[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 81 (Tuesday, May 16, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H4967]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




THE REPUBLICAN BUDGET WILL CUT MEDICARE AND NEEDED SERVICES TO STUDENTS 
          AND THE ELDERLY WHILE GIVING TAX BREAKS TO THE RICH

  (Mr. KLINK asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KLINK. Mr. Speaker, we have looked at the charts and we have 
looked at the graphs. They keep talking about the fact that ``We are 
increasing Medicare, we are not decreasing Medicare.'' It is like a 
friend of mine who made $100 a week back in 1960 saying he got a raise 
because he makes $150 now. You have to adjust for inflation, you have 
to adjust for more people going into the system. This is not an 
increase. In fact, it is a very large decrease.
  In my area in southwestern Pennsylvania, if this Republican proposal 
to cut Medicare this much goes through, our hospitals tell us that half 
of the hospitals in southwestern Pennsylvania will close. Many of those 
hospitals get 60 percent of their money from Medicare reimbursements, 
because 1 in 5 residents in southwestern Pennsylvania are on Medicare.
  Mr. Speaker, this is a budget that would in fact also cut student 
loans by $19 billion, that is an average of $5,000 a year, by charging 
interest to students while they are in college. We do not want to give 
them an education so they can get a better job, and when they get 
older, we want to take their Medicare away; also, so we can give 
$20,000 tax breaks every year to the richest 1 million Americans. 
Unfair, Mr. Speaker.


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