[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 123 (Thursday, July 27, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H7807]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


       REPUBLICAN PARTY DOTH PROTEST TOO MUCH CONCERNING MEDICARE

  (Mr. DEUTSCH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DEUTSCH. Mr. Speaker, I would say to my Republican colleagues, 
``Thou doth protest too much.'' Let me talk about specifics. I hope 
that the people of this country are watching and getting engaged in 
this debate, because the reality of the 30-year history of the Medicare 
system is it never had more than a 10-year actual life. In fact, at one 
point in time, it had a 2-year actuarial life.
  The majority party has made adjustments, or the former majority party 
has made adjustments. In my first year in Congress in 1993, we had a 
$50 billion adjustment to the Medicare system. What my colleagues on 
the other side of the aisle are proposing is a $270 billion cut in 
Medicare, astronomical by any comparison to what had ever been done 
before. It was not dictated by actuarial analysis. It was dictated by 
their budget, and they drew that. There is no doubt they can save $270 
billion in Medicare, but the Medicare that will exist in America under 
the Republican plan will adversely affect 37 million people in this 
country. It will not be the Medicare that we know today.

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