[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 119 (Wednesday, September 4, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H9986]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             MEDICARE SCARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. LaHood). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Hoke] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HOKE. Mr. Speaker, I come to the well tonight fresh off of 30 
days of recess that included a week of vacation with my children and 
about 3 or so weeks with my constituents. And it is with a great deal 
of sorrow and disappointment, Mr. Speaker, that I have to report to you 
that there is a dark occurrence happening in many parts of America 
right now where a fraud is being perpetrated on people who are 
vulnerable, people who are sometimes more gullible than maybe many in 
the population, and people who can be preyed upon by appealing to real 
anxiety that turns into the exploitation of fear when, instead of being 
truthful, what is happening is that those individuals are being pushed 
into believing something that is simply not the case.
  Mr. Speaker, what I am speaking about, what I am talking about is a 
very, very expensive, well thought out, well produced, calculated 
demagogic ad campaign that is designed to persuade senior citizens in 
our country that this Congress is trying to not only cut but gut 
Medicare and destroy the safety net, the health care safety net for 
senior citizens. It is an ad campaign that is not only well done, well 
thought out and well produced and absolutely blatantly demagogically 
false, but it is also being paid for in a way that those who are being 
forced to pay for it do not even approve and do not want it to exist.
  I am talking about the fine working men and women of local AFL-CIO 
affiliates, several of which I have been personally endorsed by. I am 
talking about the use of funds that are being mandatorily taken out of 
paychecks to fund politically motivated ad campaigns that distort and 
completely falsify the facts.
  The facts are, as Mr. Fox was speaking earlier, quite simple. That is 
that Medicare is going broke. Medicare is going broke. Medicare is 
going broke. How do we know that? We know that because the Medicare 
trustees have said it. Who are the Medicare trustees? Three of them are 
members of the President's own cabinet. Another is a political 
appointee, and two are individual citizens. And they say Medicare is 
going broke.
  What is the responsible response? What is the right response? What 
would be the correct response that you, Mr. Speaker, or the citizens of 
this country would want to see from its legislators?
  It seems to me that the responsible way to deal with that is to look 
at the problem, face it clearly and do what is right to fix it. That is 
exactly what we have done. In fact, not only has this Congress done 
that, but with a different set of policy statements the President has 
done the same thing.
  It boils down to slowing the rate of growth. It is pretty simple. 
Instead of growing at 10 percent a year, it has to grow at about 6.5 or 
7 percent a year. Yet this is being used for political purposes to 
frighten senior citizens into believing that this Congress is trying to 
destroy Medicare.
  Mr. Speaker, the one thing that this Republic cannot tolerate, the 
one thing that this Republic cannot stand is blatant exploitative, 
manipulative lying in the political process. That is what is happening 
by this ad campaign financed by the AFL-CIO.
  It is wrong. It is not voter education. It is voter disinformation. 
It should stop. I just hope and trust that the citizens will not be 
swayed nor fooled by it.

                          ____________________