[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 2220-2221]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       PROTECTING AND PRESERVING MEDICARE FOR THE NEXT GENERATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Burr of North Carolina). Under a 
previous order of the House, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Kingston) 
is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to talk a little bit about what 
the Republican agenda is this year. We have been saying BEST military. 
B for balancing in the budget, paying down the debt, responsible 
spending; E for excellence in education; S for saving Social Security; 
T for lowering taxes and having a strong military presence that we need 
in the world today.
  I have with me a distinguished member of the Committee on Ways and 
Means, the gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas) who has worked so 
long on protecting Medicare and working for lowering taxes, and also 
the gentleman from California (Mr. Ose), one of our distinguished 
freshman Members, and we were just going to talk about some of the 
things we hope to accomplish.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas).
  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  One of the focal points obviously at the beginning of this, the 106th 
Congress, is the Medicare Commission which is scheduled to make its 
report, if we can get 11 of the 17 members to agree on a plan, in early 
March. I would tell the gentleman that the things that have taken place 
recently, primarily on the executive side of Washington, have made it 
immensely more difficult for us to try to come together.
  In the context of trying to get 11 of 17 people who are very 
knowledgeable, who have been experienced, four of whom were appointed 
by the President, four by the Speaker of the House, the majority leader 
of the Senate, two by the minority leader of the Senate and minority 
leader of the House, to come to agreement is difficult in the best of 
times. But when the President, in his State of the Union message, 
pulled like a genie out of the bottle, I am willing to put $700 billion 
on the table, and by the way, I will bring the drugs in, throwing a 
party, the difficulty of coming to agreement in the Medicare Commission 
was blurred. It sounded as though there was more money available than 
anyone thought, and that it is relatively simple to move prescription 
drugs into a Medicare solution.
  The folks who are the participants in Medicare, the providers, the 
taxpayers, and the beneficiaries, all had a sigh of relief that the 
problem has been solved, when in fact, as we are now discovering, as 
Samuelson's excellent guest editorial in the Washington Post today 
spelled it out, that there was a lot more smoke and mirrors in the 
President's budget than anyone anticipated.
  Just a couple of examples of the difficulty. When the President said 
that he was going to put $700 billion on the table, that is not the 
case. When the President said we should have a prescription drug 
benefit in Medicare, everyone nods their head yes, and we are in 
agreement that that should occur. But what is not explained, and what 
most people do not realize, I would say to the gentleman from Georgia, 
is that 65 percent of the seniors on Medicare have some sort of 
prescription drug program. What we need to do is examine the 35 percent 
who do not and create a program that brings them into a protective 
structure to shelter them from the full cost of prescription drugs, 
without driving out those other 65 percent who do have a drug support 
program in some way.
  It just seems to me that for the President to make the statements 
that he did in January and February, when we are on the verge of having 
to make an agreement in March, that advertently or inadvertently he has 
created a far more difficult problem for us than we had prior to what 
he considered helping statements. That is exactly the

[[Page 2221]]

wrong kind of approach to solving a very difficult problem in terms of 
the kind of help the President could give. If the President showed 
leadership, if he brought ideas to the table, if he empowered his 
appointees to sit down and work with the Senator from Louisiana, the 
chairman of the committee, Senator Breaux, all of those would be 
positive.
  Our hope is that in the remaining weeks of February, the President 
will engage, he will lead and assist us in reaching a solution that all 
of us want: a better Medicare for our seniors.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the other gentleman from California (Mr. 
Ose).
  Mr. OSE. Mr. Speaker, I realize my time is short. I just would like 
to emphasize, following the comments from my distinguished colleague 
from California, the importance of this issue for me personally. I can 
recall on numerous occasions being visited by residents of the Third 
District talking about their need for adequate medical care. We are 
going to work on this, this year. The gentleman from California (Mr. 
Thomas) is leading us forward, together with the gentleman from 
Louisiana. I think we are going to make progress.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I just want to say, what we are trying to 
do is find the balance to protect and preserve Medicare, not for the 
next election, but on a bipartisan basis for the next generation.

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