[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 24 (Tuesday, February 27, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H1296-H1297]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       DEMOCRATS CONTINUE TO IGNORE IMPENDING MEDICARE BANKRUPTCY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Riggs] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. RIGGS. Mr. Speaker, Medicare is in critical condition. For nearly 
a year now, the President and the liberal House Democrats have refused 
to address Medicare's impending bankruptcy. In fact, they have ignored 
the warnings of the Medicare trustees and instead demagogued this 
issue, waging a campaign of fear and misinformation.
  When the Republican-led Congress sent a bill that passed the House 
and the Senate to the President which would have saved Medicare from 
bankruptcy and preserved it for future generations, the President 
vetoed the bill. Yet, 3 weeks ago yesterday, new evidence revealed that 
Medicare is indeed going bankrupt faster than the Clinton 
administration admitted. Three weeks ago yesterday, there was an 
article in the New York Times, not exactly a conservative publication, 
that said the Medicare insurance trust fund lost money in 1995.
  This little article reads: ``Medicare's Hospital Insurance Trust Fund 
lost money for the first time since 1972, 2 years earlier than 
officials in the Clinton administration had predicted.'' That is what 
the New York Times reported, again, 3 weeks ago yesterday. ``We had 
projected that 1997 would be the first fiscal year with a deficit,'' 
said Richard S. Foster, chief actuary of the Federal Health Care 
Financing Administration, which runs Medicare. ``Once the trust fund 
starts losing money, the losses are expected to grow,'' the New York 
Times reported.
  Then the next day the Washington Post reported the following: ``The 
White House confirmed a report yesterday that suggested the Medicare 
hospital trust fund may be hemorrhaging even faster than previously 
expected--ending fiscal 1995 with a balance that was $4.7 billion lower 
than predicted.''
  In April 1995 the Medicare Board of Trustees, including three Clinton 
Cabinet officials and the commissioner, or the Director, of the Social 
Security Administration, warned Congress and the President that 
Medicare would be bankrupt by the year 2002 unless it took steps to 
preserve Medicare from bankruptcy and to reverse the soaring spending 
rate, the exponential spending rate path Medicare was on to bankruptcy.
  The Clinton administration, of course, tried to sweep these findings 
under the rug. When the President spoke to the White House Conference 
on Aging just a month later, in May of 1995, he never mentioned the 
Medicare trustees' report. Instead, the President and the liberal House 
Democrats spent most of last year, and again, the early part of this 
year, blasting Republican plans to save Medicare. But as I mentioned 
earlier, according to the New York times, the Clinton administration 
had data as far back as last October that indicated that the situation 
was far worse than predicted.
  While the administration had estimated a projected surplus in the 
Medicare trust fund of $4.7 billion for 1995, in fact the balance in 
the trust fund fell by $35.7 million; as I mentioned, the first time 
since 1972 that the trust fund has lost money. So clearly we now know 
Medicare is headed for bankruptcy even earlier than 2002, and the 
President and the liberal House Democrats have no plan to save it.
  In fact, they have done virtually nothing to address the problem. For 
10 months the President an the liberal 

[[Page H1297]]
House Democrats have ignored the warnings of the Medicare trustees 
regarding the system's impending bankruptcy, and instead they have 
played politics with Medicare, exploiting and twisting the issue to 
deceive and scare senior citizens, which is particularly, I think, 
despicable, given the fact that so many of our senior citizens are 
frail and elderly and vulnerable, and the President has submitted a 
string of budget plans that all fail to, again, deal with Medicare's 
financial crisis.

  Unlike the President and the liberal House Democrats, Republicans 
listened to the Medicare trustees' warnings, and we passed a plan that 
would have saved Medicare for another generation.

                              {time}  1800

  Our plan increases Medicare spending per beneficiary, per Medicare 
recipient, each year from $4,800 last year to more than $7,100 by the 
year 2002. That is a total Medicare spending increase of 62 percent. So 
we increased Medicare spending, increased Medicare health care choices 
by introducing the concept of managed care, physician service 
organizations and of medical savings accounts, while saving the program 
from bankruptcy.
  Unfortunately, as I mentioned, this is the legislation that the 
President vetoed last November.
  In addition to saving Medicare from bankruptcy, we Republicans are 
taking steps to aid senior citizens despite the President and the 
liberal House Democrats. As part of our Contract With America, we 
repeal the tax increase by the Clinton Democrats on social security 
benefits, a tax increase that takes affect on social security 
beneficiaries earning as little as $3,400 per year. We offer tax relief 
for long-term health care insurance premiums and a $1,000-tax deduction 
for elder care as part of the GOP Balanced Budget Act. Again, these are 
proposals the President vetoed.
  We have passed legislation to increase the social security earnings 
test so that older Americans can continue to work without punitive 
taxation, and we passed a law that the President did sign protecting 
the rights of seniors to live in senior-only housing.
  Clearly, colleagues and Mr. Speaker, saving Medicare is not one of 
the President's priorities; getting reelected is. Rather than 
preventing or joining with us to prevent Medicare's bankruptcy, the 
President and the liberal House Democrats prefer to play politics. They 
seized on this issue to try to win back control of the House of 
Representatives. They are only interested in using this issue, 
exploiting it for naked political gain. This is a transparent grab at 
political power, regaining political power.
  As much as the President would like it, Medicare's problems will not 
wait a minute until after the November election to be solved. We 
Republicans have a plan that will save the system for future 
generations of senior citizens, and the only person standing in the way 
of their health care security, the only persons standing in the way of 
health care security for elder Americans, is, in fact, President 
Clinton and the liberal House Democrats.

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