[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 158 (Thursday, October 12, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H9903]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    BACK ROOM DEALS FOR THE WEALTHY

  (Mr. BROWN of Ohio asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, 2 days ago the American Medical 
Association cut a back room deal with Speaker Gingrich for them for $15 
billion out of the Medicare fund because the AMA contributes $1 million 
to Republican political campaigns. Yesterday an elderly woman came into 
the Committee on Commerce on which I sit and simply stepped forward, 
said she wanted to talk about Medicare and was told she could not speak 
and then she was arrested, taken out of the room with a dozen other 
senior citizens, handcuffed, fingerprinted at the police station and 
booked.
  Think about it. Lobbyists in the back room cutting a deal with Newt 
Gingrich, senior citizens not even allowed in the committee room simply 
because they want to talk about Medicare, and they are arrested. 
Lobbyists in the back room cutting deals with the Speaker, multi-
billion-dollar deals, senior citizens in the hearing room arrested 
because they wanted to talk about something that mattered every day in 
their lives, all in the name of tax cuts for the wealthy. It is wrong, 
Mr. Speaker.

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