[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 79 (Friday, May 12, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H4904]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


     THE REPUBLICAN BUDGET IS A CUT IN MEDICARE AND SOCIAL SECURITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Gephardt] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. Mr. Speaker, I rise this afternoon to speak about the 
Republican budget and its effect on Medicare and Social Security. The 
assertion is trying to be made on the Republican side that this is not 
a cut. Well, I beg to differ. To the senior citizens of this country 
who have paid all their lives into this trust fund, it is a cut.
  A cut is a reduction in services, an increase in premiums, an 
increase in copays and deductibles. So to the senior citizen out there, 
or to their family, you can call it anything you want to call it; it is 
a reduction in services. It is less than they expected to be able to 
get out of this very, very important program in their lives, and let us 
remember who we are affecting here. We are not just affecting the 
recipient of the program for the person that is enrolled in Medicare. 
We are affecting their entire family. The 30-, and 40-, and 50-year-old 
sons and daughters of these recipients of Social Security will have to 
make up the money if their parent cannot come up with it for the copay, 
or the deductible or the increased premium, and remember that this 
increased premium will come out of their Social Security check. It is 
automatically deducted, so it is in effect a decrease in their Social 
Security monthly payment.
  Mr. Speaker, we have got lots and lots of senior citizens around the 
country who live on their Social Security. It is the only thing they 
have to look forward to every month to pay their rent, to pay their 
heating bill, to pay for their food, and so that amount will be 
reduced. Let us also remember this budget calls for a reduction in the 
Social Security benefit. It calls for an arbitrary reduction in the 
cost of living escalator by over a half a percent a year beginning in 
1999.
  By the year 2002 it means a $240 cut in their Social Security 
benefit. So, because of the Medicare cut which comes to about $1,000 a 
person a year immediately, the $240 cut in their Social Security 
benefit by the year 2002, these folks who are living on Social Security 
and their families who help support them are going to be out about 
$1,240 a year that they now count on in order to get by.
  Now let us remember that these programs are supported by taxes. There 
is no deficit in the Medicare trust fund. There is no deficit in the 
Social Security trust fund. There is more money coming into those trust 
funds today than is spent, and we believe that it is wrong to make up 
for problems somewhere else in the budget out of those trust funds, yet 
that is precisely what the Republican budget does.
  They said proudly for days, ``We're not going to touch Social 
Security; it's off the table.'' Well, it is on the table again in a big 
way, $1,240 per person per year it is on the table, and that is not 
what was said. What was said before the budget came out was Social 
Security is off the table, it is not going to be cut.
  And now we even see why it is being cut. It is being cut for a tax 
break. The Medicare cut almost equals the amount that is going out to 
give a tax break, a tax windfall, for the wealthiest people in the 
country.
  So now we see the real value that is being expressed. A budget is an 
expression of values in its most important meaning. The value that the 
Republican Party is expressing in this budget is that it is fine to 
take dollars, $1,240 a year ultimately, from the middle-income families 
of this country and transfer it to people making $200, and $300, and 
$400 and $500,000 a year so they can get a $20,000-a-year tax break. We 
are going to take $1,240 a year from middle-income families and 
families trying to stay in the middle class.
  Is that our sense of values? Is that what we want to have happen in 
this country? I do not think so. I think what we want is to help 
middle-income families stay in the middle class, and that is what 
Social Security and Medicare have primarily been about.
  This is not the right approach, this is not what we ought to be 
doing, and if you say the Social Security funds may not be stable and 
solvent 5 and 10 years from now, I say, ``Fine, let's look at that. 
Let's look at the whole health care system as we do it, and let's not 
start this discussion by giving a $20,000-a-year tax break to families 
earning $250,000 a year. Let's put that off to the side. Let's save 
that one for later when we finally got enough money in the budget to 
consider things like that. But for right now let's talk about the real 
problems of our country:
 education, Medicare, Social Security, keeping those programs there for 
the middle-income people who paid their taxes their entire life. Let's 
not take it from them. Let's help strengthen those programs.''

  So I hope, as we go into this most important budget, this Republican 
budget represents the greatest change in U.S. budgets in many, many 
years. Let us have a full debate in this Congress about what is 
actually happening here. This budget will have direct significance, 
dramatic consequences, in the lives of average working American 
families. They deserve to know what this budget will do to them, and 
before we vote on it and cast votes for it or against it, let us let 
the people know what is in it. Let us let them participate in the 
debate. Then we can make a judgment. And I believe if that is done, we 
will make the right judgment, and the right judgment is not to invade 
Medicare and Social Security to give tax breaks to the people who have 
done the best in our country. That will not be our judgment, and I urge 
that, after this debate, we will make a better judgment, and we will 
make sure that Social Security and Medicare are not invaded, and that 
these cuts are not made to the middle-income people of this country 
simply to give a tax break to the people who have it made.

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