[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 156 (Tuesday, October 10, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H9746-H9747]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         OUR SENIORS' CONCERNS ABOUT REPUBLICAN MEDICARE REFORM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 1995, the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Gene Green, is 
recognized during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may 
consume to my colleague, the gentlewoman from Colorado [Mrs. 
Schroeder].
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, I will be very brief because the 
gentleman from Texas is being very kind. I am glad I got to answer 
these statements.
  No. 1, the cost for bringing the statue up. There has been a private 
group that the Senate has put together that is willing to do this, it 
is my understanding, so that is not an issue.
  No. 2, I find that countering spousal impoverishment by saying that 
estate taxes are too high; for heaven's sakes, if they are both in the 
poorhouse, estate taxes are not going to matter.
  So we are beginning to see what the gentleman from Arizona and his 
party----
  Mr. HAYWORTH. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman did not yield to me, and I 
do not mind yielding. I think I yielded to the gentleman every time.
  Mr. HAYWORTH. Will the gentlewoman yield?
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. At this point, Mr. Speaker, I yield back to the 
gentleman from Texas, Mr. Gene Green.
  Mr. HAYWORTH. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. I will yield, but let me make my remarks 
about the Medicare to my colleague from Arizona because I want to make 
sure my colleagues understand that that is what our morning hour here 
is about, so we can exchange ideas and talk about it.
  Over the last week I spent a lot of time in my district, like other 
Members have, and I used this last week to meet with constituents, and 
visit a number of my senior citizens' centers, and answer their 
questions, and I have not had the opportunity to host our Social 
Security Commissioner, Dr. Shirley Chater, in Houston, and she toured 
one of our west-end senior citizen centers, the Magnolia Senior 
Nutrition site, and also the Texas Medical Center to talk with those 
who are most affected by the proposed cutbacks in Medicare.

[[Page H 9747]]


                              {time}  1245

  You will notice I did not say cuts, cutbacks, because when you add 
more population to it and you do not plan for that increase, it is a 
cutback.
  Ms. Chater made an interesting point during her visit. I would like 
to reiterate it. We have all heard the word ``bankrupt'' a lot. All by 
friends on the other side of the aisle stand up and wave the Medicare 
Trustees' report and explain how they are trying to save the system 
from going bankrupt. Ms. Chater is not only Social Security 
Administrator, but she is also one of the trustees of the Medicare 
trust fund, and she pointed out to the seniors in Houston, TX that the 
system really is not going bankrupt. It may have problems that need to 
be addressed, like it has eight times or nine times in its history over 
the last 30 years, but as long as people paid into the trust fund, 
those of us who are earning now, it is not going bankrupt as long as we 
plan for the future.
  My friends on the other side of the aisle say we are scaring seniors. 
Seniors ought to be scared. I think the polls show they are getting 
scared by what they hear. In fact, they should be the ones that should 
quit scaring seniors into thinking they are going to cut $270 million 
out of Medicare and it will not be around next year unless they do 
that, because that is what the fear is: Unless we cut $270 million out 
of the growth over 7 years we will not have Medicare next year.
  We will have Medicare next year, we will have it the year after that, 
but we need to have a reasonable plan to get its policies on 
expenditures in line like we do every Federal program; but not $270 
billion, more like $90 billion. It is not true, and it is is wrong to 
scare the people into thinking that.
  Let us be honest with the American people. They need $270 billion to 
meet their tax cut goals. I have heard those goals were met with the 
appropriation bills. But, Mr. Speaker, we have only passed one 
appropriation bill here on this floor that went to the President, and 
was vetoed last week, so those cuts are not in place.
  Now they are talking about cutting Medicare. There are no ifs, ands, 
or buts; the seniors in this country will have to bear the brunt of the 
pain to balance that budget to give that tax break. That is the truth, 
and even the Republican Members of our other body have expressed strong 
opposition to cutting taxes while simultaneously slashing Medicare.
  These Senate Republicans are beginning to say, as our Democrat 
leader, the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Gephardt], has said for 
months, in fact the gentleman from Missouri was in Houston at another 
senior citizen site a few months ago, and said that before we start 
talking about reforming Medicare, let us sit down and look at the whole 
budget, but let us take off this tax cut of $247 billion.
  I was in Houston for over a week, and I have talked to hundreds of 
seniors. Several have asked me to outline what the plan entailed. I 
have briefly explained $110 billion will come from health care 
providers, 80 billion from the beneficiaries and their increase in 
Medicare part B, and $80 billion from future unspecified cuts will be 
decided by some bureaucrat here in Washington, DC. Of course, that 
begged the question: Who is going to make that decision? Will these 
unspecified cuts be out of providers, or will they come from increased 
beneficiaries' cuts? We do not know, but that is the only place this 
can come out of, unless we take more out of the Federal budget.
  The translation is, I tell the seniors in my district, to expect more 
direct hits down the road if this plan passes. My constituents asked 
me, ``It's kind of sketchy to us. Why don't we get some more detail?'' 
I said, ``Okay, that is what I will do.'' I am waiting, because I know 
the Committee on Ways and Means is still meeting, to see what their 
plan will do on these unspecified cuts.
  Mr. Speaker, I know I have exhausted my time, and my colleague, the 
gentleman from Arizona [Mr. Hayworth], has left. But I know that I join 
with a lot of people, the AARP, the American Medical Association, and a 
lot of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who question what 
may be happening to Medicare if we do not do something reasonable 
instead of cutting $270 billion.

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