[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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