[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 107 (Wednesday, June 28, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H6402-H6403]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                     WHO SAID WHAT ABOUT MEDICARE?

  (Mr. HOKE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. HOKE. Mr. Speaker, as my colleagues know, the beauty of the well 
is that one can say anything that they want at any time, regardless of 
what the facts may be. Let us look at Medicare and who said what about 
Medicare.
  The President's trustees, the President's trustees, three members of 
the President's Cabinet, have said that the Medicare Trust Fund will be 
broke, bankrupt, out of money--without anything--in 6 to 7 years. That 
is under 

[[Page H6403]]
the median case scenario. It could be even shorter if things are worse.
  What are the Republicans doing? What we are doing is we are spending 
right now in 1995 about $400 per month per beneficiary on Medicare. 
That will go up in the year 2000 to about $550 per month, per 
beneficiary. That is for one person over the age of 65 who is getting 
the benefits of Medicare.
  I say to my colleagues, ``Now you have really got to believe that 
that cup is completely half empty all of the time and that we must have 
Federal Government bureaucrats who are going to solve all these 
problems for us, if you don't believe that the private sector with $550 
month can deal with Medicare.''

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