[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 18838]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 THE BUSH MEDICARE BILL'S DIRTY LAUNDRY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. McCotter). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I want to follow on the heels of the 
comments of the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Emanuel) about the Bush 
administration not telling the truth about Iraq and how much the 
country has paid for that and discuss how the President of the United 
States did not tell the truth about the Medicare bill and how, 
unfortunately, because of that, senior citizens of this country will be 
inflicted with the largest Medicare premium increase, 17.4 percent, 
that seniors have ever seen in the 38 years of Medicare's history.
  On this chart we can look at what is entitled ``Medicare Bill's Dirty 
Laundry.'' I want to talk for a moment how we got where we got, how 
this bill came to become law and led to that 17.4 percent premium 
increase that Medicare beneficiaries will be forced to pay.
  First of all, the Medicare bill was written by the drug industry and 
the insurance industry, both industries having given the President of 
the United States tens of millions of dollars, and to the gentleman 
from Texas (Mr. DeLay) and Republican leadership, tens of millions of 
dollars for their political campaigns. So the legislation was written 
by the drug and insurance companies as a payback by the Republicans for 
the help that they had gotten from these industries.
  Now, when the bill came to the floor of the House of Representatives, 
and everybody in this body remembers that night, the debate started at 
midnight, the votes started at 3 o'clock in the morning. The vote went 
for 2 hours 55 minutes as the Republican leadership attempted to bribe, 
as told the next day by one Republican Member, strong arm, twisted 
arms, waked up the President, got him on the phone with Members of 
Congress, campaign contributions flowed liberally to Republican Members 
of Congress, and that vote, after 2 hours 55 minutes, the longest vote 
in Congressional history, two Members changed their vote at 5:55 in the 
morning and that Medicare bill barely passed.
  Then the administration used tens of millions of dollars, of 
taxpayers' dollars, to try to convince the public that this was a good 
bill. At the same time we found out that this bill that was to cost 
$400 million, we were told would actually cost about $530 billion, from 
$400 billion to $530 billion. The President knew it, the head Medicare 
knew it, and they simply did not tell the people and the Congress of 
the United States. That is why we ended up with a 17 percent increase.
  Then this was capped off by the fact that the President of the United 
States did not release this information about the 17 percent increase 
until they could almost do it in the dead of night. They chose a Friday 
afternoon right before the Labor Day weekend to announce to the public 
that, yes, this increase was going to be 17 percent.
  Now, before the Bush Medicare bill became law, the nonpartisan 
Medicare trustees said the premium increase for 2005 for Medicare 
beneficiaries would be $2. Instead, once the Bush Medicare bill became 
law, the premium increase jumped to $11.60. The premium increase after 
the Bush Medicare law was more than five times larger than the previous 
premium increase was estimated to be.
  So where does that money go? Where do the billions of dollars that 
come out of seniors' pockets on the one hand go? It comes out of 
seniors' pockets. By and large, it goes into the insurance company HMO 
pockets.
  Insurance company HMOs had a 50 percent increase in profits last 
year. That is before the Medicare bill became law. In fact, that 17 
percent largest increase in Medicare history premium goes directly into 
a $23.5 billion slush fund for the insurance industry. The insurance 
industry, which enjoyed huge profit increases the year before, now is 
going to get a $23.5 billion bonus, thanks to the increase in premiums 
for seniors.
  So, Mr. Speaker, it makes a perfect circle. The Medicare bill is 
written by the drug companies and insurance companies; the bill passes 
Congress in large part because of huge contributions from the drug and 
insurance companies to the Republican leadership and to President Bush 
and to Republican rank and file members; the bill then means huge 
subsidies for the insurance companies, $23.5 billion, and even bigger 
profits for the drug companies; and then, when all this is over, the 
premium goes up not $2, but $11, 17 percent, the largest premium 
increase in Medicare history.
  Mr. Speaker, that is the kind of corruption that I hoped we would 
never see in this body, where campaign contributions result in a bill 
written for the drug and insurance industries under the guise of 
improving Medicare, although seniors never really believed that. The 
bill passes in the dead of night, seniors' Medicare premiums go up 17 
percent, the largest increase in history, and Republicans cash in with 
political contributions.
  Mr. Speaker, that is shameful.

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