[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 79 (Friday, May 12, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H4903]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                        REPUBLICAN MEDICARE CUTS

  (Mr. DOGGETT asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, with Mother's Day on Sunday, we are 
reminded of the commandment to ``honor thy father and thy mother.'' 
And, my, how our fathers and our mothers and our seniors all over this 
country have been honored this week. They have been honored with $300 
billion, almost, of Medicare cuts, and they can bring charts up here 
all day and all night and all week long.
  Apparently, they want to limit the time to discuss this to the bare 
minimum, but they cannot deny the fact that under existing law they are 
cutting Medicare by almost $300 billion.
  It is not a matter of what happens here in the Halls of Congress. It 
is the way the American people will view these cuts. If you do not 
understand a cut is a cut, go out and ask the seniors across this 
country and the people that care for them what it means that in order 
to get the same level of care, your medical deductible is doubled, your 
premiums go up every month, suddenly you have to pay for home health 
care and for lab services.
  You may not call that a cut, but a senior citizen that faces the 
decision of whether to eat or whether to get health care is going to 
view it as the very serious cut that it is.


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