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




                MEDISCARE TACTICS AND OTHER FALL FICTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from Arizona [Mr. Hayworth] is recognized 
during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HAYWORTH. Mr. Speaker, I always enjoy spending time of course in 
the Sixth District in Arizona, but I also enjoy returning to the well 
of this body to hear some very creative accounts of what has transpired 
here, and I appreciate my predecessor here in the well for offering her 
unique interpretation on events, but, as the Record will reflect, 
because I have done some checking specifically about the statue of the 
suffragettes that came to the floor as a unanimous-consent request, one 
Member, a new addition to this House, the gentlewoman from North 
Carolina, stood in opposition citing the cost of $80,000 to $100,000.
  Now there are those in this body who say, ``Hey, it is no big deal. A 
little bit of money for a symbol; that's fine.'' I personally would 
like to see the statue brought up, but perhaps we ought to find some 
means of funding to remove the statue----
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. HAYWORTH. No, not at this time, I will not yield. The gentlewoman 
has had 5 minutes. I appreciate my amount of time. I will not yield to 
the gentlewoman at this time. I would be happy to debate her at a later 
time.
  So too have we had interesting interpretations, not only from the 
gentlewoman and indeed from almost all the folks over here on this side 
of the aisle, as to what is transpiring in terms of health care for all 
Americans, but especially health care for senior citizens. I listened 
with great interest as my friends on the other side continue to play 
the game of ``MediScare.''
  As my colleagues know, we thought the big fiction time for reading, 
Mr. Speaker, was in the summer with those great big, thick paperback 
books. No, no. It is right now here in the fall with the blatant 
charges that are coming from the other side that are just filled with 
disinformation.
  With reference to the so-called spousal impoverishment statute, I 
would hope that Members on the other side would stand with us to rail 
against the greater source of spousal impoverishment and family 
impoverishment, and that is a confiscatory tax policy that penalizes 
for Americans for succeeding not only in this life, but from the grave. 
The same folks who voted to tax us retroactively maintain an estate tax 
that is absolutely confiscatory and punishes the very people we should 
be helping. Indeed our entire policy is this: ``If you succeed in this 
Nation, somehow you are to be punished.'' It is not fair.
  Why it is not fair that one works hard and succeeds. They ought to 
take that money and surrender it to the State.
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. HAYWORTH. I will not yield at this juncture. I will continue my 
remarks, and the gentlewoman has had her time earlier.
  My colleagues heard it completely in the fiction that we will hear no 
doubt again from the other side today. It has been the greatest line. 
It is cited as a catechism even among the pollsters of the liberal news 
media who seek somehow to solidify something that is absolutely false. 
The other side will march to the well of this House and say that the 
new majority is trying to change Medicare to pay for a tax cut. That is 
just blatantly and totally false. The fact is the new majority worked 
very hard on a budget plan to bring this budget into balance within 7 
years that paid for all of the tax reductions along the way.
  My colleagues, here is the big secret that somehow is not getting 
out. Indeed, Mr. Speaker, I would challenge the major news media 
outlets of this Nation to use this part of my remarks because it is the 
absolute truth, and it is what people are missing in this whole debate. 
If our budget were balanced today, right now, we would still have a 
problem with the Medicare trust fund. Members of both parties, three 
members of the President's own Cabinet, tell us that Medicare is going 
broke. We have to fix it, and something else that follows the school 
lunch fiction and all the other scare tactics. The fact is we are not 
cutting Medicare. We are reducing the rate of growth. The average 
expenditure per beneficiary rises almost 40 percent over the next 6 
years, from $4,800 this year to $6,700 in the year 2002. So, it is not 
a cut, and to hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth, and creative 
accounting from the other side almost defies imagination.
  I say to my colleagues, apply it in everyday terms to your own life. 
Your son or daughter comes to you asking for an allowance. I use an 
example from my own. My oldest daughter, going from junior high to high 
school, wanted an allowance increase from $5 a week. I felt in a sense 
of parental largesse we double it to $10 a week. Now because I did not 
give her $15, Mr. Speaker, she wasn't yelling that it was a cut of $5. 
She got a real increase.
  So, my colleagues and Mr. Speaker, listen closely to the charges. 
They are without foundation. It is the MediScare tactics of the past. 
Read the real record. Check the real numbers.

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