[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 180 (Tuesday, November 14, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H12326-H12327]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          BALANCING THE BUDGET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Fox] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FOX of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to 
address the House this evening on some important issues, not least of 
which would be the balanced budget. The balanced budget will be the 
most important bill that we hope the President will eventually sign.
  You heard on the House floor tonight about certain claimants that 
could not get their Social Security benefits. Frankly all recipients of 
Social Security will get their benefits, but those that may have 
applied today will not do so because the President did not sign the 
balanced budget last night. He vetoed it.

[[Page H 12327]]

  Others, they say, could not get their veterans benefits applied for 
today. Frankly those veterans will get their benefits, but it has been 
delayed because the President did not sign the balanced budget.
  The President says he favors a balanced budget, Mr. Speaker, but yet, 
when given the opportunity by having a bill from the House and the 
Senate, he failed to sign that bill which he says he really wanted 
originally. The crisis has not been caused by the Congress, the House 
or the Senate. It has been caused by the President's reluctance to sign 
the balanced budget.

  And you say, ``What's important about a balanced budget?'' A balanced 
budget will help us decrease mortgages for families, decrease car 
payments, decrease the cost of a college education, decrease the cost 
of health care. The Federal Government has a role to provide services, 
but I submit to you, Mr. Speaker, it is not to continue the waste, 
fraud, and abuse that we have seen in the Government, but rather to 
make sure that the Federal Government takes care of those services that 
cannot be handled by State government or cannot be handled by private 
sector.
  The big problem you hear about is Medicare, yes, but we are going to 
save Medicare. The fact of the matter is the trustees, the President's 
own trustees, have said recently, just back in this last spring, that 
Medicare as we know it will go bankrupt if we do nothing, and yet you 
might say, ``Well, how did we get to that point?''
  Well, health care goes up 4 percent a year, but Medicare is going up 
10 percent a year, and the reason is fraud, abuse, and waste, $30 
billion a year in fraud, abuse, and waste.
  Our solution: a Medicare Preservation Act that will create for the 
first time health care fraud in this country for those who abuse or 
commit fraud and abuse with Medicaid and Medicare. If you commit such 
an offense, 10 years jail, and you no longer can be a provider in that 
area.
  We are also looking to reduce paperwork costs. Currently Medicare has 
12-percent costs just in paperwork. That should be reduced to 2 or 3 
percent at most because we want to see those services go to seniors. We 
also created a Medicare lockbox. Any savings in fraud and abuse will in 
fact go back to seniors' health care. We do not want to see, and the 
legislation does not provide for, any increase in copay, no increase in 
deductible. In fact this Congress under Republican leadership has given 
us two very good favorable senior citizen legislations that have 
passed; one, the increased eligibility for seniors who now presently 
make $11,280 a year but frankly want to make more without a deduction 
from Social Security. They will be able to do it now as a result of our 
bill. In addition, seniors who have had to pay the onerous 1989-93 tax 
increase on Social Security, that has been rolled back, so frankly it 
is the Republican-led Congress that is trying to find the ways to cut 
out the fraud, and abuse, and waste in Medicare, but make sure the 
health care that seniors deserve on the Medicare is preserved, and we 
can do that, and it is well helped by making a balanced budget, and we 
are hoping that the next time the President receives a bill from the 
House and Senate that has such wide support, that it in fact will get 
the President's signature because he knows, as we know, and the 
American people knew, when we can balance our budget and make sure we 
stop the waste of the bureaucracy in Washington, we will give the 
Government services people need and we will make sure that the people 
get their money's worth, just like they do from their State government, 
just like they do with the local government.

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