[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 76 (Wednesday, May 29, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H5629]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                  2015
                           CRISIS IN MEDICARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Taylor of North Carolina). Under a 
previous order of the House, the gentleman from Louisiana [Mr. Tauzin] 
is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. TAUZIN. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to follow my friend from 
Minnesota, Mr. Gutknecht, to talk about the Medicare crisis in America. 
It is a crisis. It is upon us. The Medicare system is not about to go 
bankrupt, it will not soon go bankrupt, it is already falling into 
bankruptcy.
  The first quarter of this year, unexpectedly the Medicare system 
began slipping into bankruptcy. What does that mean? It means that the 
money coming into the system from your and my taxes is not enough to 
cover the money going out of the system, going out to pay the bills of 
seniors who need Medicare coverage.
  Why is there not enough money in the system? Is it because we are not 
paying enough taxes? No, it is because Medicare costs are running at 
three times the rate of inflation. The waste, fraud, and abuse is about 
to ruin a system critical to American seniors, my mother included.
  Mom just got out of the hospital in January, again from another 
serious problem. She has survived cancer twice. Last month she played 
in the Senior Olympics at home and won 5 medals--3 silver and two 
gold--one in javelin and one in shot put. She is a miracle.
  But Medicare has saved my mother, and it has saved countless of other 
mothers, fathers, grandparents of Members of this House and of citizens 
all over this country. Can we afford to let Medicare go bankrupt? I say 
no.
  Is it fair for anyone to scare seniors into resisting changes to 
reform Medicare to make it work? Is it fair to seniors to keep scaring 
them with Medicare cut language? The truth is if somebody does not fix 
Medicare soon, we will face three choices very soon.
  First, we will have to choose between not taking care of our seniors 
anymore--and we will not make that choice, we will always take care of 
our seniors in America. Or, second, we will have to choose to tax the 
dickens out of the younger generation, to double their payroll taxes to 
put more money in this bucket that has got a hole in it. Or, third, we 
are going to have to borrow and borrow and borrow on future generations 
to cover the bankruptcy that is upon us in Medicare.
  The biggest enemy of seniors in America is not those of us who are 
trying to fix Medicare, who are trying to give seniors more choices, 
who are trying to cut the waste, the fraud, the bureaucratic abuse, the 
mess we have in this system. The biggest enemy to Medicare and to 
seniors is not the Republican Party and those of us who have offered a 
plan to fix it.
  The biggest enemy of our seniors, the biggest enemy of Medicare is 
anyone who will try to scare seniors into doing nothing, because to do 
nothing means we face one of those three awful choices: to borrow our 
whole country into bankruptcy, to tax the dickens out of future 
generations, or to give up caring for our seniors, none of which are 
good options.
  We want to continue a sound and strong Medicare system for America's 
seniors, but to do so will take some courage around this place. It will 
take someone willing to say it is time to fix a problem before it goes 
bankrupt. It will take someone willing, literally in the White House, 
to address this issue instead of trying to scare seniors into believing 
that everybody is trying to cut their benefits or cut their program. 
Nothing could be further from the truth.
  The truth is Medicare is already going bankrupt as we speak tonight. 
If we do not show some courage around this place and fix that system 
for our seniors, if someone in the White House does not join us instead 
of trying to scare seniors across America, Medicare will indeed fail 
the seniors who depend upon it, my mother included.
  If all of you love your parents and your grandparents, as I know you 
must, as much as I love mine, then can we not join together and fix 
this problem while there is still a chance to fix it? Do we have to 
resort to partisan tactics and scare tactics just to resist each other 
politically? Or can we look beyond these political boundaries and fix 
the Medicare system for the seniors of our country, and preserve our 
children's opportunities to earn a decent living for themselves without 
getting taxed into oblivion?
  Those are the hard choices we face, but I came here to make hard 
choices. I came here to tell the truth and to face the difficult 
problems we have. This is one of the most difficult ones we have.
  Anybody who will scare seniors instead of facing this tough and 
difficult problem and curing the Medicare problems, taking care of the 
waste, fraud, and abuse that is ripping this system apart, anyone who 
is willing to scare seniors instead of doing that does not deserve to 
be reelected to any office in this land. Anyone who is willing to work 
for seniors, to repair the Medicare system, indeed deserves their trust 
and their confidence. It comes down to that.
  Do we have faith enough in each other, in our purpose here in 
Washington, to serve this Nation and to do the right thing for those 
who sent us here, to put partisan attacks and scare tactics behind us? 
I think we can and I think we should, but it will take someone in the 
White House to show a little more courage and a little less 
partisanship.

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