[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 88 (Thursday, May 25, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H5591-H5592]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    LET'S BE TRUTHFUL ABOUT MEDICARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Ehlers] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. EHLERS. Mr. Speaker, those in this Chamber who know me know that 
I am a person who values integrity. You also know that when I speak on 
the floor and discuss issues, I try to be as factual as possible; 
perhaps that is my scientific background, my scientific training coming 
to the fore.
  But I have to confess that I was upset this morning. I have been 
upset over the past several weeks at the attempt of the other side of 
the aisle to beat upon the theme--and I really mean the word beat and 
beat and beat again--to beat upon the theme that somehow the 
Republicans are trying to cut taxes by $300 billion and they are trying 
to cut Medicare by $300 billion to pay for the tax cut. [[Page H5592]] 
  That is absolute nonsense. It is a falsehood. It is a lie. Those who 
are uttering this lie day after day in this Chamber should be ashamed 
of themselves, and I call upon them to stop with their falsehoods.
  First of all, their numbers are not correct. They have simply 
arbitrarily picked them as $300 billion each to try to make them match, 
but the numbers are not exactly that. This is used to try to mislead 
the public.
  Furthermore, this is not tit-for-tat. The tax cuts are not for the 
rich, as you hear over and over again, $300 billion in cuts for 
Medicare to pay for $300 billion in tax cuts for the rich. I happen to 
think that allowing parents of children to keep $500 more of their 
money for every child they have, regardless of the income of the 
parents, is not a tax cut for the rich. Absolutely not.
  If you try to analyze the income breakdown of the tax break that was 
in the tax bill passed by the Republicans, you can verify that only a 
small percentage of the amount of money will go to the rich. Frankly, 
it is the rich who pay the most taxes, so anytime you have a tax cut, 
they are going to get a substantial portion of it back. But it is not a 
tit-for-tat, and the numbers used on the floor are not accurate.
  Furthermore, the statement that we are cutting Medicare by $300 
billion to provide money for the tax cuts for the rich is nonsense, 
because we are not cutting Medicare. Medicare will increase under the
 Republican proposal that has been adopted. It may not increase at the 
incredible 10.5-percent rate that it has been increasing at, but that 
is nearly three times the amount of increase in the private sector 
health care cost.

  We cannot as a Nation continue to pay 2 or 3 times the rate of 
increase for those on Medicare that we do in the private sector. 
Clearly there is something wrong with Medicare if costs are going up 
that rapidly.
  The proposal is to try to make Medicare run more efficiently. Our 
proposal is to try to preserve Medicare, it is to try to protect 
Medicare, to make sure that it is there for the people who need it.
  If we do not take action to cut the rising rate of cost, there will 
not be any money left in Medicare after the year 2002. It will be 
bankrupt and people will not have the medical coverage they have come 
to depend upon.
  That is the problem we are trying to address. It is a problem that 
has to be addressed in a bipartisan fashion by this House, by the 
Senate, and by the President.
  I am very disappointed that in our attempt to begin addressing that 
issue, the other side of the aisle, including the President, is not 
addressing the problem with us. They are not sitting down with us and 
trying to cooperate, but they are rather getting on their high horse, 
or standing on their soapbox, and saying ``cuts, cuts, cuts'' when we 
are not cutting, we are only trying to make it more efficient and more 
responsive to the needs of the people.
  As I said at the beginning, I am a person of integrity. I try to be 
honest, and I have tried to be honest in this statement.
  I truly hope that the other side of the aisle, everyone involved in 
this Chamber, the Senate, and the White House, will get together with 
us and say, ``Look, we have a serious problem with Medicare.'' The 
President's own nominees on the trust fund board have said we have a 
problem with Medicare. Everyone agrees we have a problem with Medicare. 
Let us sit down as people of good will and say we have a problem. Let 
us work together to solve it.
  My plea is that we all get together and solve this problem so in fact 
we can preserve, protect and repair the Medicare system so that we will 
meet the needs of the elderly, not just now and not just in the year 
2002 but for all time.

                          ____________________