[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 124 (Friday, July 28, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H7921]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  0920
  IT IS WRONG TO CUT MEDICARE TO GIVE TAX BREAKS TO AMERICA'S RICHEST 
                                CITIZENS

  (Mr. BROWN of Ohio asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, this Sunday all of us across the 
country celebrate the 30th anniversary of the signing of Medicare. 
Thirty years ago, leading up to President Johnson's signing Medicare in 
Independence, Missouri, 93 percent of Republican Members of Congress, 
including then Congressman Bob Dole, a Republican from Kansas, opposed 
the creation of Medicare. In the 1970's and the 1980's, the far right 
wing of the Republican Party continued to try to dismantle and cut 
Medicare.
  Today, in 1995, literally 99 percent of the Republican Members of 
this body have voted to make almost $30 billion in cuts in Medicare. 
The fact is, prior to Medicare's creation in the mid 1960s, more than 
half of older Americans did not have health care coverage. Today, 99 
percent of America's elderly may have health care coverage. The fact 
is, Medicare works. It is simply wrong, Mr. Speaker, to cut $300 
billion from Medicare in order to give tax breaks to the richest 
American citizens. It is simply not right.


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