[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 92 (Thursday, June 20, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H6631]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 REPUBLICAN TAX BREAKS FOR THE WEALTHY

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I continue to criticize the Gingrich-Dole 
Medicare cuts because basically they are being used to pay for tax 
breaks for the wealthy. They open the door for doctors to overcharge 
seniors beyond current copayment ceilings, and basically force seniors 
into managed care and eliminate their choice of doctors.
  But now these tax breaks are coming at the very time when, in today's 
New York Times, it is reported that the income disparity between the 
poorest and the richest continues to rise. The Census Bureau said today 
that the gap between the most affluent Americans and everyone else is 
wider than it has been since the end of World War II, and the Bureau 
has determined that from 1968, when the gap began to widen, to 1994, 
the last year for which complete data were available, each indicator 
has shown a pronounced increase between the gap in the income of the 
well-to-do and those of the poor and working class. So why do we 
continue to make these Medicare cuts in order to give tax breaks to the 
wealthy?
  The income disparity in this country has never been as great, and it 
just indicates once again why the Gingrich Republicans and the 
Republican leadership continue to play to the special interests, and 
that is the wealthy Americans, with these tax cuts.

                          ____________________