[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 200 (Friday, December 15, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H14934]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 REPUBLICANS TAKING GOVERNMENT HOSTAGE

  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, we are here for a hostage-
taking. The Republican Party wants to make very substantial reductions 
in what the law now provides for people who get sick, who are in 
economic distress. They brag on the one hand about how much they are 
going to reduce the rate of spending in Medicare that would otherwise 
occur and then bitterly denounce anyone who says they are cutting. My 
colleagues cannot take credit for substantially reducing Government 
expenditures and plausibly deny that they are cutting. They want to 
wipe out the legal guarantee that says, ``If you are sick and elderly 
and in a nursing home you, will be taken care of medically.'' Why do 
they want to do this? To balance the budget? No. To increase military 
spending by a substantial amount.
  We are going to have a defense bill on the floor today which votes 
billions of dollars more than even the Pentagon thinks necessary. They 
want to do it so they can make substantial reductions in taxes 
especially for wealthy people. People who make $200,000 and $300,000 a 
year will get a tax cut, and, on the other hand, people of 70 and 80 
years old will see their Medicare premiums go up. Now they cannot win 
this on their own, so they will take the Government hostage to try to 
force us to go along, and it will not work.

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