[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 159 (Friday, October 13, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H10053]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             {time}   1030
                            SAVING MEDICARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. LaHood). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Bonior] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, I want to respond to my colleague and friend 
from the other side of the aisle who just spoke. Teresa McKenna in this 
picture was arrested because she wanted to speak about the injustices 
and the inequities and the lack of discussion on the issue that is most 
important to her and the people that she affiliates with in this 
country, the Medicare issue.
  We have had one hearing on a proposal that will affect 40 million 
people, and she and other of her colleagues went to the Committee on 
Commerce to ask to be heard. She asked to be heard. They were told they 
could not be heard. She asked why, and she was told she could not be 
heard. Then they were arrested and taken down to the jail.
  Now, the gentleman who just spoke talked about this was a left-wing 
type of an organization. Does she look like some left-wing radical that 
wants to overthrow this Government? All she wants is a fair shake for 
herself and her seniors.
  Do you know why she wants a fair shake? Because in a report that was 
done very recently by the Department of Labor, we found that 60 percent 
of senior citizens in this country, 60 percent, have combined 
retirement incomes, that is the retirements and their Social Security, 
of $10,000 a year or less. I will repeat that again for you. We have 
got 60 percent of our seniors living on $10,000 a year or less in this 
country.
  What the National Council of Senior Citizens do is they go out and 
help these low-income seniors get low-income jobs so they can have some 
supplement to that $10,000.
  What is going on here is my colleagues on the other side of the aisle 
have a proposal that will take $270 billion out of Medicare in order to 
pay for a tax cut which comes out to about $245 billion, which 
predominantly goes to the wealthiest Americans. Fifty percent of that 
tax cut goes to people who make over $100,000 a year. That is what this 
fight is about. It is about the Teresa McKenna's and the people 
struggling to make ends meet, and who will have $1,000 added to their 
bills each year. They are living on $10,000 and $13,000, and we are 
giving tax cuts to the wealthiest corporations and wealthiest 
individuals in our country.
  That is why we are so upset and mad. Do we need to fix Medicare and 
improve it as we go along? Of course we do. We have been doing that for 
30 years. But how do you fix it when the Speaker of the House, as this 
headline in the Washington Times indicates today, says ``Gingrich 
places low priority on Medicare crooks. Defends cutting antifraud 
defenses.'' How do you fix it when you have that type of an attitude 
running this institution?
  Now, let me just say with respect to this issue, not one dime, not 
one dime of their plan goes back into the Medicare trust fund. Not one 
dime. The last speaker indicated that the Medicare trustees, the three 
that he mentioned, Secretaries Rubin, Shalala and Reich, indicated that 
the trust fund was broke. But they also said it was not broke. They 
said basically all you need is $90 billion. You don't need $270 billion 
to fix it.
  The other thing I wanted to talk about very briefly is what is 
happening to Medicaid. We are cutting $182 billion out of Medicaid. 
What they are doing by cutting this money is they are putting in 
jeopardy literally hundreds of thousands of seniors from getting 
nursing home care that they so desperately need and impoverishing 
spouses in this country by changing the rules and regulations. A $182 
billion cut in Medicaid, 60 percent of which, or close to that number, 
goes to long-term care for our seniors in nursing homes.
  Medicaid is not just a program for the poor, it is for seniors. Two 
out of every five children in this country get health care from 
Medicaid, and they are cutting it by $182 billion. That will mean 
15,000 residents in my State of Michigan will not have nursing home 
care next year if this cut goes through; 175,000 will not have it over 
a 7-year period. These are draconian cuts.
  The New York Times had a headline saying the Republican Gingrich 
revolution is rolling back the regulations we put on nursing homes. 
Remember the time when people were being drugged and straitjacketed to 
their beds? We had serious home abuses. We changed that with humane 
regulations. Those are all being rolled back now. This proposal that 
they have to cut Medicaid also repeals the minimum quality standard for 
nursing homes and other quality care.
  So, in conclusion, Mr. Speaker, let me just say that I hope America 
is paying attention to these two important issues we will be debating 
in the next week or so.

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