[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 81 (Tuesday, May 16, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H5054]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    UNLESS WE DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT, MEDICARE WILL BE BROKE BY 2002

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Horn] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HORN. Mr. Speaker, as everyone in this Chamber knows, we have a 
crisis coming in America, and it is a crisis that needs the best 
solutions that we can find on a bipartisan basis, and that is the 
crisis that the trustees responsible for analyzing the hospital portion 
of the Medicare have recently noted. They said in their report the 
present financing schedule for the Medicare program is sufficient to 
ensure the payment of benefits only over the next 7 years.
  Now this is not a group of Republicans or Libertarians or 
Independents trying to scare the people. These are three of the top 
Cabinet officers of the President of the United States, Robert Rubin, 
Secretary of the Treasury; Robert Reich, Secretary of Labor; Donna 
Shalala, Secretary of Health and Human Services. They concluded the 
Medicare fund is projected to be exhausted in 2001, just after the turn 
of the century. This is their April 3, 1995 report.
  Now Medicare, as we know, in the projections from 1995 to 2002 has 
been predicted to grow at 10 percent per year, and Medicaid at 10.3. 
Note Social Security with COLA's is at 5.3, other entitlements at 4.1.
  The reality is the trust fund for Medicare, unless we do something 
constructive about it, will be empty in 2002.

                              {time}  1830

  That is what the trustees, the agents of the President, have noted on 
page 13 of their 1995 report, House Document 104-56.
  Unfortunately, the trustees identify the problem, but they have not 
given us the benefit of their wisdom, if any, on this subject, as to 
how we can avoid the disaster that is headed our way in 2002.
  Now, the House Republicans have faced up to this matter. We have not 
heard a peep from the President, a peep from his three Cabinet 
officers, but the House Republicans have noted in 1995 the Medicare 
spending per recipient in the Republican budget will be $4,700. In 
2002, it will be $6,300. It will go up just as Social Security is going 
up, at approximately 5 percent a year.
  Now, a lot of nonsense has been uttered, some of it on this floor, 
designed to scare seniors. I happen to care very deeply about this 
program. Not only that I am in my sixties and understand what it means 
when you are without Medicare, but the fact that 30 years ago, in 1965, 
as assistant to the Republican whip of the Senate, Senator Kuchel of 
California, I was part of the drafting team that worked with the 
Johnson administration to get a bipartisan bill, Medicare, through the 
Senate.
  We need to be sure in this Chamber that that hospital fund is sound. 
We need the administration to face up to this and provide some 
leadership, or at least give us some of their ideas. So far, as I said, 
the President's agents have stepped up to the plate, winced, and are 
back in the dugout. They should be asked, as we tried to do earlier 
today, to give us their recommendations. Unfortunately, they seem to 
lack the courage to recommend to the Congress appropriate courses of 
action. We on the Republican side would welcome that.
  This is the type of thing that should not be partisan, and the 
President needs to assume some leadership and not just stay in the 
background, assuming that Republicans will trip over themselves or that 
those on the Democratic side that want to help us on a bipartisan basis 
will trip over themselves. We will not.
  The fact is the people expect us to function in a sensible way to 
solve problems, and not just sit there, posturing politically, and 
hoping for the best in the next election. Those that do not step up to 
the plate, face up to this, they will not be around after the next 
election.
  So I urge my colleagues who have had quite a bit of criticism in 
recent days on this subject, let us get down to work, roll up our shirt 
sleeves, and solve the problem. The Republican budget has an increase 
for Medicare spending per recipient as you can see, $4,700 in 1995, 
$6,300 in 2002. That is positive effort. We need more of it by more 
people in this Chamber.


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