[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 165 (Tuesday, October 24, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H10647]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                THE MEDICARE BILL WILL COST SENIORS MORE

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I have been saying for some time on the 
floor that the Medicare bill which passed the House last week, the 
Republican-sponsored Medicare bill, would cost seniors a lot more. They 
would have to pay more in order to get less quality care.
  I was therefore amazed when I found out that when the bill came up, a 
rule that was adopted in this House in which the Republican leadership 
boasted about requiring a three-fifths vote majority to raise any taxes 
was waived when the Medicare bill came to the floor last week. That was 
a recognition of the fact that this bill had major tax increases, 
doubled premiums for part B for physicians' care, eliminated the 
guarantee that certain low-income seniors have their Medicaid part B 
paid for and also implemented a means test which required seniors to 
pay more.
  There is no question in my mind that what that Medicare bill did was 
charge a lot more to seniors in order to finance this tax cut that is 
coming up this week, a $245 billion tax cut that is going to be going 
mainly to wealthy Americans.

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