[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 120 (Monday, July 24, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H7467]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                     PRESERVE AND PROTECT MEDICARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from Washington [Mr. Metcalf] is recognized 
during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. METCALF. Mr. Speaker, the President's commission does indeed 
state that Medicare, and the Medicare trustees state clearly that by 
1997, we start having more money coming out of the Medicare fund than 
going in. By the year 2002, it is bankrupt, and that is unacceptable. 
It is absolutely unacceptable.
  Medicare must be preserved and must be protected, and we will 
preserve and protect Medicare. Presently, the allotment per year for 
senior citizens in Medicare is $4,300. By the next 10 years, it will be 
$6,400. We are increasing Medicare about 5 percent, a little bit more 
each year. This increase is called a cut only inside the beltway. The 
people of America can recognize the difference.
  The solution of the other side is to put more money into the system 
that is already causing us these problems. We do not have the money 
today. We do not have the money. We have debt. Today we have a huge 
debt. It is a deficit which runs well over $250 billion a year. If we 
had not borrowed all the money in the past, if we had not irresponsibly 
spent that money in the past, this Government is running a surplus.
  Did you know that this Government is running a surplus today if you 
do not count the interest paid on the previous debt? All that 
irresponsible spending now results in a debt payment that is so large 
that it is more than the deficit that we are running, and it is really 
important to get that clear.
  If we did not owe the money, we are running a surplus. Today we have 
to stop, we have to balance the budget, we have to stop the increasing 
debt, we have to solve the deficit.
  The amount that is paid in interest on the debt is $1,300 per person 
per year, not per wage earner or anything, men, women and children. 
Thirteen hundred dollars per person per year just to pay the interest 
on the debt. That does not buy anything that you need, does not buy 
anything that the Government does; just to pay the interest.
  A child born in 1995 will look forward to paying $187,000 in their 
lifetime just to pay the interest on the debt. That is about the cost 
of a very nice home. What we are doing to our children by refusing to 
get the spending in control is to remove their chance to own a home. My 
wife and I have realized the American dream. We have a home. We have it 
fully paid for. My grandchildren will not have that opportunity unless 
we solve that problem.
  I just want to throw in one other little statistic to remember about 
debt and the growing debt. It is so easy to just continue. The people 
of England are still paying interest on the money they borrowed to 
fight Napoleon. They have paid that money 14 times over. They paid 14 
times as much as they borrowed in interest and they are still paying 
the interest.
  If we do not solve this problem, if we do not solve this problem 
right in the next very few years, we are subjecting our own children to 
debt slavery. We are taking money out of their standard of living just 
to pay interest on the debt. Permanent interest payments on a perpetual 
debt is debt slavery for children. We have to balance the budget and we 
will balance the budget.

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