[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 11752]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     MEDICARE WITHERING ON THE VINE

  (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, the Republican candidate for President 
several years ago proudly voted against Medicare. The former Speaker, 
Mr. Gingrich, said that he hoped that Medicare would wither on the 
vine. Many of us wondered what he really meant.
  Today, in the Committee on Rules, we found out the truth. A gentleman 
from Georgia on the Committee on Rules said that there are two 
proposals before us today, the Republican proposal and a Soviet-style 
program. When pressed, he said we all know Medicare is a Soviet-style 
program.
  There is where we are. The Republican plan is a plan to privatize 
Medicare, first by doing the drug benefit and then extending it into 
the rest. It is a Trojan horse designed to get rid of Medicare, and 
everybody who votes for that bill today will be setting that in motion.
  My mother, my colleagues' mothers, their grandfathers, their fathers, 
they do not want Medicare to wither on the vine; but this House is 
prepared to prevent us from giving even an alternative to the American 
people. That is what Soviets do.

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