[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 146 (Tuesday, September 19, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H9138-H9139]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        MEDICARE SAVINGS DOUBTED

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Doggett] is recognized during 
morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, as this House was concluding its business 
last night, I was discussing the concerns that every senior across this 
country should have about what is about to occur on Medicare, and 
indeed, listening to the remarks of my colleague from Kansas just now, 
I would say that if seniors are not scared, they ought to at least be 
very concerned about what is happening on Medicare, and I would think 
that any senior who has been observing closely what is occurring with 
reference to Medicare would be very near scared at the consequences 
that are about to befall them.
  You know, we have awaited a Republican plan and now another day has 
passed. It is September 19, and we have yet to have any member of the 
Republican Party come to the floor of this House and spell out the 
details of their plan. All that American seniors know about this 
Republican plan is that it boils down to: Pay more, get less. That is 
what the Republican plan is, the pay more, get less plan.
  Mr. Speaker, it was curious that the gentleman from Kansas just now 
would refer to the Washington Times because yesterday's Washington 
Times, the banner first page story was: Republican 

[[Page H9139]]
Medicare Savings Doubted. And it refers to the gaping budgetary hole in 
the Republican plan. It talks about the fact that it is gimmickry, that 
over a third of the so-called savings the Republicans have in their pay 
more, get less plan has not yet been spelled out.
  Of course, instead of being candid with the American people and 
telling them how far they are going to reach into the pockets of 
seniors in reforming, as they call it, Medicare, instead of explaining 
the details of the hit on America's seniors, on America's disabled 
population, our Republican colleagues come back and say, ``Well, where 
is your plan? If you don't like our pay more, get less plan, why don't 
the Democrats come forward with a plan?''
  I would say that if what they are waiting for is a plan from the 
Democratic Party to take $270 billion in cuts from Medicare, they are 
going to wait forever because we are not going to have that kind of 
plan. If what they are waiting for is a plan from the Democrats to take 
money out of Medicare in order to fund tax cuts, tax breaks for the 
most privileged people in our society, they can wait a long time 
because we are not going to have that kind of plan.
  Mr. Speaker, they have talked so much about a trustees' report and 
how they have to secure Medicare from bankruptcy, and yet the premium 
increases that they are proposing, what they have never told the 
American people, they are going to raise the cost of health care in 
their pay more, get less plan in part B, but not one penny of the 
premium increases that they propose is going to be contributed to the 
Medicare trust fund that they seem so concerned about. Not one penny of 
those premium increases that they ask America's seniors, that they ask 
America's disabled population to contribute in escalating health care 
costs, not one penny is going to secure or prevent any troubles with 
the Medicare trust fund.
  The Democrats are ready to come together to secure the trust fund. We 
were ready last year in that regard, certainly my colleagues. I was not 
here at that time, but they worked to secure the trust fund. What did 
the Republicans do? What has been their contribution to secure and 
prevent the bankruptcy of the trust fund?
  In their so-called Contract With America, they made the trust fund 
less secure. They took revenues that would go into the trust fund, that 
were contributed by the most wealthy of our seniors, and they took 
those revenues in the contract bill out of the trust fund so that it 
will be less secure if their proposals are adopted than if we keep on 
the existing law.
  I believe that we need bipartisan support to have genuine reform with 
Medicare. The gentleman from Kansas referred to waste and fraud in the 
system, and there are seniors all over this country that can point to 
examples of mismanagement in the program. We need to ferret that out. 
We need to find ways to improve the efficiency of the system. But you 
do not begin that process by setting some imaginary $270 billion figure 
that you need in order to fulfill campaign promises. You do not begin 
there. You begin in a bipartisan, respectful manner consulting with our 
Nation's seniors, consulting with the experts and trying to reach a 
balanced proposal designed to improve Medicare, not to destroy it.
  It is a lot like a fellow that got lost over in east Texas and he was 
looking around and trying to get directions and he said, ``How do you 
get from here to Oklahoma?'' And the farmer that he came onto said, 
``Well, I don't know the precise path to get there but I sure wouldn't 
start from here.''
  The Democrats are saying, do not start from the premise that you need 
to take $270 billion out of the pockets of American seniors. Do not 
start from the premise that you need to take money from Medicare in 
order to fund a tax break for America's privileged few. Start from the 
premise that we need to improve and strengthen Medicare so that we will 
be there for generations to come, so that it can serve the next 
generation of Americans in just the way it has protected America's 
seniors for the last 30 years since Lyndon Johnson signed it into law, 
a system that is one of the grandest accomplishments of this Congress 
that is out there delivering health care to 99 percent of Americans 
today. Let us preserve and protect that plan. As America's seniors find 
out about it, it is upside down, but so is their plan. The pay more, 
get less Republican plan must be rejected.

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