[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16222-16223]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 MEDICARE: H.R. 1 TURNS BACK THE CLOCK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, as a member of the Committee on 
Energy and Commerce, I worked on the markup of the prescription drug 
bill, the Republican Medicare privatization bill, the other day; and I 
really could not figure out why Republicans were in every case doing 
the bidding of the drug companies and in every case doing the bidding 
of the insurance companies.

                              {time}  2030

  I asked the chairman if it could be perhaps that because the drug 
companies contributed about $80 million to campaigns last year, about 
85 percent of that to Republicans, and the chairman said that could not 
be it. I asked if because our committee markup on two different 
occasions was delayed, stopped until the next day, stopped early 
because President Bush was headlining a major Republican event honoring 
the CEO of Glaxo Wellcome, one of the largest drug companies in the 
world, in this case a British drug company. He said that had nothing to 
do with it. I asked if it could be perhaps because President Bush was 
in the midst of raising millions of dollars this year from the drug 
companies and the insurance companies, if that is why the Republican 
drug bill was written by the drug industry and the insurance industry, 
and he said no to that.
  Now, I will take the chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce 
at his word, that Republicans were not at the beck and call of the drug 
and insurance industry because the drug and insurance industry so 
richly funds the Republican Party. I will take them at their word.
  But I finally figured out the reason that Republicans always do the 
bidding of the drug and insurance companies and why the Republicans 
want to privatize Medicare is because they just do not much like 
Medicare. And while that may sound strange to some Members of this 
House or anyone else that might be watching, I think we need to look at 
the history of Medicare.
  In 1965, there were only 11 Republican Members of Congress out of 150 
or 160 or so, only 11 Members of Congress on that side of the aisle 
that actually supported the creation of Medicare. Gerald Ford, later to 
become President, opposed it. Bob Dole, later to be a Senator and then 
a presidential nominee. Opposed the creation of Medicare. Strom 
Thurmond, a longtime, longest-serving Senator in U.S. history, opposed 
the creation of Medicare. Donald Rumsfeld, now the Secretary of 
Defense, was a Member of the House in those days and he opposed the 
creation of Medicare. Basically, almost every single Republican opposed 
the creation of Medicare. They made all kinds of comments about big 
government and socialized medicine, all of those kinds of things they 
said because they just did not want a government health care program 
like Medicare.
  Then, during the Reagan administration, Republicans tried several 
attempts to privatize Medicare. They cut reimbursement for hospitals, 
they cut reimbursement for doctors, they tried to scale back the 
Medicare benefit for seniors, but they really could not get much 
through a Democratic Congress. But then, the day came in 1995 when Newt 
Gingrich came on the scene as the new Speaker and Newt Gingrich 
literally waited fewer than 100 days, literally fewer than 100 days 
until he tried the beginning of the dismantling of Medicare.
  What Speaker Gingrich did was he tried to cut Medicare $270 million 
and then to turn around and give a major tax cut, taking the money from 
Medicare, and giving a major tax cut to the wealthiest people in sight. 
Does that sound familiar? That is what they are basically doing today, 
giving tax cuts to the wealthiest 1 percent. In this case, the tax cut 
for millionaires is $90,000.
  Speaker Gingrich also made a statement. He said, ``We can't get rid 
of Medicare''; this was back in 1995. He said, ``We can't get rid of 
Medicare in round one because we don't think that is politically smart, 
but we believe it is going to wither on the vine.''
  Bob Dole that same year bragged to a conservative group, a group of 
conservative politicians who do not like Medicare; sort of the 
Republican line. He said, Bob Dole said, I was there 30 years ago 
fighting the fight, voting against Medicare, trying to stop it from 
ever being created.
  So it is pretty clear, Mr. Speaker, that it may not be just the fact 
that Republicans raise a ton of money from the drug companies and a ton 
of money from the insurance companies, and that is why they are for 
Medicare privatization and that is why they want to turn Medicare over 
to the drug and insurance industries. It may not be that; it may be 
that they have an honest, philosophical difference with us and with 90 
percent of the American public. They just do not like Medicare. They 
voted against creating it. They bragged about voting against creating 
it. Speaker Gingrich voted to cut it on several occasions.
  And now in 2003, with a Republican President, a Republican Senate and 
a Republican House, this is their golden opportunity to privatize 
Medicare. That is what this vote is all about this week. The 
Republicans, at the behest of the insurance companies and the drug 
companies, want to privatize the health care system that has worked for 
America's seniors.
  The gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas), the new Republican star 
in their efforts to privatize Medicare, in their efforts to dismantle 
Medicare, has said, and I will end with this, Mr. Speaker, he said, to 
those who would say the bill would end Medicare as we know it, our 
answer is, from the gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas),

[[Page 16223]]

Republican chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, we certainly 
hope so. Old fashioned Medicare is not very good. We want to end it.
  Mr. Speaker, we need to vote ``no'' on the Republican plan, vote 
``yes'' on the Democratic plan that will preserve Medicare and provide 
a solid prescription drug benefit for our seniors.

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