[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 77 (Thursday, May 30, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H5740]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  2230
                     ECONOMIC SECURITY FOR FAMILIES

  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, as has been mentioned earlier by our 
colleagues, on Saturday, the Children's Defense Fund will hold a Stand 
for Children event where people from all over the country will be 
traveling to Washington to participate. I, myself, am proud to say that 
from San Francisco and from all over California, indeed, we will have a 
very large contingent participating.
  That stand for children is one that we must make every day of the 
year in the Congress of the United States. As a member of the 
Appropriations Subcommittee on Health, Human Services and Education, I 
have been actually bowled over by the size of the cuts in the budget 
for children's initiatives that had been put forth both last year and 
which we anticipate because of the budget resolution allocations to 
come down this year.
  I rise tonight, Mr. Speaker, to talk not just about children, but the 
families that they live in, because when we talk abut children, we not 
only talk about their health, education, and well-being, but we also 
talk about the economic security of their families. We talked about 
this last week when we made the fight successfully to increase the 
minimum wage, dragging this House kicking and screaming to a place 
where we could hold our head up a littler higher to pay fair wages to 
the American worker.
  But also part of the economic security of American families are the 
issues of Medicare and Medicaid, which once again take severe cuts in 
the budget proposal that passed the House tonight. That is why our 
colleague, the gentleman from Minnesota, Mr. Martin Sabo, put forth a 
motion to instruct. His motion to instruct was for us to instruct 
conferees to accept the higher discretionary levels in the Senate bill 
in order to avoid another government shutdown; to accept the higher 
levels in the Senate bill. He is talking about the Domenici numbers, 
Republican numbers in the Senate side. Even the Senate Republicans 
reject the severe cuts that are being proposed on the House side.
  Another part of the Sabo motion to instruct was to retain protection 
for seniors against excess charges by health care providers in Medicare 
and also to retain Federal standards for nursing homes. Of course, and 
sadly, our Republican colleagues voted down this motion to instruct to 
agree to the Republican Senate numbers and, instead, to retain the 
House severe cuts.
  The budget resolution allocations have created the same basic 
conflict that led to two Government shutdowns and 13 continuing 
resolutions in the battle over 1996 spending. Why would we want to do 
that again?
  In regard to protecting health care for seniors, the House version of 
the budget resolution retains essentially the same Medicare policies 
that were vetoed by President Clinton in the reconciliation bill. 
Further, the House budget resolution does not protect seniors from the 
draconian Medicaid policies that were passed in the House last year.
  I would like to review, Mr. Speaker, some of the provisions that we 
are fighting. The Republican record on senior citizens in the 104th 
Congress includes eliminating doctor and hospital choice by forcing 
seniors into Medicare managed-care plans. The GOP plan would allow 
doctors to charge extra out-of-pocket costs to seniors who remain in 
Medicare fee-for-service. The GOP plan would severely cut Medicare and 
Medicaid hospital funding, forcing many to close their doors on 
seniors. And the Republican plan would eliminate coverage guaranteed 
for over 4 million elderly Americans who need nursing home care. The 
Republican plan further erodes Medicare solvency by creating wealth-
healthy plans, leaving many seniors with higher costs and less care.
  Does this sound familiar? We fought this fight last year. The 
Democrats in the Congress and the President of the United States stood 
firm against this assault on the economic and personal security of 
America's seniors and, therefore, America's families.
  The Democrats prevented the Republicans last year from doubling 
Medicare part B premiums, from attempting to eliminate doctor choice, 
from cutting Medicare premium assistance for low-income seniors, from 
repealing Federal nursing home quality standards and putting homes and 
family farms of elderly couples at risk for nursing home care, and we 
kept them from forcing adult children to be financially liable for 
their parents' nursing home bills.
  This is important because all of the seniors that we talk about have 
contributed to the strength and the success of our country. How many 
times have we seen our colleagues come to the floor, including this 
evening, sing the praises and the contributions that have been made by 
various senior citizens in their districts and turn right around and 
cut Medicare and Medicaid to assist those seniors in their older years?
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to pay close attention and the 
American people to pay close attention to these cuts which will affect 
their lives very directly.

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