[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 170 (Tuesday, October 31, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H11584-H11585]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Fox of Pennsylvania). The Chair will 
remind Members to address themselves through the Chair by the stated 
designation and not by the first name.
  Mr. KINGSTON. I am amazed that the Speaker is still awake at this 
hour. I guess I did something wrong. I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. HOKE. I am nonplussed.
  I think we were talking about the significance of this change. In 
fact the numbers that the gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. Graham] is 
talking about, are very important because we are talking about over 
110, more like 115. It is a big voting block. It is actually about 50 
percent of the majority conference right now, the Republican 
Conference.
  Mr. CHRYSLER. If I could, from the gentleman from Ohio, the number is 
actually 54 percent of the Republican majority are freshmen and 
sophomores, so we are of the majority. That really makes a difference, 
everybody certainly.
  Mr. HOKE. I think what the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Kingston] said 
is absolutely true. I would not want the Speaker to think that we are 
not aware of this. That is that the American people spoke very, very 
clearly with respect to the kind of representation that they want. That 
is what this is all about.
  Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would continue to yield, I 
would like to talk about what reconciliation means, what the 
appropriation bills mean because you hear these words a lot.
  What we need to do is be honest with people at home? If 80 percent of 
the public wants a balanced budget, there is one way to go about it. 
About two-thirds of the Federal budget is in entitlement spending. 
Welfare programs are entitlement programs. Medicare are entitlement 
programs, which means that the money gets burped out every year.
  There is not a whole lot of debate about what goes on. It 
automatically gets funded. If you did away with all discretionary 
spending, you would not be close to balancing the budget. So when you 
talk about reconciliation, you are talking about controlling the 
entitlements that are two-thirds of the budget.
  So maybe we could talk a minute about why we have gone to Medicare, 
why we have gone to welfare to make these programs more efficient, 
serve people better and save money because, if you want the Federal 
budget balanced, you have got to take a 1965 Medicare program, bring it 
up to 1995 standards. It has grown 11 percent. The private sector is at 
3 and 4. You can actually serve people well without spending the amount 
of money we are spending up here, and you can balance the budget. If 
there is anybody out there who is not getting a student loan, call my 
office because it has got nothing to do with the $10 billion we saved.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, let us quickly go over Medicare. I think 
that the hour is getting late and the time has about run out. Maybe 
starting with Mr. Chrysler, trustees, April 3, 1995, three of them are 
Clinton appointees, they say Medicare is going bankrupt in 7 years. 
What do you do?
  Mr. CHRYSLER. In fact, it is going to start spending a billion more 
than it takes in, started really October 1, that just passed, this 
year. And so that is why we had to take immediate and decisive and 
effective action over that item.
  Of course by 2002, it is totally bankrupt. You cannot take money from 
the general fund to fix it. You have to take money out of the trustees 
fund. That is the reason it was so terribly important. We need to act 
to preserve and protect and save the Medicare system, and that is 
exactly the action that was taken. We have done our homework on this 
much.
  It is so important because I know, when I have talked to senior 
citizens and I have said, here is the system you have now, which is 
about a 1964 Blue Cross plan that has been codified into law, and this 
is what you will have under the better Medicare System. I call it the 
better Medicare System because, if you are not for the better Medicare 
System, then you must be for the worse Medicare System. But it is the 
better Medicare System. And when you show that to senior citizens and 
lay it out in front of them, 85 to 90 percent of them say, absolutely, 
let me at it. It is great. We only need to move about 14 percent in 
order to meet the CBO projections.

  Mr. KINGSTON. There are some of those options that your parents and 

[[Page H11585]]

mine will be able to get under MedicarePlus.
  Mr. HAYWORTH. Mr. Speaker, I think my friend from Michigan makes a 
very valid point here. The point we should make is that those 14 
percent will not be compelled by some capricious action or the big hand 
of government upon their shoulder to be forced into any program. Quite 
the contrary, what makes this such a unique program is summed up in its 
name MedicarePlus. It provides choice.
  The gentleman from Georgia alluded just moments ago, health 
maintenance organization. But really undergirding it all is this notion 
that I think is very important and we cannot mention it enough. If you 
like traditional Medicare, if you want to keep the System you have now, 
you can absolutely keep the current System. But if you would like to 
try a health maintenance organization and indeed with some of the 
current insurance, medigap insurance in Arizona, some seniors are 
absolutely enjoying and enthralled with some limited HMO coverage. If 
they have that opportunity, they get that. Also the notion of a 
medisave account so that seniors can have control of their health care 
dollar.

                              {time}  2100

  Just a couple of options, and time would not permit me to go much 
longer, being a veteran of television.
  Mr. KINGSTON. If the gentleman would yield, then we will go through 
for a wrap-up, but we are running out of time.
  Mr. GRAHAM, why do you not say something on Medisave accounts?
  Mr. GRAHAM. I am glad you mentioned that. My aunt and uncle worked in 
the textile industry all their life. social Security is their chief 
source of income. They have a paper route where they make about $500 a 
month in addition to that. Medicare is their chief medical service. If 
they had the medical savings account option available to them, they 
would have saved over $6,000 in the last 3 years because of this. They 
pay $46 and a dime out of their check to go to part B premiums. That is 
what senior citizens pay for part B, the doctor portion of Medicare. 
They pay $120-something a month; excuse me, $220 a month, total for 
Medicare supplement policy. They have never in the last 3 years spent 
over $500 for doctor or hospital bills. They have been lucky, they have 
been healthy. Under the savings account plan they would not have paid 
the $46.10, they would not have to have the supplement policy. The 
Federal Government would have provided a sum of money around $5,000. 
They would have bought a $10,000 deductible catastrophic illness 
policy. There would have been some money left over in the account for 
their routine medical needs. That $220 a month they would not have to 
spend. In their case they would save $6,600 over the last 3 years if 
they had had that option.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Gentlemen, any final words on Medicare or 
reconciliation?
  Mr. HOKE. I guess the only thing that I would say, and I appreciate 
the question, is just that, as my colleagues know, one of the things 
that responsible legislators have to do is they have to look at the 
reality, they have to deal with reality, and then they have to deal 
with the reality in a way that will preserve a program that we believe 
in, and we clearly believe in the Medicare Program, and we will 
preserve it not only for today and this generation, but the next 
generation as well. That is exactly what we have done. it has been used 
politically against us because the opposition made the decision early 
on that this was some sort of an Achilles' heel.
  I personally believe that we have been effective at letting the 
people know that this is a program that was going bankrupt, not 
according to us, but according to the President's own trustees, that 
the only responsible thing was to preserve it, to protect it and save 
it, and frankly, finally at the end of the day, to improve it for 
America's seniors. That is what we have stepped up to the plate to do. 
I do not know if we have done it perfectly, I am not saying we have 
done it perfectly, but we have done it responsibly, we have done it 
thoroughly, and in fact we have also taken the political risk of doing 
it at this time because you know what? If we did not do it, if we did 
not take that political risk, we would not be doing what the American 
people expect of us.
  Mr. Speaker, I could not be more proud of what we have done with 
Medicare and, frankly, of the way that we have done that as a model for 
everything that we have been doing in this Congress in terms of being 
thoughtful, and responsible and reasonable in going about reshaping the 
Federal budget.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Does the gentleman from Michigan have any closing 
comments?
  Mr. CHRYSLER. Just again, from a real-world perspective, certainly I 
have in my company, I have medical saving accounts. Seventy-seven 
percent of my employees got back over a thousand dollars after the 
first year of operation, and it gives them total control over their 
health care dollars, and it brings that consumer back into the loop, 
which is what has been missing in health care in this country as 
doctors, and hospitals, insurance companies have taken over the health 
care field and where you and I, the consumer, do not even get a say, 
and this medical savings account program is one of the major 
breakthroughs that this Congress has passed, and I am just proud to be 
here with all of my freshman friends tonight to talk to the American 
people about that.
  Mr. KINGSTON. The gentleman from Arizona?
  Mr. HAYWORTH. Understand that we are profoundly changing the way this 
Government operates, not to hurt anyone, but to empower the American 
citizenry to help confront the next century. That is what we are doing 
through reconciliation. That is what we are doing in our 7-year goal to 
balance the budget. That is what we are doing by reducing the rate of 
growth, finding real savings, but not radical cuts. It is not what is 
radical, it is what is rational and reasonable, and it is what the new 
majority is doing.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Graham.
  Mr. GRAHAM. I have options as a Congressman to choose from several 
health care plans. Senior citizens deserve the same thing. My aunt and 
uncle would have saved over $6,000 in a 3-year period if they had an 
option of creating this plan. You can spend less money from Washington, 
DC and still provide a quality of life better than it exists today if 
you use good business sense, and that is what has been missing, and we 
are going to use good business sense.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. 
Hoke], the gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. Graham], the gentleman 
from Arizona [Mr. Hayworth], and the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. 
Chrysler], this concludes our special order. The bottom line is in 
reconciliation: What is in it for the American people? Welfare reform, 
saving, and protecting, and preserving Medicare, Medicaid grants, a 
middle-class tax cut, medical savings account, but, above all, tackling 
the balanced budget and going after a budget that will even out after 7 
years.

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