[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 116 (Tuesday, July 18, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H7076]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                      30TH ANNIVERSARY OF MEDICARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Pallone] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, 30 years ago this month, Congress enacted 
what has become one of the two most successful and popular Government 
programs ever conceived--the Medicare Program. The other, of course, is 
Social Security.
  Given the indisputable success of Medicare, you would think that even 
its most bitter critics from 30 years ago would have to admit that the 
program has been instrumental in improving the lives of millions of 
American senior citizens.
  But the Republican leadership in Congress is not interested in 
learning from their party's past mistakes. Although they haven't seen 
fit to reveal the details of their plan to the American people, it has 
become all too clear that the Republicans want to rewrite the history 
of Medicare by gutting the program and charging seniors more for 
coverage.
  In effect, the Republican leadership wants to take us back to the 
years before Medicare was enacted in 1965--a period when millions of 
American senior citizens faced either the poor house or premature death 
if they contracted a serious illness.
  It is a simple fact that before 1965, millions of middle class senior 
citizens who found themselves seriously ill faced bankruptcy in order 
to pay for care. Those who were already poor faced even greater 
indignity and often went without any health care at all.
  According to the National Council of Senior Citizens, prior to 1965 
and the enactment of Medicare, only 50 percent of Americans over the 
age of 65 had health insurance.
  Yet then, as now, the Republican Party in Congress again and again 
expresses a sort of gut reaction against Medicare.
  Thirty years ago, one Minnesota Congressman absurdly stated that 
Medicare ``puts the Nation dangerously close to socialized medicine.''
  One of his colleagues from Colorado went so far as to say: ``By 
passage of this bill [Medicare], we shall make a shambles out of Social 
Security.'' Of course, he didn't mention that he probably would have 
opposed the creation of Social Security too.
  The comments we are hearing from the leadership on the other side 
today demonstrate clearly that the Republicans in this Congress are 
indeed the direct ideological descendants of the party that fought 
tooth and nail to prevent Social Security and Medicare from ever 
becoming reality.
  Just a week ago, one of the Republican leaders stated ``I deeply 
resent the fact that when I'm 65 I must enroll in Medicare.''
  He went on to demean the program--and the millions of seniors who 
have earned their Medicare benefits--by saying that Medicare ``teaches 
the lessons of dependence,'' and that it is ``a program that has no 
place in a free society.''
  Mr. Speaker, when the new leadership in Congress claims to have won a 
mandate in last fall's elections, do they actually believe that their 
supposed mandate includes the dismantling of the Medicare Program?
  A mandate comes from the people, Mr. Speaker. And if the leadership 
of the Republican Party in Congress were interested in pursuing a true 
mandate--if they truly had the interests of the people at heart--there 
would be no discussion of pulling the rug out from under senior 
citizens by gutting Medicare.
  The vast majority of Americans--seniors and nonseniors alike--oppose 
the Republicans' views on Medicare. Rather than acting on a mandate, 
what the Republican leadership is doing, in effect, is attempting to 
rewrite the conclusion of the Medicare debate of 1965.
  What is the real agenda here, Mr. Speaker? It sounds suspiciously 
like this generation of Republicans, under the cloak of concern of 
Medicare's solvency, is simply trotting out the same tired arguments 
that failed 30 years ago. And we need to expose this for what it is--an 
effort to destroy Medicare, which in the Republican view, is somehow 
un-American.


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