[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 190 (Thursday, November 30, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S17845-S17846]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               THE BUDGET

  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, as the Democrat and Republican 
negotiators sit down and try to work out a final budget, I want to urge 
the negotiators to begin their discussions by agreeing on a fundamental 
principle. The principle is critical to Democrats like me and to the 
overwhelming majority of Americans. The principle is this: Congress 
should not cut Medicare to pay for tax breaks for the wealthy.
  Mr. President, the current Republican budget, which has yet to be 
sent to President Clinton, violates this basic principle because the 
heart of the Republican plan cuts Medicare by $270 billion, and it is 
going to be used to pay for $245 billion in tax breaks. The President 
has made it quite clear that these Medicare cuts for tax breaks are a 
quid pro quo and totally unacceptable. It is a basic matter of 
principle.
  I also want to remind my colleagues about some of the other 
objectionable provisions in the Republican reconciliation bill. The 
budget proposed by the Republicans also cuts Medicaid by $163 billion. 
This will mean huge cuts in nursing home care for seniors and care for 
the disabled.
  The bill includes a $23 billion cut in the earned income tax credit, 
and this means that 17 million working families, who make less than 
$30,000 a year, will have to pay more in taxes. They will get a tax 
increase because the earned income tax credit, which helped them 
sustain themselves, will no longer be available. At the same time, the 
top 1 percent, who make over $350,000 a year, will get an $8,400 tax 
break. It is unnecessary and, frankly, it is unconscionable.

  The bill also tears apart the safety net for poor children. Under the 
Republican so-called welfare reform provisions, between 1.2 and 2.1 
million children will be thrust into poverty, potentially going hungry.
  Mr. President, the basic thrust of this legislation is to balance the 
budget on the backs of working families and senior citizens, while 
handing out billions in tax breaks for the rich and powerful. It is an 
extreme approach. I know that Speaker Gingrich and his followers 
believe in it strongly, but, in my view, it is fundamentally wrong.
  Mr. President, when you get right down to it, the Republican budget 
forces all of us to answer a simple question, one that I have discussed 
many times here. It is very directly saying: ``Whose side are you on?'' 
That is the question being asked. Are you on the side of the rich and 
the powerful and the special interests? Or are you on the side of those 
who go to work every day worrying about how they will pay their bills, 
get their kids to college, sustain a lifestyle they have worked so hard 
to get, and worry about what happens in their later years? Or are you 
on the side of those who do not need help, but who have influence down 
here, who get to talk to a lot of people in Government, those who make 
the decisions?
  That is the fundamental question that we are discussing as we 
consider the budget. The Republican reconciliation bill is pay dirt for 
the rich and the special interests, while senior citizens and working 
class families get stuck footing higher bills. This is an outrage.

  We Democrats are going to continue to resist it as a basic matter of 
principle. We saw what happened with the continuing resolution when the 
public caught on to this scheme.
  Under the spotlight, our friends on the Republican side blinked. They 
retreated. They ran away. They wanted to escape the public wrath and 
quickly abandoned their deep principles for political cover. They 
quickly backed off their large increases in Medicare part B premiums.
  Mr. President, the Republican budget makes the biggest cuts in the 
history of Medicare. I have heard the case made, ``No, we are not 
making cuts. What we are doing is increasing the pot.'' Yes, but there 
are a lot more people who are aging and who will be part of the 
Medicare population, and on a per capita basis they get hit very, very 
hard.
  Republicans build their case around a false premise. They argue that 
in order to save Medicare they want to destroy its fundamental mission. 
That is not true. They ought to be frank with the American people about 
two major Republican misstatements.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Does the Senator from New Jersey wish to 
request additional time?
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be 
permitted to speak for an additional 5 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. The first misstatement that our Republican friends 
make is we need $270 billion to save Medicare. That is simply untrue.
  The Republicans are using this $270 billion, as I said before, to 
finance their $245 billion in tax breaks for the rich folk. It is no 
coincidence that Medicare cuts are $270 billion and the tax breaks for 
the wealthy total $245 billion.
  These figures are remarkably similar because one is being used to 
finance the other. They are taking from our senior citizens who paid 
the bills, signed the contract, worked hard and weathered the storm, 
and they are giving it back to the wealthy and the special interests.
  The second Republican falsehood is that we need to cut $270 billion 
to make Medicare solvent. Not true. The chief Health and Human Services 
Medicare actuary has said that we only need $89 billion in savings to 
make Medicare solvent until the end of the year 2006.
  Let me give some examples of what kind of tax breaks these Medicare 
cuts are paying for: Under this bill, approximately 2,000 large 
corporations will get a tax break of $2 million apiece because of 
changes in the alternative minimum tax calculations; the bill also 
gives an $800,000 tax break to people with estates over $2.5 million to 
be able to pass on to their heirs an additional $800,000 tax break. It 
is not fair. It is not right.

  Additionally, this bill contains hundreds of millions of dollars in 
giveaways to the oil companies. 

[[Page S17846]]

  Finally, the capital gains tax cut included in this bill is a tax 
break for the superrich. Anyone can claim this tax break. We saw that 
in a vote here. Even those who make more than $1 million a year can get 
this tax break.
  Mr. President, I tried to draw a line in the tax sand, to use the 
expression, and put the money back into Medicare and Medicaid. I 
offered an amendment when we discussed our reconciliation bill that 
would have precluded the tax breaks from going to those who make over 
$1 million in a single year. That is one-tenth of 1 percent of all our 
taxpayers. This small group, I felt, did not need a tax break--making 
$1 million a year, that is a lot of money.
  I thought this amendment could pass substantially. Maybe even 
unanimously. I thought that people here would finally say, ``No, we 
think that is fair, that people who make over $1 million a year ought 
not to get an additional tax break.'' I thought we could all agree that 
millionaires, billionaires, do not need a break when we are cutting 
Medicare, especially when 75 percent of all the Medicare recipients 
earn under $25,000 each year.
  However, 52 of 53 of the Republican Senators voted against my 
amendment. In essence, they said their preference is cut Medicare, cut 
Medicaid, and we will keep on giving tax breaks to those millionaires 
and the billionaires--show them what good guys we are.
  Mr. President, Medicare is not just a health insurance program. 
Medicare is a contract. It is a commitment we made to our citizens. It 
is a promise for those who worked hard for their entire lives that your 
health care needs will be taken care of when you retire. They paid for 
it.
  This Republican budget uses the Medicare Program as a slush fund for 
the tax breaks for the wealthy.
  Mr. President, I hope that the Republican leadership will give up 
their plan to cut Medicare to pay for tax breaks for the rich, give up 
deep cuts in Medicaid, give up tax increases on working families, give 
up the destruction of the safety net that will put millions of children 
into poverty, give up the huge cuts in education and the environment. 
It is time to start over.
  If the Republicans are serious about moving towards the balanced 
budget, they will give up on these draconian cuts, those cuts that hurt 
so much. They will honor a basic principle that declares whose side 
Government is on, that no Medicare cuts will be used to pay for tax 
breaks for the rich, that they will confirm that the Government is here 
to help give assistance to those who need help the most. Those who are 
wealthy do not need special assistance from the Government.
  It is time to start over, Mr. President, and put together a budget 
that protects Medicare and Medicaid and working families, poor 
children, provide education to help get the population to lead our 
country into the next century, to provide the kind of leadership that 
can make us more competitive, to continue the kind of position that the 
United States of America has had for so many years, and to provide our 
future generations with a decent and clean environment.
  I hope that will get consideration, Mr. President. I yield the floor.

                          ____________________