[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 53 (Tuesday, April 23, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H3662-H3663]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                MEDICARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Miller] is recognized during 
morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about 
Medicare, but my colleagues on the other side of the aisle keep 
bringing up the issue of the environment. I am glad the previous 
speaker talked about all the environmental Republicans from the fact 
that President Nixon was one that brought forth the Environmental 
Protection Agency. The real core difference we have, we are all for the 
environment. The difference is whether Washington has all the answers 
or we know better in Florida what to do with the Florida environment 
and New York knows better what to do with their environment. I do not 
believe that Washington is the expert on every single subject. We need 
to let the States have the power to make some of those decisions.
  What I rise today to talk about is Medicare. There are two articles 
in today's papers about Medicare; one in the New York Times, the front 
page, and one in the Wall Street Journal.
  The New York Times article talks about how Medicare is in a bigger 
financial problem than we realize. And the Wall Street Journal article 
talks about how the Democrats are making it a campaign issue, which is 
too bad because Medicare is far too important to play politics with and 
to scare seniors.
  The New York Times article says that the Medicare Program is in worse 
than projected financial problems. They talk about the fact that last 
year, for example, in the Medicare Program, the part A Program, was 
projected to have a $4.7 billion surplus. Instead it ran a $35.7 
million deficit. So we started the problem a year ago. In this current 
fiscal year, the first 6 months, during this whole year the projection 
has been that Medicare would have a $4.2 billion surplus. We are losing 
money already this year. We are projected to have a surplus of $45 
million this year. Instead we are going to have a $4.2 billion deficit 
for the first 6 months alone. Medicare is going bankrupt faster than we 
ever thought it was.
  We said it was going to go bankrupt in 7 years. It is probably going 
to go bankrupt now in another 5 years or so, and we are anxious to get 
the trustees' report to see how serious the problem really is.
  The one thing good about the New York Times article is Chris 
Jennings, who is a special assistant to President Clinton, says, 
Republicans and Democrats should work together to address the problem. 
That is exactly what we need to do. This is a bipartisan problem. It is 
too important to demagog and scare seniors. I have an 87-year-old 
mother who is dependent on Medicare. In 11 years I will be on Medicare. 
We all have family and relatives and friends on Medicare. We cannot 
allow the program to go bankrupt and we are not going to. We are going 
to save the system. We all agree to save the system.
  President Clinton, my friends on the other side of the aisle, 
everybody wants to keep the system alive, keep it going. We have to do 
that. It is too important. But we should not scare seniors. Being from 
Florida, we know what happens when you scare seniors, Gov. Lawton 
Chiles used that in his campaign back in 1994, and there were hearings 
in the State legislature how they had a mediscare campaign in Florida. 
That is wrong and we should stop doing it here.
  It was brought out in the Wall Street Journal article today. Let me 
read a couple comments from that.

       Democrats and their allies are mounting an aggressive drive 
     to paint Republicans as Medicare's undertakers, ignoring the 
     Democrats own overhaul proposals and charging instead in a 
     national advertising campaign that the GOP wants to savage 
     the program.
  Come on. Let us get serious about this. Medicare is too important. We 
agree; they agree. We have to save the program. Stop using rhetoric 
like that. These are ads run by, whether it is the Democratic Party or 
the AFL-CIO spending their $35 million to beat up on Medicare, they say 
it is wrong to start cutting Medicare.
  Minority Leader Gephardt has a quote in here, the extremist 
Republican Medicare cuts would destroy and devastate the program.
  Again, let us get serious. That is not right. That is scaring 
seniors. I have more seniors in my district than anyone else. We have 
to take care of Medicare and we will.
  Robert Reischauer is quoted in here, former head of the Congressional 
Budget Office, appointed by Democrats, saying, if you keep it in proper 
perspective, we are within striking distance of each other. We are 
going to spend $1.6 trillion over the next 7 years on Medicare. The 
difference between the Republican proposal and the Democratic proposal 
is $44 billion. We are not talking about big differences.
  We have learned a great deal over the past year about what is wrong 
with it. It is full of waste and fraud and abuse. If we cannot find $44 
billion over 7 years, more waste, fraud, and abuse, then we are not 
doing a very good job.
  That is what we have to focus on, the waste, fraud, and abuse. The 
Republicans are allowing Medicare to be the fastest growing part of our 
budget. If you look at it on a per person basis, we are going from 
$4,800 per person on Medicare to $7,100 per person on Medicare over the 
7 years, more money every year to spend on Medicare. So we

[[Page H3663]]

are going to take care of Medicare but we have to slow the rate of 
growth. To say we are destroying and devastating the program, that is 
wrong, and all you are doing is getting senior citizens scared. I have 
got too many senior citizens to have scared like that. I think it is 
wrong and we need to stand back and say this is a bipartisan issue. Let 
us work together to save the Medicare Program.

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