[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 192 (Tuesday, December 5, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H13931-H13932]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  DRACONIAN IMPACTS OF PROPOSED BUDGET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Pallone] is recognized 
during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, as we know, negotiations continue, or at 
least we hope they are going to continue, over the budget, with this 
Republican budget that has passed the House of Representatives and the 
Senate, which President Clinton wisely says he cannot accept, and so 
negotiations are going on to try to see if the President can come to an 
agreement with the Republican leadership in the Congress.
  I just wanted to spend a little time today putting what I call a 
human face 

[[Page H 13932]]
on some of the numbers. We talk about the budget, and I have said over 
and over again we need to make sure that whatever is resolved with the 
budget, that Medicare is preserved, that Medicaid is preserved, that 
those programs are not cut in order to finance tax breaks for the 
wealthy, and also that we are concerned with environmental priorities 
and education priorities.
  I just wanted to give some information about numbers and how some of 
those priorities transfer into real terms and into the effects on the 
average American, particularly with regard to Medicare and Medicaid.
  The Republican-proposed budget cuts Medicare by $270 billion and 
increases costs on beneficiaries. In effect, these cuts increase direct 
and indirect costs on Medicare beneficiaries, on our senior citizens, 
placing a huge financial burden on seniors and people with 
disabilities.
  If you look at it, the cuts in the Medicare Program alone basically 
are $1,700 per beneficiary, per senior citizen, by the year 2002, and 
premiums for those seniors increase to $89 per month in 2002, an annual 
increase of about $440 per couple.
  If you also look at the amount of money that is going to be available 
to Medicare by reference to the amount of money that would be available 
for someone who is getting health care in the private sector, the $270 
billion Medicare cut would limit spending per Medicare beneficiary to a 
rate that is more than 20 percent below the projected private insurance 
per person growth rate over the next 7 years. So Medicare now will not 
be keeping up with the amount of money that is available for those who 
are paying for their health insurance privately.
  Even more important, right now Medicaid pays for the Medicare 
premiums, coinsurance, and deductibles for people who are below 100 
percent poverty. In other words, a lot of low-income senior citizens 
have their part B premium covered by Medicaid. They do not have to pay 
coinsurance and they do not have to pay deductibles.
  Well, all that is gone under the Republican proposal. So all those 
people now would have to take that money out of their pocket. Of 
course, they cannot afford to do so, because they are in fact low 
income.
  What we are going to see happen under these Republican Medicare cuts 
is essentially quality and access for a lot of senior citizens will 
suffer. When you get to Medicaid, it is even worse, because Medicaid 
right now is an entitlement program for low-income people, whether they 
be seniors, children, pregnant women, the disabled, whatever.
  Under this Republican proposal, there no longer is any guaranteed 
health car for those low-income people under Medicaid. Instead, a block 
grant goes to the States and we estimate that about a 28-percent cut 
will be available. The amount of money that will be available will be 
about 28-percent less under this Republican proposal block granted to 
the States than what is available now under Medicaid.

  What that means is a lot of States simply will not cover people under 
Medicaid. They will make no categorizations of who is covered and who 
is not, and that means a lot of low-income people will not have access 
to health care.
  We also estimate that about 330,000 people could be denied nursing 
home coverage, because right now Medicaid pays for most nursing home 
care and essentially guarantees nursing home coverage for those seniors 
who cannot afford to pay for nursing home care privately. That is all 
gone. There is no guarantee of nursing home care anymore, because, 
again if the States decide they do not want to provide for certain 
categories of people, they simply will not.
  If you look at where the tax breaks are going under the Republican 
proposal at the same time, the tax breaks are mostly going for the 
well-to-do. Nearly half of the benefits under the Republican tax 
package, about 48 percent, go to the top 12 percent of families, those 
of incomes of $100,000 or more. If you are actually making less than 
$30,000 a year, you are probably going to end up paying more in taxes 
because the earned income tax credit that goes to a lot of working low-
income people is cut severely. So a lot of people who are making less 
than $30,000 a year and who are working essentially are going to be 
paying more taxes instead of less.
  Last, I wanted to talk about the impact of this Republican budget on 
the environment. It funds enforcement of public health and 
environmental safeguards 25-percent less than what we have now.
  So, again, the environmental priorities are essentially downgraded, 
and we hope that the President is able to negotiate a better budget 
bill to preserve these priorities.

                          ____________________