[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 81 (Wednesday, June 5, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H5925]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                MEDICARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Taylor of North Carolina). Under a 
previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from Connecticut [Ms. 
DeLauro] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, today the Medicare Board of Trustees 
released their annual report on Medicare. Not surprisingly, the 
trustees' report says that if nothing is done, the Medicare Trust Fund 
will run out of money by the year 2001. We have expected this news. In 
fact, it is why last October the Democrats offered an amendment that 
contained $90 billion in Medicare reforms over a 7-year period. The 
amendment would have extended the life of the Medicare Trust Fund 
through the year 2006 and would have remedied the problem.
  Mr. Speaker, although the contents of the report were not surprising, 
the response of the Republican Party and its leadership to the report 
has been incredible. If it was not so ridiculous, it would be downright 
funny. The Republicans have spent a lot of time this week running 
around Washington and playing the blame game. They are blaming the 
media, they are blaming the Democrats, and they are blaming the people 
who are on Medicare.
  The House majority leader, the gentleman from Texas, Dick Armey, has 
said, and I quote:

       Hundreds of thousands of seniors rely on Medicare. I'm 
     sorry they do, but they do.

  But, Mr. Speaker, this is no laughing matter. Last October, House 
Republicans had a chance to vote, to vote to fix the Medicare problem. 
Over 233 of them, let me say it again, over 233 of House Republicans 
voted no. Soon there will be a list of those 233 so that the public can 
see who they are. Now they are acting like they just found out that 
there is a problem; but the fact is last October they resoundingly 
rejected an opportunity to reach an agreement with congressional 
Democrats on $90 billion in Medicare savings that would have extended 
the solvency of the program through 2006.
  But why should that surprise us? In the same month that he voted 
against fixing Medicare, House Speaker Newt Gingrich has said, ``No, we 
do not want to get rid of it in round one because we don't think that 
is the right way to go through a transition, but we believe it is going 
to wither on the vine because we think people are voluntarily going to 
leave it.''
  In order to encourage them the Republicans have proposed cutting $168 
billion from the Medicare Program over the next 6 years. In fact, as 
early as February of 1995, the gentleman from Ohio, John Kasich, the 
chairman of the Committee on the Budget, and his staff knew that their 
budget, again, ``would require Medicare cuts unlike any this town has 
ever seen before.''
  Why such a large cut? These cuts are not going to be used to extend 
the solvency of the Medicare Trust Fund. In fact, the original 
Republican Medicare cuts were about three times any estimate of what 
was needed to keep the program solvent. The truth is that the 
Republicans need to cut Medicare in order to pay for a tax break for 
the wealthiest Americans, $180 billion in a tax break.
  Last September the McNeil/Lehrer News Hour reported a private meeting 
between the gentleman from Georgia, Newt Gingrich, and the chairman of 
the Committee on the Budget, the gentleman from Ohio, [Mr. Kasich]. Mr. 
Gingrich told the gentleman from Ohio that the only way to balance the 
budget in 7 years and to give a tax break was to cut Medicare.
  The cuts advocated by the Republican leadership could result in a 
second-rate health care system for our Nation's seniors, a system where 
the elderly will be asked to pay more and to get less. The plan would 
allow the health care plans to overcharge seniors, to charge them more, 
reduce choice, increase costs, close rural hospitals, or drastically 
reduce the services that hospitals offer.
  Where are our priorities, Mr. Speaker? The Republicans want to cut 
Medicare to pay for tax breaks for the wealthy, when we should be 
honoring a lifetime of hard work with a secure and a dignified 
retirement. In the end, the Republicans keep laughing, and the joke is 
on the American people and on seniors across this great country of ours 
who depend on Medicare for their livelihood and for their future.
  We can fix Medicare. We can do that, and we need to do that. That is 
not the issue. But the fact of the matter is that the Republicans would 
like to see Medicare fundamentally changed. Who do you trust to fix the 
Medicare Program, the people who have said that they want to see it 
wither on the vine, that they would be proud to have voted against it; 
the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Armey], who says he does not want to see 
a bipartisan commission to fix the Medicare Program? The American 
public needs to understand what is at stake once again.

                          ____________________