[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 85 (Tuesday, June 11, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H6123]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                MEDICARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Gene Green, is recognized 
during morning business for 4 minutes.
  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, a lot of people who are here 
today and Members that are watching in their offices, this is our 
morning hour that each of us can get up and talk at this time for 4 
minutes on issues that concern us.
  A lot of us, whether you are Republican or Democrat, were concerned 
last week about the Medicare trustees issuing their report on the 
status of the Medicare trust fund. The trustees said that if nothing is 
done, the trust fund will be insolvent in the year 2001. This is a 
serious problem which the Congress should address in a bipartisan way.
  However, instead of addressing this short-term problem of Medicare, 
because it is a short term, it was addressed in 1993 and extended it, 
and now we need to do it again. We should have done it in 1995 and now 
we should do it in 1996, to move the year out from 2001 to 2005 and 
hopefully 2010. But the Republican majority continue to insist that the 
way to do that is to cut Medicare trust funds and yet at the same time 
provide even more money in tax cuts.
  Again this year the numbers have gone down. In 1995 we were looking 
at $270 billion cuts in Medicare and $245 billion in tax cuts. Well, 
this year it has gone down to where we want to cut $168 billion in 
Medicare over 6 years and provide another $176 billion in tax cuts. The 
cuts in Medicare are the cuts in the expected growth. The reason that 
is hard, I know a lot of times people listen and say, ``Well, it's not 
really a cut in Medicare,'' and it is not. There is a growth in 
Medicare. But we have to have the expected growth in Medicare because 
there are more seniors growing into Medicare every day and if we just 
match inflation, then we are going behind and the people who are there 
now, the 70-year-olds, the 80-year-olds who are on Medicare are going 
to see a cut in the services they have. That is why it is a cut in 
Medicare even though it is a cut in the growth. But again we need to 
deal with Medicare and not talk about the tax cuts because they are 
irresponsible.
  There is no free lunch. We learned that in the 1980's when Congress 
passed tax cut after tax cut and yet increased spending. You cannot cut 
taxes and increase spending. That is what they are looking for. There 
is no pain-free that you can do. But they have conveniently forgot that 
the last time Congress did this in the 1980's with a Republican 
President and Democratic Congresses, that is why we now have a $5 
trillion debt, and that is why it needs to be dealt with. But that was 
not done just by Democrats. In fact the last balanced budget we had in 
this country was in 1969 at the height of the Vietnam war and also at 
the height of the Great Society. So do not let anyone tell you that the 
Great Society causes debt. It is Congress not being able to control its 
expenditures on a yearly basis. We are still living with these 
consequences of the 1980's.

  Now we have the summer movie season. For a year and a half the 
Republicans have been trying to write a sequel to the supply-side 
deficit from the 1980's. We call that ``The Original.'' In Congress 
they offered the tax cuts and told the public we would grow ourselves 
out of deficits and into prosperity. In the sequel now we are seeing 
they want to offset their tax cuts with Medicare cuts. Unfortunately 
for the American people the sequels are rarely as good as the original 
and that is what worries me.
  One of the other ways that they talk about preserving Medicare is 
medical savings accounts. Again we are considering a bill today for 
health care for everyone and hopefully we would have a health care 
reform bill. But it is going to die on the cross of the medical savings 
accounts and that is what is frustrating, because medical savings 
accounts, I can go out now or any individual can go out and buy a high 
deductible insurance policy now that says, ``OK, I'll pay my first 
$5,000.'' The problem is that the Republicans and medical savings 
accounts want to give that $5,000 as a deductible on their taxes. This 
is the same Congress in the 1980's that removed the tax deductions for 
average individuals for buying regular medical care policies. If we are 
going to do it for the rich, then we need to do it for everyone who 
buys any type of health care policy. Let us make all health care 
premiums deductible and not just those for the rich.

                          ____________________