[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 121 (Tuesday, July 25, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H7557-H7558]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             SAVE 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, I have got to tell you. I hear all this 
debate about Medicare and Medicaid and who is saving Medicare and who 
is trying to gut Medicare and Medicaid. At times I just find it 
laughable, the type of rhetoric that goes on inside the beltway of 
Washington, DC, and I am new to this game. I just came to Washington 6 
months ago.
  I remember over the course of the campaign, what frustrated the 
American people the most was the fact that Washington politicians loved 
to engage in doubletalk, double speak. And one of the things they got 
the biggest kick out of, but also got upset about the most, was the 
fact that in Washington, DC, a politician calls a spending increase a 
spending cut. Somebody will come to the floor and say, we are cutting 
this program by 50 percent, and then you open up the budget and look 
chapter and verse.
  The fact of the matter is, we are only cutting the rate of increase 
by 50 percent and, in fact, we are
 spending more next year than we did last year. This happens on all the 
programs. It is a wonderful way for a Washington politician to sound 
like they are getting tough on fiscal matters when the fact of the 
matter is they continue to throw money out in the breeze and do not 
know how to discipline themselves.

  Mr. Speaker, the thing that frustrated me as an average citizen 
sitting on the couch watching C-SPAN or CNN was the fact that sometimes 
it was hard to nail them down. And you said, well, one side is saying 
this, the other side is saying that, what is the truth? Let me tell 
you. You have an opportunity to get to the bottom of the truth on the 
Medicare issue.
  We had the gentleman from Ohio talk about the summary report of 1995 
of the status of Social Security and Medicare programs. I ask you as an 
American citizen, if you want to get to the bottom of this whole 
Medicare debate, to call your Representative at 202-225-3121. Call your 
Representative, ask for that report and it will tell you some very, 
very troubling things about Medicare.
  The first thing it will tell you is that Medicare is going bankrupt 
in the year 2002. That is in 7 years. The House Republicans did not 
write this report. House Democrats did not write this report. It was 
written by the trustees. They came back and reported to President 
Clinton: Mr. President, we have 7 years before Medicare goes bankrupt, 
before senior citizens really are left out in the cold in this system. 
You have to do something to reform Medicare.
  Some of us have begun to undergo the task of doing something to save 
Medicare. Let me just give you a few numbers about spending and 
Medicare because you are going to hear about how us trying to save 
Medicare is going to cut the program, going to slash the program. Let 
us forget Washington doubletalk and double speak for a second and just 
talk about the facts.
  The fact of the matter is, spending on Medicare over the next 7 years 
is going to increase from about $900 billion to $1.6 trillion, $900 
billion to $1.6 trillion. I was never very good in math; that is 
probably why I ran for office, but the fact of the matter is that in my 
hometown where I come from, going from 

[[Page H 7558]]
$900 billion to $1.6 trillion over 7 years is a spending increase.
  How is it going to affect my parents? How is it going to affect my 
grandmother? How is it going to affect seniors in our communities 
across the country? The fact of the matter is, the average senior 
citizen is going to go from having about $4,600 in Medicare benefits 
per year to approximately $6,400 in Medicare benefits a year. That is 
almost a $2,000 spending increase over the next 7 years.
  Again, in Washington, DC, some people are going to call that a 
spending cut. Adding $2,000 over 7 years is going to be considered a 
spending cut, and they will get out charts and graphs and say, but over 
the next 7 years, blah, blah, blah, and I will tell you, by the end 
they are so good at it you almost start to believe them.
  Let us look at the cold hard facts. Let us look at the report and let 
us call a spade a spade. We are going to save Medicare even if the 
other side is afraid to do anything about it.


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