[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 123 (Tuesday, September 10, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1551]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




[[Page E1551]]



                          GINGRICH ON MEDICARE

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. J. DENNIS HASTERT

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 10, 1996

  Mr. HASTERT. Mr. Speaker, I commend the following article to your 
attention. It ran on July 25, 1996, on page A-18 of the Washington 
Times. I think that the American people will benefit from the truth 
about the Medicare debate which is printed in this respected newspaper.

               [From the Washington Times, July 25, 1996]

                          Gingrich on Medicare

       Besides the customary $40 million in political action 
     committee (PAC) contributions organized labor gives to 
     Democratic candidates for Congress each election cycle, it 
     pours millions of additional dollars of unregulated ``soft 
     money'' into the Democratic Party and untold millions more in 
     ``in-kind'' (telephone work, election-day duties, etc.) 
     contributions.
       For the 1995-96 election cycle, the AFL-CIO will supplement 
     these normal contributions to the Democratic Party, all of 
     which come directly from compulsory union dues, with a 
     special assessment that will extract another $35 million from 
     the paychecks of union workers irrespective of their 
     political allegiance.
       The bulk of these new funds has been used to finance 
     ``issue advocacy'' ads for radio and television, so far 
     mostly about Medicare. In the latest version, which splashes 
     the label ``Newt Gingrich on Medicare'' across the television 
     screen, the ad selectively and completely out of context 
     quotes from an October speech by the Republican Speaker: 
     ``Now, we don't get rid of it in round one because we don't 
     think that that's politically smart and we don't think that's 
     the right way to go through a transition. But we believe it's 
     going to wither on the vine,'' Clearly, any viewer would 
     infer--erroneously, as is easily demonstrated--that the 
     antecedent of ``it'' is Medicare. In fact, the antecedent is 
     the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), the 
     bureaucratic behemoth administering Medicare, which 
     presidential candidate Bill Clinton promised to ``scrap'' in 
     his 1992 campaign manifesto, ``Putting People First.''
       The ad further asserts that Republicans sought to ``cut 
     Medicare and give new tax breaks to the wealthy.'' So 
     inaccurate is the ad--the CNN ad-watch team has called it 
     ``dishonest''--that the viewer would never know that, under 
     the GOP seven-year balanced-budget plan vetoed by President 
     Clinton, Medicare expenditures per beneficiary would have 
     increased by 50 percent, rising from less than $4,800 in 1995 
     to nearly $7,100 in 2002. Aware of this indisputable fact, 
     the typical viewer might have a difficult time understanding 
     how Republicans sought to have Medicare ``wither on the 
     vine.'' Concerning the ``tax breaks to the wealthy,'' in 
     fact, more than 60 percent of the 7-year $245 billion tax cut 
     would have financed a $500 per child (under 18) tax credit 
     for families with adjusted gross incomes no higher than 
     $110,000. Considering that production and non-supervisory 
     employees were working on average more hours per week and 
     earning a higher inflation-adjusted wage in January 1993, 
     when Mr. Clinton was inaugurated, than they worked and earned 
     in May 1996, union members might view the $500 per child tax 
     credit vetoed by President Clinton differently than their 
     labor bosses, who clearly have their own agenda in mind.
       To conclusively demonstrate the AFL-CIO's campaign of 
     intentional distortion and lies, it is worth repeating 
     exactly what Mr. Gingrich said about the HCFA last October. 
     ``We tell Boris Yeltsin, `Get rid of centralized command 
     bureaucracies. Go to the marketplace.' OK, what do you think 
     the Health Care Financing Administration is? It's a 
     centralized command bureaucracy. It's everything we're 
     telling Boris Yeltsin to get rid of. Now, we don't get rid of 
     it in round one, because we don't think that that's 
     politically smart and we don't think that's the right way to 
     go through a transition. But we believe it's going to wither 
     on the vine.''
       In the context of the entire quote and considering Medicare 
     spending per beneficiary was scheduled to increase under the 
     GOP budget plan by $2,300 per year by 2002, who could 
     possibly believe that Mr. Gingrich was referring to Medicare 
     when speaking of ``wither[ing] on the vine''? Only liars. The 
     sooner union workers learn the truth about Medicare and tax 
     cuts their bosses seem so afraid to share with them, the 
     sooner they can choose leaders who pursue an agenda more 
     compatible with their needs.

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