[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 54 (Wednesday, April 24, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H3737]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              REPUBLICANS FIX MEDICARE BY CUTTING BENEFITS

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, here they go again. My colleagues on the 
other side, the Republicans, are now talking about how they want to fix 
Medicare essentially by cutting Medicare and using the money to pay for 
tax breaks for the wealthy. We had this all through 1995. Now they are 
trying to distort the information that came out in the New York Times 
about the Medicare trust fund, to go ahead with their radical plan to 
cut Medicare in order to pay for these tax breaks for wealthy 
Americans.
  Well, let me tell the Members that this trust fund is not broke. We 
know now that it has $126.1 billion in surplus. This small deficit that 
was incurred in the first 6 months of this year does not justify going 
ahead with this radical plan to cut Medicare and give back these tax 
breaks to wealthy Americans.
  The Republican leadership has refused to sit down with President 
Clinton and try to work on a bipartisan basis to come up with an answer 
for Medicare to make sure it is solvent. We are not talking about 
today. We are not even talking about the next few years. This 
insolvency, if it occurs, is I think 2001 or 2002. Do not let it be an 
excuse on the part of the Republicans to give these tax breaks to 
wealthy Americans.

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