[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 161 (Wednesday, October 18, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H10292-H10293]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          REPUBLICAN PLAN BRINGS HEALTH CARE INTO THE NINETIES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Kingston] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, you know we all elected 435 Members of 
this body on certain campaign promises and representations, and, you 
know, some of it is campaign rhetoric and some of it is not, some of it 
is righteous indignation, and some of it is accurate, some of it is 
not. But when you get elected, we know you do have to do the hard job 
of governing, and some of the job is very, very difficult, some of the 
decisions that you have to make.
  Now one of the things that we as the new majority were faced with 
this year was the bankruptcy of Medicare, and that is from the chart 
right here where the trustees, the Medicare trust fund, said that the 
plan is going to go bankrupt in 7 years. We got to deal with that. We 
cannot hide our heads in the sand.
  Now just think what would happen in a good bipartisan effort if the 
best ideas of the Democrat Party, the best ideas of the Republican 
Party, came together and said, By golly, this is--these are our moms 
and dads. We got to come together and save this.
  You know it is very difficult to get some things established in this 
town, or some things passed, when you have a whole group of special 
interest organizations out on both sides of the aisle convincing 
constituencies that the sky is falling. If the Republican plan goes 
through, or if the Democrat plan goes through, send me your $25 check 
to prevent this horrible thing from happening, and yet, you know, I 
would think inside this body of the 435 of us would maybe be above that 
kind of foolishness, that we would say, you know, maybe there is 
something to be said for what the Democrats are saying, and maybe there 
is something to be said for what the Republicans are saying, and just 
maybe we can get our ideas together and do the best for both instead of 
all this that, oh, you are going to cut, you are going to throw senior 
citizens out on the street, you are going to do this, you are going to 
do that.
  You know, I heard a speaker earlier tonight say we voted against the 
Clinton plan and we should not have voted for it. It added countless 
new bureaucracies and agencies in the health care system that clearly 
had rationing, and there were not choices of physicians. You know here 
is a plan that allows choice of physicians.
  Now you know the Washington Post, which as my Democrat colleagues 
would say certainly is not exactly the Republican, you know, GOPAC 
brochure; you know what do they say about the Republican plan? They are 
saying that they are being responsible, this is credible, it is 
innovative, it addresses a genuine problem. That is what the Republican 
plan says.
  Now you know on you folks it says what the Democrats do and it is 
scare tactics, demagogery, and it is wrong.

[[Page H 10293]]

  Now I do not believe that every member of the Democrat Party is wrong 
and doing scare tactics, but I would say there is a good number of you 
doing that, and it is kind of--I will be glad to yield to my friend 
from Miami who is above this and I hope would not be described by the 
Washington Post.
  Mr. DEUTSCH. Actually could I have the last poster, please? The 
previous one you cite the----
  Mr. KINGSTON. Reclaiming my time back, I am on this poster now, and, 
when we get to your plan, I will give you that poster----
  Mr. DEUTSCH. Does the gentleman yield for 1 second?
  Mr. KINGSTON. One second.
  Mr. DEUTSCH. You know you have a quote from the trustee report up on 
the last poster, and would the gentleman agree with the trustee report 
which does not call for $270 billion in cuts?
  Mr. KINGSTON. Now let me reclaim my time. As the learned gentleman 
from Miami knows, that they did not stipulate it. Now you guys came up 
with this $89 million kind of a late hit. I am sure----
  Mr. DEUTSCH. Eighty-nine billion.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Eighty-nine billion. I am sure they would hold it up 
and say what are we going to do? You know we got to get off the book 
deal on Gingrich, come up with a plan this year. Well, you know, here 
is a program for us. We are going to go ahead and jump on Medicare.
  You know, to my friend, the distinguished lawyer, I want you on the 
team. You have a lot to offer, and I am sure that with all the 
intelligent men and women on your side of the aisle and on our side of 
the aisle we could do what is right for mom and dad. We can give them 
that choice of physician. We can give them the plan that is going to be 
there tomorrow. We can let them have the same choices we have when we 
go into our insurance situation, and we would not have to tell them, 
you stay with that 1964 Blue Cross plan that we designed for you 
because you are not driving that 1964 Chevrolet Biscayne any more. We 
want to bring you into the nineties on health care.
  That is what we are trying to do, and I think itself so irresponsible 
for us, and it is really just tacky, and it is not what we are sent 
here to do, is to say, oh, look what's happening. This is a tax cut for 
the wealthy and so forth. So I will be glad to yield to my friend when 
I get some time later on.

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