[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 138 (Thursday, September 7, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H8668-H8669]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THE TRUTH ON MEDICARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Kingston] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to discuss a couple of items 
tonight. A previous speaker on the other side of the aisle actually 
stood in the House Chamber just minutes ago and said that there is no 
problem with Medicare, that Medicare is not going bankrupt. I just find 
that unbelievable, that somebody would be still arguing about the April 
trustees' report, when it was offered by Clinton appointees, including 
Secretaries Shalala, Reich and Rubin, who are all appointed by Clinton. 
They are his right arm, for crying out loud. Drawing partisan lines on 
a trustee report that really is a Democrat report. I am flabbergasted, 
after a month back in the district talking to senior citizens, that 
somebody is at that stage of the debate.
  The stage on this side of the aisle, number one, is that this is a 
bipartisan problem. People that get Medicare, they do not care if they 
are Democrats or Republicans who are writing the legislation. They want 
health care.
  We are not going to get into a partisan debate on Medicare. What we 
are going to do is try to preserve and protect it so that it will be 
there tomorrow, and we are going to try to slow down the rate of 
increase. Medical inflation on average is about 4.5 percent. Medicare 
growth has been 11 percent. We are going to increase the benefit to 
each recipient from about $4,800 to $6,400. So the door is open. Any 
ideas from either party are welcome, but we are going to solve this 
problem in a bipartisan way. We are going to simplify Medicare, and 
protect and preserve it.
  The gentleman from the 9th District of Georgia [Mr. Chambliss] joins 
us, and I yield the floor to him.
  Mr. CHAMBLISS. Mr. Speaker, I too am just somewhat flabbergasted by 
the comments made by the previous speaker from the other side of the 
aisle regarding the cuts in Medicare. He made one statement that 
Medicare is more solvent today than it has been in a long time. We had 
problems with it in the past and the reaction of this Congress was to 
make minor adjustments in the Medicare program.
  Well, what the Democrats consider as ``minor
   adjustments'' is raising taxes. That is not what the American people 
want. The American people want a solid program with solid funding, not 
a program that is a runaway program that requires raising taxes to fix 
it.

  Congress must act responsibly. We are charged by the American people 
to take a program like Medicare, to reform, revise, and improve that 
program to where we take money from the taxpayers and we spend it 
wisely. When it comes time for folks to receive the benefits of 
Medicare, they ought to be able to receive those benefits without the 
necessity of raising taxes.
  Mr. KINGSTON. If the gentleman will yield, we actually raised the 
taxes on Medicare in 1993. All that did is postpone the bankruptcy I 
think three to six months. So raising taxes is not the solution.

[[Page H 8669]]

  On the subject of taxes, I wanted to say this. We are going to have 
some important tax debates coming up on flat tax and consumption tax. 
The average American family in the 1950's paid 2 percent Federal income 
tax. The average American family today pays 24 percent Federal income 
tax. During that period of time, the State and local and other Federal 
taxes have increased to the extent that middle class families now are 
paying about 40 to 50 percent taxes, while the real wages have fallen. 
One of the biggest crises in America today is that the middle class are 
working their tails off just to stay in place. In many cases they are 
not even breaking even. So tax increases year after year are anything 
but the answer. We have got to increase the real wages and increase 
opportunities and jobs for people.
  Mr. CHAMBLISS. It was interesting too that the previous speaker 
stated that we as Republicans are providing tax cuts to middle class 
America, and those tax cuts are being given at the expense of Medicare 
recipients. That is absolutely not true. What he did not tell the folks 
is that Medicare is a trust fund. Payments that are received by the 
Federal Government from taxpayers for Medicare go into a trust fund. 
Those funds can be used only for Medicare beneficiaries.
  Tax cuts have no relationship to Medicare trust funds. The tax cuts 
being given to middle class America are being given to those folks you 
just talked about, the folks who are hard working, scraping by day-to-
day to make a decent living for their families. Those are the folks 
that are going to receive the benefit of the tax cuts that are going to 
be put in place. That has absolutely no relationship to Medicare.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I think the point the gentleman has also 
made on taxes is that in reality we have not passed a tax cut. We have 
not really passed anything, because the House, while it has done all 
kinds of work, all kinds of reform legislation to reduce the size of 
government and the micro-management out of Washington, legislation 
which has increased personal responsibility and increased personal 
freedom, these great pieces of legislation have not moved in the other 
body, nor have they been signed by the Executive Branch. Here we are 
coming into a rude awakening October 1st.


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