. There are no genuine 
efforts to make our health care system more effective and more 
affordable. But the Republicans are talking about Medicare and Medicaid 
cuts. The cuts that they are proposing will not go toward saving 
Medicare, or ensuring universal coverage, but toward tax breaks to the 
wealthy.
  The Republican party, which proudly authored a bill entitled the 
``Senior Citizens Fairness Act'' now proposes to take a hit and the 
poor and the sick elderly, without putting one penny back into their 
health care. They are offering us all the pain of cuts, without the 
benefits of reform. Cuts like these are misguided, and should not be 
tolerated. Many people who have made tremendous contributions to this 
Nation, people in the twilight of their life, will suffer as a result 
of this budget.


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