[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 111 (Thursday, July 25, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1380]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         CONGRESS AND MEDICARE

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. MARTIN R. HOKE

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 25, 1996

  Mr. HOKE. Mr. Speaker, there's an old trick to hawking snake oil. 
First raise the fear. Then sell to it. That's exactly what the big-
union, Washington-based labor bosses are trying to do with their latest 
advertising campaign of fear and blatant disinformation.
  You have possibly seen some of these ads on television. The latest is 
a real whopper, claiming that Congress is out to kill Medicare. Of 
course, exactly the opposite is true.
  In fact, Congress is trying to save Medicare from impending 
bankruptcy by increasing spending at a slower rate than before. This is 
also what the President has proposed. So instead of Medicare spending 
going up 10 percent a year, the President and Congress propose that it 
go up about 7.5 percent.
  So how cant he Washington-based labor bosses get away with this 
blatantly false advertising? Well, they can't everywhere. Stations 
around the country, including some in Cleveland, have refused to run 
these Medicare ads because they are factually incorrect and misleading. 
In one on-air story, a TV station in Maine called this latest ad by the 
Washington labor bosses, ``a callous and flagrant attempt to play upon 
the fears of senior Americans.'' Closer to home, a recent attack ad 
paid for by AFL-CIO members' dues was so bad that even Cleveland AFL-
CIO general secretary Dick Acton admitted that it, ``technically might 
be in error.''
  That the Washington labor bosses are flat-out lying about the issues 
is bad enough. What makes it even more about the issues is bad enough. 
What makes it even more outrageous is that they are using the forced 
dues of their hard-working members to pay for it. Washington's labor 
bosses have pledged to spend $500,000 this year specifically to defeat 
me. That effort is being financed by a 36 percent hike in members' 
political dues. Yet on the vast majority of issues rank-and-file 
members don't agree with the positions of their out-of-touch bosses in 
Washington.
  The union men and women I speak with overwhelmingly support time 
limits and work requirements for welfare recipients and tax relief for 
working families. They want term limits and a balanced budget. The 
Washington labor bosses oppose every one of those positions.
  Perhaps even more telling is that 44 percent of union members 
consider themselves to be conservative, yet almost 100 percent of their 
involuntary political contributions go to Democrats. As a result you 
can understand why so many union members are rightly embarrassed and 
angry that their forced dues are being used to finance political 
campaigns they don't support.
  It is sad that Washington's labor bosses care more about their own 
power than they do about the truth or the views of their members. They 
benefited enormously from the growing Federal Government under the old 
majority. And they are not about to sit idly by as the power that was 
once theirs is returned to its rightful owners, the people.
  If we allow fear to triumph, we can just wave goodbye to a balanced 
budget, middle-class tax relief, and welfare reform, and say hello to 
higher taxes and more debt on the backs of our children.
  It is up to the American people. Will it be snake oil and fear, or 
truth and courage?

                          ____________________