[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 87 (Wednesday, May 24, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H5490]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    MEDICARE AND THE FEDERAL BUDGET

  (Mr. FORD asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. FORD. Mr. Speaker, I rise in reference to the budget that is 
before the House and the Senate, and to say as we look toward the 
Medicare cuts that many of the new Republican majority in the House 
have indicated that they want these Medicare cuts for the purposes of 
giving huge tax cuts to the well-to-do in America. I think when we look 
around and we really study what these Medicare cuts are all about, $289 
billion, we are basically saying that we are going to increase those 
premiums on the elderly population of this Nation, those recipients of 
Medicare.
  Yes, we ought to reform Medicare. Sure, we ought to look at some type 
of national health care plan for this country. Sure, those things 
should happen. But to say like the new Republican majority that we want 
to cut the Medicare Program for the well-to-do in America, to give them 
a tax cut, that is wrong, it is mean to the elderly.
  We should not let that happen. We ought to take the budget that we 
have before this House and the Senate and move over the next 7, 8 to 10 
years to try to bring about a balanced budget, but let us not do it 
with the elderly population and the Medicare Program.

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