[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 153 (Thursday, September 28, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H9599]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  WHY CUT $270 BILLION FROM MEDICARE?

  (Mr. STUPAK asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. STUPAK. Mr. Speaker, there are philosophical differences between 
Democrats and Republicans on Medicare, and there is no doubt that the 
Republican party would like $270 billion in tax cuts, but why $270 
billion in tax cuts in the Medicare program? To pay for the tax breaks 
for the wealthiest 1.1 percent of all Americans and for tax breaks for 
corporations.

                              {time}  1045

  I sit on the Subcommittee on Health and Environment of the Committee 
on Commerce. As of October 10 we will begin the Medicare markup. We 
have never yet seen a bill. We have a 59-page summary. In that summary 
that we have read from cover to cover, nowhere, nowhere does it say 
that $270 billion will go and be reinvested into Medicare. Nowhere does 
it say that.
  If they wanted to save Medicare, take the $270 billion in tax cuts 
and put it back into the Medicare system. What is going to happen, Mr. 
Speaker, is just what the U.S. News & World Report says: Tax exempt. 
You pay Uncle Sam.
  How come thousands of American corporations do not? Because they are 
going to take the $270 billion in tax cuts out of Medicare and give it 
to the corporations.

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