[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 80 (Tuesday, June 4, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H5765]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         MEDICARE CUTS PROPOSED

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow the Medicare trustees are going to 
issue their annual report to Congress and to the American people, and 
we already know that the Republican leadership is going to take 
advantage of this to try to suggest that the trustees' report justifies 
their severe and extreme changes in the Medicare Program for senior 
citizens.
  I would suggest that the Democrats in the House of Representatives 
last year, with an amendment that was brought forward by the gentleman 
from Florida [Mr. Gibbons] and this year in the budget that was 
proposed by the President that we voted on, suggested minor changes or 
cuts, if you will, in the Medicare Program that would keep the Medicare 
Program solvent well into the next century.
  The extreme cuts and changes in Medicare that the Republicans are 
proposing are not needed. The Medicare trustees' report should not be 
an excuse to justify, if you will, the changes that the Republican 
leadership is proposed in Medicare. Rather, we should be getting 
together to make those minor cuts, if you will, to save the program and 
keep it solvent on a bipartisan basis.

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