[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 162 (Thursday, October 19, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H10314]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       SENIORS WILL HAVE CHOICES

  (Mr. HOKE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HOKE. Mr. Speaker, the demagoguery that has developed over this 
issue is truly shameless. Let us get a couple of facts straight first.
  No. 1, one of the things that each and every Medicare beneficiary has 
the right to choose is to stay in the program exactly as it is today, 
precisely as it is today, with no increases in copayments, my friend, 
the gentleman from New York [Mr. Schumer], with no increases in 
deductibles, with the same program, 31\1/2\ percent, no increase in the 
percentage of the part B premium. They will have the right to choose 
that.
  They will also have the right to other choices, the same kind of 
choices that we have in this U.S. Congress, that every Federal employee 
has, and that people in the private sector have got. But if we want to 
see the depths, the shameless depths to which the demagoguery and the 
rhetoric has gone to in this debate, last night I was on the floor and 
the bill was compared by the gentleman from New York to the attack by 
the Japanese on Pearl Harbor. Our bringing forward this bill was 
compared to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. How does the gentleman 
from Florida feel about that?

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