[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 45 (Wednesday, April 16, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H1547]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               DO NOT CUT MEDICARE TO PAY FOR TAX BREAKS

  (Mr. McGOVERN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, as we begin the debate over how to balance 
the Federal budget, I rise today to express my frustration over some of 
the recent proposals for dealing with our Nation's Medicare Program.
  Last week I was concerned to learn of the President's offer to take 
an additional $18 billion out of projected Medicare spending. Then, Mr. 
Speaker, I was utterly outraged to learn of the response of the 
chairman of the Senate Committee on the Budget to the President's 
offer. The gentleman from New Mexico said an additional $18 billion was 
not nearly enough.
  Republicans have threatened to call off budget negotiations with the 
President unless he accepts Medicare cuts of up to $30 billion or more. 
A cut of this magnitude without balanced reform would devastate the 
Medicare Program and cannot be justified.
  And why are the Republicans scrambling so furiously for these deep, 
unsustainable cuts in Medicare? Not to extend the life of the Medicare 
trust fund, not to improve the quality of health care for 38 million 
seniors, but because they need the money to finance massive tax breaks 
for the very wealthy.
  Mr. Speaker, I will not support any budget, whether Republican or 
Democrat, that uses the Medicare Program as a piggybank for giant tax 
breaks for the rich.

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