[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 91 (Wednesday, June 25, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H4379]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            MEDICARE CUTS FINANCE TAX RELIEF FOR THE WEALTHY

  (Mr. DeFAZIO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, the Democrats would tax the very air we 
breathe, or so the Republicans would have us believe. But the 
Republicans would actually take oxygen from the lungs of senior 
citizens and disabled around this country to finance tax cuts for the 
wealthy. And I am not making this up.
  The measure before us today cuts the payments for oxygen and oxygen 
equipment by 20 percent and freezes payments through 2002 to save $1.6 
billion. Eighty percent of the cuts in the bill before us today come 
from Medicare, not to reform Medicare and stabilize its finances, but 
to finance tomorrow's bill, the bill that will extend tax cuts to the 
wealthy, tax cuts that will average $27,132 a year for families that 
earn over $400,000. And for those families who earn $25,000 they will 
average zero, nothing.
  Is this fair? I do not think so.

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