[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 142 (Wednesday, September 13, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H8815]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           DEMOCRATS CANNOT WAIT TO SEE THE REPUBLICANS' PLAN

  (Mr. COLEMAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. COLEMAN. Mr. Speaker, let me just tell my colleagues what 
continues to be referred to here as somehow Democrats on my side of the 
aisle are concerned about what all my colleagues are about to do to 
Medicare. Well, we are, and the fact of the matter is we do not have 
the evidence about what our colleagues are going to do yet. Where is 
it? Our colleagues have been telling us now for months that they are 
going to fix it, they are going to cut it, they are going to cut its 
outlay problems and all the rest, and then they tell us, ``But it is 
going to be an increase; we're going to increase Medicare by a couple 
of percent.'' Whatever it is; let us say it is 4 or 5, they are going 
to increase it. That sounds good. The problem is health care costs are 
going up at 9 or 10.
  Well, some of us think back from third-grade math class that that is 
a cut of 4 or 5 percent. Now that is a cut unless we are going to 
freeze wages and prices. As my colleagues know, their party has done 
that before. Some of us remember when Dick Nixon did it. Is that the 
plan?
  We are interested in knowing what the plan is. My colleagues are 
right. We do not have all the evidence. We are waiting. We cannot wait 
to see our colleagues' plan because I am afraid that what our 
colleagues are going to do is adversely affect all senior citizens in 
America.

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