[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 129 (Wednesday, September 18, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H10571]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                MEDICARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. McInnis). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Scarborough] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. SCARBOROUGH. Mr. Speaker, Medicare is bleeding to death. It is 
losing more money than it ever has before. In 1995 the President's 
Medicare trustees said that Medicare would be bankrupt by 2002. This 
year we hear that it is bleeding to death even faster and it is going 
to be bankrupt by 2000.
  In 1993 President Clinton understood that fact and so he proposed 
that Medicare spending's rate of increase go to 6.9 percent. In 1995 we 
understood that, so we proposed a 7.1-percent increase. We were 
absolutely savaged by a minority that was so desperate to get back into 
control that the truth meant absolutely nothing and they shamelessly 
demagogued on this issue.
  In fact, let me give you a few quotes, not from Republican 
publications but from publications that have consistently supported the 
Democratic Party. The Washington Post accused the Democratic minority 
of shameless demagoguery. Those are their words, not mine.
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield for a 
parliamentary inquiry?
  Mr. SCARBOROUGH. I do not yield.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman will not yield for that 
purpose. The gentleman may proceed.
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. SCARBOROUGH. I yield to the gentlewoman from Colorado
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. I was concerned about the words ``shameless 
demagoguery.'' I think those are words we could have taken down, and I 
do not really want to do that. But I think that is a very strong word.
  Mr. SCARBOROUGH. Reclaiming my time, they are not my words, they are 
the words of the Washington Post. If you wish to try to take them down, 
you can, but I am not addressing one person, I am addressing what the 
Washington Post accused Democrats of doing. They accused them of 
shameless demagoguery.
  An adviser to the President, Matthew Miller, wrote in the Washington 
Post and in the New Republican, ``The President has taken the low road 
on Medicare in such a way that only political pundits could call it 
standing tall.''
  The New Republican, a traditionally liberal publication, said that 
``The Democrats' demagoguery on Medicare is even worse than we 
suspected.''
  Mr. Speaker, why do I bring this up? Nobody has talked about Medicare 
in a year. It is because they have been cowed down because they are 
afraid of hearing more lies in this Chamber. I bring it up because 
everybody on the Democratic side of the aisle recognizes, like 
everybody on the Republican side of the aisle, that Medicare is going 
broke and nobody is doing anything about it. Nobody. When we tried to 
do something last year, when the President tried to do something in 
1993, they were attacked.
  Now, I give you the past as prolog. David Broder had a column in the 
Washington Post this weekend talking to future chairmen if the 
Democrats were to take power. Let us hear what one such chairman said 
on Medicare, the same chairman-to-be who called us Nazis. You want to 
talk about taking down words. Called us Nazis for trying to save 
Medicare. And this is what he said about Medicare. His committee, and I 
will not give his name, whose committee has main jurisdiction said, 
``The people who have made out best in the last 20 years are the old 
folks. They have their pensions, Social Security and health care. The 
explosion in these programs has to be dramatically reduced.''
  Mr. Speaker, I harken back to the McCarthy hearings, when at the end 
of the McCarthy hearings in the dramatic conclusion, the question was 
asked, ``Have you no shame, sir? Have you no shame?''
  I would recommend to any Democrat that comes into the well and stands 
behind this podium and attacks any efforts to curb spending in 
Medicare, we suggested 7.1 percent last year and your chairman knows 
what is going to happen to Medicare next year regardless of who is 
elected. We are going to have to save it. We cannot afford demagoguery. 
I have got a 93-year-old grandmother, I have got two parents that are 
eligible for it, and we have got to put the political gamesmanship 
behind us. What we have done now by irresponsible actions last year is 
we have cowed politicians in this election year from talking about it. 
Bob Dole does not talk about it, Bill Clinton does not talk about it, 
while Rome is burning. We have got to grow up.

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