[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 46 (Tuesday, March 23, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H1571-H1572]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  IT IS HIGH TIME WE RESTORE THE TRUST AND CONFIDENCE OF THE AMERICAN 
                                 PEOPLE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from South Dakota (Mr. Thune) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. Speaker, this past weekend I was very disappointed to 
see our friends on the other side start down the same old track, and 
that is to try and turn Medicare into a political game. It became clear 
to me, and I hope that all of our friends will change their mind on 
that, but that they want to travel down the same old road we traveled 
before 2 years ago, when Republican proposals to reform Medicare were 
relentlessly attacked by our colleagues on the other side, only to be 
supported as part of the balanced budget agreement in 1997 and 
subsequently signed into law.
  The very same reforms that were attacked as a matter of the fall 
campaigns were then agreed to later on in the year because it became 
clear that that was the only real solution and responsible thing to do 
to try and save Medicare for the next generation.
  Here we go again. Our friends do not seem interested in a solution. 
They only want to inflame and scare the American people. How do I know 
that? Because last week the Medicare commission which was appointed by 
the President made its recommendations.
  Interestingly enough, the two Democrat senators on the commission, 
Senators Kerrey and Breaux, led the way and then were sold out by the 
President's appointees on that very commission and blocked the reform 
proposals that had been laid out.
  Why? Because, as the two of them said in a news report last week, it 
did not spend 15 percent of the surplus on Medicare. The Medicare 
commission came out with recommendations and proposals that would save 
$100 billion in Medicare over the course of the next 10 years, but 
because it did not spend 15 percent of the surplus on Medicare, the 
President's appointees blocked the commission's recommendations.
  Why? I do not know. That is a good question, and I think the American 
people ought to ask the same question because there is a real matter of 
trust here when one looks at trying to solve a problem and come up with 
a sincere genuine solution rather than to demagogue an issue, as we saw 
again 2 years ago.
  The Senate Committee on the Budget had a vote last week on the 
President's budget, the so-called proposal that would set aside 62 
percent for Social Security, 15 percent for Medicare. The Senate 
Committee on the Budget voted down that proposal by a vote of 21 to 
zero. Even the President's allies in Congress in the Senate did not 
want to vote for the budget proposal that he had submitted.
  This week, the Republicans will submit their own budget proposal 
which sets aside for the first time since 1969 all of the Social 
Security surplus, 100 percent, to be used for Social Security and 
Medicare and for retirement issues.
  I think it is high time that we were honest with the American people. 
The President's budget spends the Social Security surplus, $220 billion 
over the course of the next 10 years. We preserve it by setting aside 
and walling off 100 percent of the Social Security surplus to be used 
for that purpose. I think this is a significant milestone in American 
politics, and it is high time that we did it.
  It is high time that we restore the trust and confidence of the 
American people, and I hope that the American people are wise to the 
charade. Two

[[Page H1572]]

years ago it was tried, perhaps to some degree it worked, but make no 
mistake about it; check the fine print, because I think that the 
American people will find that when they do that they will see that 
they have been sold a bill of goods.
  This week when we debate this proposal that would set aside and 
preserve 100 percent of the surplus that we are going to see in this 
country over the course of the next 10 years for Social Security and 
Medicare, and not buy into the myths and the same old same old deja vu 
all over again tactics that have been tried by the other side, I hope 
we can work together constructively to find reforms in Medicare that 
will preserve that program and make it viable not only for this 
generation of Americans but for generations of Americans to come.

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