[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 160 (Tuesday, October 17, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S15185]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                MEDICARE

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I have listened this morning to a 
discussion about Medicare, and I want to make a couple of points about 
it, although that was not why I originally sought to take the floor 
this morning.
  It is interesting to me that people say this is not about politics. 
This is about the sanctity of the Medicare Program, about the solvency 
of the Medicare Program. Nothing to do with tax cuts, tax cuts for the 
affluent, but the Medicare Program and its solvency.
  I cannot resist pointing out when Medicare was initially offered, 97 
percent of the Republicans voted against it. They did not like it. They 
did not want it. We still have some today who think it is a terrible 
program, that it is tantamount to socialism.
  Now, most people, including most Republicans, think the Medicare 
Program is a pretty decent program and has been very helpful to people 
in this country.
  No one should misunderstand what is going on here. No amount of 
discussion on the floor of the Senate should be allowed to persuade 
people this is something other than what it really is.
  I brought a chart to the floor that describes what Kevin Phillips, a 
Republican political analyst, noted author, noted Republican analyst, 
says: ``The revolutionary ideology driving the new Republican Medicare 
proposal is also simple. Cut middle-class programs as much as possible 
and give the money back to private sector business, finance, and high-
income taxpayers.''
  That is not from me. That is a description of what this is about from 
a Republican.
  Let me give another comment from Kevin Phillips--again, a Republican. 
This is not a Democrat, but a Republican speaking. ``Let's be blunt. If 
the Republican Medicare form proposal was a movie, its most appropriate 
title would be `Health Fraud II.' ''
  Do not say that is a Democrat standing up attacking a Republican 
plan. This is a Republican telling us what the Republican plan is all 
about.
  I flew into Minot, ND, on Saturday morning this week. A lady at the 
airport asked if she could speak to me, and we stepped off to the side 
where there was a big crowd. She quietly began to ask me a couple of 
questions.
  She was probably 75 or 80 years old. As she began to speak, her chin 
began to tremble and quiver and she began to get tears in her eyes. She 
said, ``My husband is in a nursing home and he has been there 3 years. 
I am paying for the nursing home care. We had a few quarter sections of 
land. We owned a farm. I have sold most of that farm now to pay for his 
nursing home care. I cannot get Medicaid help for him, and now I am 
worried that I will lose my house and not be able to continue to live 
in my house.''
  By then she was a person with tears in her eyes and expressing the 
anguish that a lot of Americans have about what is going on in this 
country. This is not about statistics or theory; this is about someone 
who lives on a farm for 55 years, does not take, always contributes, 
always helps, always extends and reaches out, and then they reach the 
end of their life and one spouse is in a nursing home and the other is 
worried about losing their home.
  Or an Indian school that I visited not so long ago where children who 
come from dysfunctional families, from backgrounds of alcoholism and 
chemical abuse, are trying to make a go of it and get an education, get 
some therapy, get some help, told me about one little fourth grader 
who, when she came to the Indian boarding school, would show up every 
day down at the school administrative office and ask whether a letter 
had come from home.
  ``Has a letter come from home?'' Every day they said, ``No, no letter 
for you.'' Every day for weeks, the same routine. ``Has a letter come 
from home?'' Actually, her home was not her parents'. It was her aunt 
and uncle, because her parents were elsewhere. She was living with an 
aunt and uncle. Finally, she stopped coming to the office to ask 
whether a letter had come.
  The last week of the school year she got her letter and it was the 
$5--$5 that she was given by her aunt and uncle for the year, $5 
spending money that this poor little girl had counted on because they 
said they would try to send her some help. Every day she went to see 
whether that money had come, but it had not. She finally got $5 at the 
end of the year.
  That is the kind of human condition that exists in this country. 
Policies are wonderful to debate here on the floor of the Senate, but 
we are talking about little fourth graders, little kids whose lives are 
profoundly impacted by public policies. We are talking about senior 
citizens, 75 and 80-year-olds who fear that they will lose their home, 
who fear they will not have health care, who fear they will get sick 
and have no money.
  People say we are not cutting Medicare; it is growing. We will cut 
$270 billion from what is needed to fund Medicare at its current level. 
That is a fact.
  Yes, it will increase, but the fact is we will have more senior 
citizens. That is why it is increasing. And you have health care 
inflation. That is why it is increasing. But the $270 billion necessary 
to provide the same kind of care will not be available.
  They say this is not about anything other than trying to make the 
system work. This is about cutting taxes for the rich. That is what 
Kevin Phillips, a Republican, says it is about. ``Let's be blunt. If 
the Republican Medicare reform proposal was a movie, its most 
appropriate title would be `Health Fraud II.' ''
  We will have more debate on Medicare. Do we need to make some 
adjustments? Yes. Should we take money out of the Medicare Program, a 
program that works and is so important to people, in order to provide a 
tax cut to Donald Trump, Ross Perot, and the folks who have it pretty 
well in this country? I do not think so. That is not what we need to do 
at this point.

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