[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 50 (Thursday, April 24, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H1799-H1800]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  MEDICARE IS LIVING BEYOND ITS MEANS

  (Mr. GUTKNECHT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. Mr. Speaker, as my colleagues have said so far this 
morning, today the Medicare trustees' report will be unveiled. 
Unfortunately, we all know what it is going to say. It is going to say 
that bankruptcy is closing in. That is the bad news.
  For 2 years now Medicare part A, the trust fund, has been spending 
more than it takes in. Medicare is living beyond its means and is 
rapidly depleting any surplus that it may have built up. That is the 
bad news.
  The good news is that we have a plan to protect the trust fund. We 
can simplify the complicated billing and paperwork. We can offer 
seniors a choice and

[[Page H1800]]

use the market system to give people a choice and let them decide what 
is best for them. We can aggressively fight waste and abuse, which cost 
billions of dollars to the Medicare fund every year.
  Mr. Speaker, such a plan was successfully passed in the last 
Congress. Unfortunately, the President chose to veto it. We have a 
unique opportunity in this Congress to produce such a solution again. 
Let us work together on a bipartisan basis, let us seize the day, let 
us save Medicare.

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