[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 84 (Monday, June 10, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H6042]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     PROTECT AND PRESERVE MEDICARE

  (Mr. CHRISTENSEN asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. speaker, Medicare is going broke. The latest 
trustee's report confirms what many of us have been saying for some 
time now: that Medicare is going broke even faster than predicted.
  The Medicare trust fund lost money last year for the first time since 
1972 causing the trustees to declare that the Medicare trust fund would 
be completely bankrupt by the year 2001. That is just 5 years away. As 
this chart shows based on Congressional Budget Office numbers, it was 
predicted to go bankrupt in the year 2001.
  I refuse to allow Medicare to go bankrupt because of some political 
advantage. We believe that we have got to work together in a bipartisan 
fashion, without gimmicks, without tax increases. We need to solve this 
problem for the American people.
  I invite my Democrat colleagues to work together for the American 
people in saving Medicare. It is the right thing to do; it is the right 
thing to do for all Americans.

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