[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 48 (Tuesday, April 22, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3397-S3398]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE BUDGET NEGOTIATIONS
Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I want to raise a couple of points here as
we move through the budget negotiations. There are ongoing negotiations
with the White House relative to trying to
[[Page S3398]]
reach a budget agreement. But those negotiations deal with a budget
that will run through the year 2002. My concern is that, as we look at
a budget in that short timeframe, action which we take to address a
budget that would reach balance by 2002 would have impact beyond that
period, obviously, because we will put in place decisions that are not
going to end at the time that budget concludes in 2002, but it will
affect spending beyond that time.
In two major accounts, the President's budget, as proposed, is
basically a budget that has a low initial cost but has a dramatic,
explosive cost in the outyears when you get past the year 2002. Both in
the Medicare account and the Medicaid account, the President's budget,
as sent up here, has significant increases in spending, but those
increases in spending that are for the 5-year timeframe running through
2002 are really minuscule compared to the spending that will occur in
the period after 2002. I believe this needs to be highlighted because,
if it is not, I am afraid we will adopt initiatives in the President's
budget that come out of it as part of this process of building our own
budget and reaching a bipartisan budget.
I am concerned that we will adopt initiatives that will cost us
dramatic amounts of money outside the budget window and, once again,
aggravate the real problem that confronts the country. We would be
passing on to our children a country with huge debts of obligation that
our children will never be able to pay.
Let me highlight this in specifics. Under the President's proposal
for Medicare, there is $33 billion in new spending during the budget
window, through the year 2002. When you go beyond the year 2002 to the
period of the next 4 years--this is a 4-year period, and it would run
past that, obviously--there will be an explosion in the cost of those
new programs. Those new programs, which cost $33 billion in the next 4
years, in the 4 years after that will cost $93 billion in new spending.
That represents a 182-percent increase over the 5-year period. That is
in the Medicare accounts.
Some of these new programs involve the following--and I agree they
are probably programs which we all feel would be nice. But the question
is: Can we afford them? Can we afford to pass them on to our children?
Can we afford to pass $93 billion in new spending on to our children,
which is outside the budget window? Some of the new programs include: A
new initiative in the area of cancer screening, for $2.5 billion; a
direct payment to hospitals, outside of AAPCC, $26 billion; changing
the way the Medicare accounts for the part B, 20-percent charge, which
accounts for $42 billion; and a whole list of other new initiatives,
all of which add up to $93 billion in spending that is outside the
budget window, and is new spending for new programs and which will have
to be paid by the taxpayers of this country, and, if not, borrowed from
our children. In either event, it will aggravate the balance in the
Medicare trust fund and continue to drive the Medicare trust fund
toward insolvency.
The second area the President has taken the same course of action on
is in the area of Medicaid. In the Medicaid accounts, he has proposed
$16 billion of new spending during the budget period between 1998 and
the year 2002. But that $16 billion in new programmatic spending that
occurs in the first 5 years explodes in the next 4 years to $34
billion, for a 113-percent increase. That is a 113-percent increase
over the initial spending period--another explosive expansion of an
entitlement program through the process of adding new benefits. In this
area, we are talking about new benefits for disabled, illegal
immigrants, and new benefits for children of illegal immigrants. And so
you have this dramatic increase in spending. When you combine these two
proposals--the President's proposal in Medicare and the proposal in
Medicaid--the new spending accounts aggravate and compound the problem
even more dramatically.
You see here that in the next 5 years, which is the budget period the
President sent us on this, there is $49 billion in new spending in
Medicare and Medicaid accounts. As you move into the outyears, that $49
billion translates into $127 billion in new spending, or a 159-percent
increase because of new programmatic activity. Now, what we are talking
about here--and this needs to be stressed--is new programmatic
activity. We are not talking about maintaining the Medicare trust fund
or Medicaid trust funds; we are talking about adding to that program.
Mr. President, we are talking about increased spending as a result of
brandnew programs. So as we move down this road of trying to reach
agreement on this budget, I think we have to be very sensitive that we
not add a lot of new programs that may look affordable over the next 4
or 5 years, but which, in the outyears, becomes totally unaffordable
and further aggravates what is already a very serious situation,
because we know the Medicare trust fund is going bankrupt in 2000 and
this will only aggravate that. All of these costs, if passed on to our
children, may end up making their capacity to have a prosperous and
productive country much less. This must be focused on as we go down the
road to reaching a budget agreement.
I yield back such time as I may have left. I appreciate the Senator
from Nevada allowing me to speak at this point, during the time of the
Democratic leader.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair recognizes the Senator from Nevada.
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