[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 109 (Tuesday, July 23, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H8105-H8106]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     GAGGING THE TRUTH ON MEDICARE

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

[[Page H8106]]

  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to express outrage over Republican 
efforts to take off the air a commercial that has been running by many 
of the labor organizations that is critical of the Republican record on 
Medicare.
  As we know, many times Democrats have gotten up here in the House to 
point out that the cuts proposed by the Republican leadership in 
Medicare are going to hurt America's seniors and ultimately destroy and 
eliminate the Medicare Program as we know it. This is nothing more than 
another effort by the Republican leadership to gag the efforts of 
working Americans. Essentially, labor unions represent working 
Americans, who want to tell the truth about Medicare and what the 
Republicans are proposing to do to a program that is important for 
seniors, to working people, to those who have to go into nursing homes.
  This is not the first time we have seen a Republican effort to gag 
those who want to speak the truth on the Medicare issue. When the 
Medicare debate began in my committee, the Committee on Commerce, there 
was only one hearing on the issue and the senior citizens who showed up 
to want to speak were arrested. Once again the Republicans are trying 
to gag the truth on Medicare.

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