[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 15792]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           PRESCRIPTION DRUG PLAN BURDENS FUTURE GENERATIONS

  (Mr. SMITH of Michigan asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SMITH of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, adding prescription drugs to 
Medicare is one of the most unfair burdens that Congress and the 
President have placed on future generations in a long, long time.
  I have 10 grandkids and now, for a Medicare program that is already 
broke, insolvent Congress is adding benefits. We are reaching into the 
general fund to pay for Medicare. Medicare and Social Security are 
going to be insolvent within the next 10 to 14 years.
  Yet we are adding a new prescription drug burden to Medicare, moving 
into socialized medicine, and making my kids and 10 grandkids and 
everybody else's responsible to pay for seniors' drug prescriptions.
  Actually, today's retiring seniors are probably the most wealthy and 
better off than any generation of Americans. Yet we are placing a 
burden on our kids, and young workers who are trying to save money to 
send their kids to college. We are placing a huge burden on my 
grandkids to pay off the debt. We are actually borrowing the money, Mr. 
Speaker, to pay for this huge expansion in socialized medicine.

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