[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 169 (Monday, October 30, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2068-E2069]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         THE 7 YEAR BALANCED BUDGET RECONCILIATION ACT OF 1995

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                               speech of

                           HON. CHAKA FATTAH

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 26, 1995

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 2491) to 
     provide for reconciliation pursuant to section 105 of the 
     concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 1996:

  Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I oppose this heinous attempt by the 
Republican majority to balance the budget at the expense of the 
Nation's elderly. This hysteria surrounding the mandate to balance the 
budget in 7 years is nothing short of a hoax being perpetrated on the 
American people to conceal the true Republican agenda. If the 
Republicans were so interested in balancing the Federal budget, would 
they be proposing a royalty holiday for major oil producers, many of 
whom are not even American companies? If the Republicans were truly 
interested in balancing the Federal budget, would they be proposing the 
elimination of the guaranteed minimum tax on corporations? Does it make 
sense to propose a $242 billion tax cut if your objective is to balance 
the budget? How many of the American people know that the debate over 
balancing the budget is being conducted in an environment where half 
the budget isn't even on the table?
  The result, Mr. Chairman, is that we have a program to revise 
Medicare which, like the entire Republican program, is regressive in 
the extreme. It gives special breaks to doctors; it increases premiums 
for people who can least afford it; it distorts medical financing 
systems, particularly of hospitals that serve the poor; it sets up 
dynamics that could lead to the concentration of the poorest and least 
healthy people in the most inadequate coverage. The Republicans have 
maintained that the premiums of the poorest elderly will continue to be 
paid, but this is just another deception. The very program which is 
responsible for paying these premiums is being eliminated under the 
Republican Medicaid reform package.

[[Page E 2069]]

  Nothing could make the true Republican intent more clear than an 
analysis of their approach to Medicare reform. If they had been 
concerned about protecting the health options of the elderly, they 
would have pursued comprehensive health care reform. The Republican 
agenda has nothing to do with protecting Medicare, or with balancing 
the budget. It has to do with making good on campaign promises to 
corporations. It has to do with eliminating, on every conceivable 
front, our social obligation to invest in our people. It has to do with 
vitiating the very meaning of this democracy. It has to do with tearing 
at the fabric of our social institutions so that those at the bottom of 
heap, who can least fend for themselves--our children, our elderly, our 
poor--have no chance of improving the quality of their lives. It is 
about redistributing the resources of our country to those that already 
have plenty so that they can get more.
  H.R. 2425 is a bad bill. It does not address the broader issue of 
health care reform; it places unnecessary burdens on the elderly and 
the poor; it devastates medical training facilities, and is mainly a 
financial vehicle to balance the budget while reducing taxes for the 
affluent. We can do better for the elderly, we can do better for our 
future as a democratic society. I urge my colleagues to consider who we 
are to be become as a people before they vote on this measure, because 
it is that question that this bill puts to the test.

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