[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 114 (Tuesday, July 30, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H8670]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              DEMOCRATS ARE DETERMINED TO PROTECT MEDICARE

  (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, today is the 31st anniversary of President 
Johnson's signature of the Medicare bill. I want to affirm that 
Democrats remain committed to improving Medicare in a commonsense 
fashion. It took Democrats 13 years to overcome Republicans' opposition 
to Medicare and enact the program.
  In 1965, Mr. Speaker, 93 percent of the House Republicans, including 
then-Representative Bob Dole, voted for a substitute that would have 
killed Medicare as we know it. Unfortunately, the Republican leadership 
in this House of Representatives is continuing that effort essentially 
to change Medicare in a fashion so it will not be the Medicare that we 
know.
  Unlike our Republican counterparts, we as Democrats are not sorry 
that hundreds of thousands of seniors rely on Medicare. Instead, we are 
pleased that it has doubled the number of seniors who now receive 
health care. Medicare is a proven success worth protecting. Democrats 
are determined to do that.

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