[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 161 (Wednesday, October 18, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H10293-H10294]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               DEMOCRATS' FAIRY TALES REQUIRE A RESPONSE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Linder] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, I really did not come intending to speak on 
this, but I have heard so many fairy tales in the last 20 minutes that 
I thought it was worth responding.
  Mr. Speaker, those poor seniors that came to the Committee on 
Commerce seeking information, only seeking information, made a phone 
call before they came to the police department in Washington DC and 
said, what must we do to get arrested? They did it, and they were 
arrested. They were immediately released. That is a fact, and they were 
sent on their way because they in fact did disrupt a committee hearing.
  We have heard a lot about doctors' hidden enticements in favor of 
fraud. 

[[Page H 10294]]
Indeed, we even saw a previous speaker who had an ad up, or an 
editorial up that headlined, Bribes for Doctors. I happen to be the 
only person in this room tonight that was actually in the room when 
that discussion was held.
  Doctors are given back, over 7 years in prospective revenue to 
doctors, $26.1 billion. The original conversion factor that the House 
provided for them which I believe is $24.60 was changed to the Senate 
conversion factor of $35.42, and that difference is $300 million. The 
House decided to agree with the Senate in terms of the conversion 
factor.
  That is what they call a bribe. That is hardly what the National 
Council of Senior Citizens would argue that they got, those very 
seniors who came seeking information, which was 70-some million 
dollars.
  Ninety percent of their entire operating budget comes from the 
taxpayer to come and lobby the taxpayer. In point of fact, the 
Republican proposal for saving Medicare has no cuts to beneficiaries. 
None. Every single beneficiary can choose to stay in the same system at 
the same service, at their same doctors.
  Mr. Speaker, we do reduce revenues to providers, both hospitals and 
physicians, although we reduce it less than the Clinton proposal and 
the Democrat proposal. We do provide major, major fraud, bribery, 
kickback, false filing, false swearing, major fraud aprovisions, and we 
believe that between the provider reductions, the hospital reductions 
and the fraud provisions, plus those seniors who choose to opt out of 
current Medicare and into a Medisave account, into a high deductible 
and private insurance account with a medical savings account, we think, 
and the Congressional Budget Office believes, that 25 percent will opt 
out.

  The Congressional Budget Office tells us that with those opting out 
and the savings to providers and fraud, we will save $270 billion. We 
are delighted with that. None of that constitutes a reduction of a 
single dime in terms of a provider benefit.
  On part B there are some things that are slightly different. Part B 
is the doctor portion to pay for doctor visits. Currently the law says 
they pay $46 per month. It is a tax, really, off their Social Security 
benefit of $46 a month for part B. That constitutes them paying, our 
seniors paying roughly 31.5 percent of the cost of their part B. We 
propose to keep it there.
  Most of the seniors that I talk to are not proud of the fact that 
their grandchildren are paying 68.5 percent of their benefit, but that 
is something that has been established here over the last year in the 
formula. The Republicans intend to keep it there, at 68.5 percent 
subsidy of seniors part B. We know that costs go up with increasing 
seniors and with inflation, and so the typical senior is going to 
expect to raise their part B contribution, that 31.5 percent that they 
choose to pay is going to raise about $7 a month over 7 years. In fact, 
the Democrat plan goes up nearly as fast, but from a lower base.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time for us to understand that most of America now 
agrees with us that Medicare is going to be bankrupt in 7 years if we 
do not make changes. This year, this year, for the first time, we will 
be giving to you to spend more money on part A than we bring in.
  Now, it is true, it is true that Medicare has been said to be running 
out of money in the past, several times in the past, and sometimes in 
the past running out of money in shorter than 7 years. The Democrats' 
proposal was to raise taxes on our children and grandchildren 23 times 
in 27 years. We propose not to do that.

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