[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 81 (Tuesday, May 16, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H4965]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          MEDICARE GOING BROKE

  (Mr. RIGGS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. RIGGS. Mr. Speaker, let me just respond to the previous speaker 
by pointing out the Washington Post also says, in a column entitled 
Which Budget, referring to the lack of any proposal from the House 
Democrats, ``Democrat complaints about Republican budget plans have a 
hollow and unpersuasive ring.''
  Mr. Speaker, the silence of those on the other side of the aisle 
about Medicare is deafening. All we hear from them is more distortions, 
more hot air, no solutions. But do not take our word for it about the 
condition of the Medicare trust fund. Take the word of the Medicare 
trustees who said in their April 3 report, and I quote, ``the present 
financing schedule for Medicare is sufficient to ensure the payment of 
benefits only over the next few years.''
  The bottom line? The fund is projected to be exhausted in 2001. This 
conclusion was reached by three of the President's own Cabinet 
Secretaries who also double as Medicare trustees: Secretaries Rubin, 
Reich, and Shalala.
  Mr. Speaker, the American people are tired of this evasion. They are 
tired of the posturing. They sent us here to Washington to handle the 
Nation's problems, not to avoid them. Republicans are providing 
leadership while the White House and the House Democrats are providing 
scare tactics and class warfare demagoguery.


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