[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 69 (Thursday, May 16, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H5188]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    COMMITMENT TO A BALANCED BUDGET

  (Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I agree with my colleagues, we 
do not need to make Medicare a partisan issue. The problem that we have 
is that last year it was a partisan issue, and it continues to be.
  Let me give you an example of how this administration is dealing with 
the Medicare crisis. Here in Congress we were unable to come up with an 
agreement on the Medicare insolvency, and yet there is a program called 
Operation Restore Trust not only in my State of Texas but a number of 
States. That program was just given over $4 million last year, and yet 
it returned 10 times that amount to the Medicare trust funds.
  I believe this is an area that we need to devote more resources. The 
President has requested $597 million for antifraud activities, which is 
$150 million more than current spending. Let us give him that in this 
budget agreement we are talking about today so we can deal with 
Medicare fraud.
  The problem we have is that they will not do it. Last year they 
wanted to cut the effort for Medicare fraud, and that is where the 
seniors know that we can get the money to protect Medicare. There is no 
silver bullet for balancing the budget. You have to do it every day, 
every year, and leaving the scene of the battle is not the way to do 
it.

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