[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 37 (Tuesday, March 9, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H1028]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE

  (Mr. SHOWS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SHOWS. Mr. Speaker, more than 400,000 elderly Mississippians 
depend on Medicare for their health care. In my home district in 
Mississippi, the Fourth District, close to 93,000 elderly people depend 
on Medicare. Without the Medicare system, many people in Mississippi 
and across the country would have to live without health care.
  Right now we have the opportunity to protect both social security and 
Medicare by reserving nearly 80 percent of the budget surplus to ensure 
the solvency of social security through 2055 and Medicare through 2020.
  Look to the fact that prior to Medicare's introduction in the early 
sixties, 55 percent of Americans who reached the age of retirement 
lived in poverty. That number is less than 10 percent today. That 
decline can be attributed to the success of the Medicare system.
  We cannot leave Medicare out in the cold, this valuable program which 
is so special, in order to offer a massive tax cut. We should take the 
opportunity to protect social security and Medicare, and offer the 
targeted tax cuts to working families who need them.

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