[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 120 (Monday, July 24, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H7466]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                          SOLVENCY OF MEDICARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Scarborough] is recognized 
during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SCARBOROUGH. Mr. Speaker, now I have heard it all. It is the 
Republicans that are mediscared? I am sorry. I thought it was the 
President of the United States, a Democratic President of the United 
States, that had his Medicare trustees go out and study the solvency of 
the system.
  He did that and they came back, and they came back with a conclusion 
that I am sure made the President of the United States uncomfortable. 
The Medicare trustees, three of whom are in the President's own 
Cabinet, came back and told the President of the United States: 
Medicare is going bankrupt in 7 years. Let me repeat that. The Medicare 
trustees came back and said: Mr. President, Medicare goes bankrupt in 
the 2002.
  Yet, since that report has come out, we have seen nothing but 
speeches like the one that we just heard talking about how mean-
spirited the Republicans and the conservative Democrats are for 
actually daring to step forward and try to save Medicare.
  We have seen the minority leader come to the microphone and 
continually show a picture of two senior citizens, Ma and Pa Middle 
America, and say, it is the mean-spirited Republicans that are going 
after Ma and Pa America because they are coming in and they are going 
to change the Medicare system.
  Let me tell you something. That is demagoguery. I am sorry. That is 
all it can be called. When the person stands behind that microphone and 
knows in 7 years that those senior citizens that they are coming up 
proclaiming to protect will be part of a Medicare system that is 
bankrupt and they are too afraid to do anything about it and they 
attack those who would dare to step into the fray and try to save 
Medicare, that is demagoguery defined. It is what is worse with 
Washington politics, somebody standing on the sideline doing nothing 
but pointing fingers at the other side when they dare to tackle a 
problem that the other side is afraid to touch.
  Do you want to understand this debate? Do you want to understand in 
the end where the lines are drawn in this debate? Just remember this, 
and I will repeat it one or two times so you can remember it. Medicare 
is going bankrupt and the House Democrats are doing nothing about it. 
Medicare is going bankrupt and the House Democrats are doing nothing 
about it. Medicare is going bankrupt, bankrupt, and the House Democrats 
are doing nothing about it.
  I have two choices. I can go back to my mother 7 years from now and 
my father 7 years from now and tell them in Pensacola, FL, ``I am 
sorry, mom and dad, that this system is bankrupt, but 7 years ago when 
the Board of Trustees came back on Medicare and told me that it was 
going bankrupt, I lacked the political courage to do anything about it 
because I was afraid what the other side might tell me.''
  I am not going to do that. Let me tell you something. It is not just 
Republicans, House Republicans, that are being left out on the line. 
The House Democrats have abandoned their President. Say what you will 
about President Clinton, say what you will, but even he recognizes that 
Medicare is going bankrupt and the House Democrats are doing nothing 
about it.
  Mr. Speaker, they can come behind this microphone all they want and 
say how mean-spirited it is all they want, but it does not change a 
basic fact. Medicare is going bankrupt and the House Democrats are 
doing nothing about it.
  I will not wash my hands of this matter and there are leaders 
throughout Washington that will not wash their hands of this matter. We 
will reform Medicare to save it and I hope somebody on the Democratic 
side will do the same thing.

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