[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 31 (Monday, August 7, 2000)]
[Pages 1756-1760]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the David Barksdale Senior Center in Tampa

July 31, 2000

    Thank you very much. Well, Sylvia made a better speech than I can 
for this program. [Laughter] Let's give her another hand. Didn't she do 
a great job? [Applause]
    Paul Herrera, thank you and the Barksdale Senior Golden Age Club for 
welcoming me here. I'm delighted to be here. And thank all of you for 
coming out.
    I want to thank Bill Nelson, your insurance commissioner, for 
joining me here and for the work he's done to protect Florida seniors 
from insurance fraud, and also the work he's done to help enroll 
children in the Children's Health Insurance Program. I thank him for 
that.
    Mayor Greco, it's good to be back in your great city. I love it 
here. I'd also like to acknowledge the presence in the audience of your 
former Lieutenant Governor, now our Special Envoy to Latin America, 
Buddy MacKay. Thank you for being here.
    This center was founded in 1942. It was then a place where Army and 
Air Force personnel could enjoy it during off-duty hours. While the uses 
of the Barksdale Center have changed over the years, the purpose hasn't. 
It still serves those who served our Nation, in uniform and in so many 
other ways. As Paul Herrera has said, the Barksdale Center has become a 
second home for many of Tampa's seniors and disabled citizens, a place 
to take music classes, to learn the two-step--

[[Page 1757]]

maybe I'm not too old to learn that--to get a nutritious meal, and a 
bedrock of security, a place you can all rely on in good times and bad. 
I appreciate the work that is done here.
    For our Nation, these are good times, remarkably good times, 
virtually without precedent in the history of America. Like the rest of 
America, Florida is on the move. When I came to Tampa as a candidate in 
1992, the unemployment rate was over 7 percent; today, it's 2.7 percent. 
The Nation has created over 22 million jobs, with the lowest 
unemployment rate in 30 years, the longest economic expansion in 
history, with record deficits turned into record surpluses.
    The question before the American people, as the Congress deliberates 
and as the voters deliberate, is, what are we going to do with this 
magic moment of prosperity? What is the best use of it? Will we think 
about short-term gains or will we think about what we should do for our 
country over the long run for people of all ages, all races, and all 
backgrounds and all income groups. I believe one of the most important 
things we can do with our prosperity is to strengthen Medicare by adding 
a prescription drug benefit.
    Thirty-five years ago, when President Johnson signed Medicare into 
law, he created a cornerstone upon which generations of Americans could 
safely rest. Since then, Medicare has been a remarkable success and a 
solid guarantee. Before Medicare, more than half of our seniors had no 
health care coverage at all. Serious illness often wiped away in an 
instant all the savings families had put away over a lifetime of hard 
work.
    Today, nearly every senior has the security of basic health 
coverage. Poverty among elderly has fallen dramatically as a result, and 
Americans over 65 have the highest life expectancy of all the world's 
seniors. Any American who lives to be 65 today has a life expectancy in 
excess of 82 years. People over 80 are the fastest growing group of 
people in America in percentage terms. I hope to be one of them one of 
these days. [Laughter] Yet, for all its success, as Bill Nelson made 
clear, Medicare simply has not kept pace with the growing miracles of 
modern medicine.
    The Medicare law was created at a time when patients' lives were 
more often saved by a surgeon's scalpel than by pharmaceuticals, when 
many of the lifesaving drugs we now take for granted did not even exist, 
indeed, were not even thought of. Prescription drugs today can 
accomplish what once was done through expensive surgery, and no one--if 
we were creating the Medicare program today, starting from scratch, it 
would not even occur to anyone to create a Medicare program without a 
prescription drug benefit.
    Adding a voluntary prescription drug benefit is the right thing to 
do, but it's also, medically, the smart thing to do. Today, fully half 
of Medicare beneficiaries don't have prescription drug coverage for part 
or all of the year. And the cost of prescription drugs is taking too big 
a bite out of the fixed incomes of too many seniors and people with 
disabilities. You heard that today in the remarks that were made before 
I came up here, in ways more eloquent than I could possibly express.
    Sylvia's story, however, is not unique to her. I'll bet it's 
repeated among a lot of you in this audience, and I can promise you all 
across America, there are millions and millions and millions just like 
her. Too many people literally are forced to choose on a weekly basis 
between filling their prescriptions and filling their grocery carts.
    A Family USA report released today shows that the cost of 
prescription drugs is continuing to increase. According to this report, 
older Americans now pay an average of more than $1,200 a year for 
prescription drugs, up from $559 in 1992. The amount is projected to 
increase to more than--listen to this--$2,800 over the next decade. Here 
in Florida, hundreds of thousands of seniors lack the benefits of 
dependable prescription drug coverage. Thousands of others try to get 
coverage through private Medigap insurance plans and managed care. Some 
have succeeded only to be dropped later by their private care plans and 
left with nothing more than an empty medicine chest.
    In fact, just this year, nearly a million Medicare beneficiaries 
around America, more than 85,000 in Florida alone, were dropped by their 
managed care plans. For most seniors, that leaves only one alternative 
to drug coverage: They can buy into a private

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Medigap plan, which can cost hundreds of dollars a month for a benefit 
with a $250 deductible and no protections against catastrophic drug 
costs.
    Now, most of us tend to think of Medicare beneficiaries as seniors, 
but in fact, 5 million of them are people with disabilities under the 
age of 65. A quarter million of them live right here in Florida, too. As 
difficult as it is for seniors to get affordable and dependable 
prescription drugs, it's an even greater challenge for Americans with 
disabilities.
    Today I'm releasing another report that documents how Medicare 
beneficiaries with disabilities are in poor health, require more 
prescriptions, and are less likely to have private prescription drug 
coverage. The report also shows that people with disabilities purchased 
40 percent more drugs than the typical Medicare beneficiary. And like 
seniors who lack drug coverage, they, too, pay more for the drugs they 
do get.
    On average, Medicare beneficiaries with disabilities who lack 
coverage spend 50 percent more out of pocket for 50 percent fewer 
prescriptions than those who have coverage. Let me say that again. 
People without coverage spend 50 percent more out of pocket for 50 
percent fewer prescriptions than those who have coverage. These drugs 
aren't only lifesaving; they can help people with disabilities return to 
work and make even greater contributions to their communities, people 
like Patricia Fell, over here to my right who came up with me on the 
stage, from Clearwater. She suffers every day from a very painful hip 
condition. She has been a foster mother--listen to this--to 87 children. 
And her daughter is here with us today, and we welcome her.
    She uses her disability check to pay her $4,300 annual prescription 
drug bill. She would work full-time, but if she did, she'd lose her 
disability check. That's what pays for the prescription drugs she 
desperately needs. She told me that this is continuing to be an 
agonizing choice for her.
    Now, people like her, who have done their part for our country and 
done way more than most people have to help children in need, shouldn't 
have to make a choice between health and work. A Medicare drug benefit 
would give Pat the chance to be as healthy, active, and productive as 
she could possibly be.
    That's why I have proposed a plan to provide a Medicare prescription 
drug benefit that is voluntary and accessible to all seniors and all 
Americans with disabilities; a plan that ensures that all older 
Americans and other eligible Americans with disabilities, no matter 
where they live or how sick they are, will pay the same affordable $25 a 
month premium; a plan that uses price competition, not price controls, 
to give seniors and people with disabilities the best price as possible; 
a plan that would cover catastrophic drug costs; a plan that provides 
beneficiaries the prescriptions they need at the pharmacies they trust; 
a plan that is part of an overall effort to strengthen and modernize 
Medicare and lengthen its life so that we will not have to ask our 
children to shoulder the burden of the baby boom generation when we 
retire.
    Now, in response, the Republican majority in Congress has passed a 
private insurance plan that many seniors and people with disabilities 
simply will not be able to afford. You see that already with the Medigap 
plan. It won't offer affordable and accessible coverage to all seniors. 
It relies on a trickle-down scheme that provides a subsidy for insurers 
but not a single dollar for middle class seniors and people with 
disabilities. And let me say this: Over half the seniors and people with 
disabilities who lack affordable insurance coverage today have incomes 
above 150 percent of the poverty line, which is about $12,600 for an 
individual senior, about $16,600 for a couple.
    Now, I'm President; I'm not supposed to say it's a bunch of baloney, 
like Sylvia did. [Laughter] But you might be surprised to know who 
agrees with her--the insurance companies, themselves. Even the insurance 
companies concede that a Medigap insurance model will not work for 
prescription drug coverage. This is very, very important.
    Here's what one insurance company had to say, and I quote, 
``Private, stand-alone prescription drug coverage will not work. Such 
coverage would constitute an empty promise to Medicare beneficiaries.'' 
Insurance companies are refusing to participate in such a program. The 
State of Nevada tried to implement a private insurance model quite 
similar

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to the Republican plan which passed through Congress. They could not 
find one single qualified insurance company even willing to offer the 
coverage, because they knew it couldn't be done at an affordable rate, 
and they didn't want to be accused of perpetrating a fraud on the 
seniors in the State.
    It's clear that this plan that passed with the votes of the 
Republican majority is basically designed for the pharmaceutical 
companies who make the drugs, not the seniors who take them. Now, why 
would they do that? Because they believe that if we have a Medicare 
program, we will be able to buy these pharmaceuticals in bulk and get 
you a better price and because charging higher prices for Americans 
recovers all the research costs of these drugs, and that enables them to 
sell the drugs for a profit at much lower prices in other countries, 
which is why I'm sure you've seen all these stories about people taking 
buses to Canada to buy their drugs. Unfortunately, Florida is nowhere 
near North Dakota, so that's not an option for most of you. [Laughter] 
But that's what's going on here. And it's unbelievable to me.
    What are we going to do with our prosperity? This week--and you may 
hear if you turn on the television, the Republicans when they meet in 
Philadelphia in convention talking about all their tax cut bills and how 
wonderful they'd be for you. But what they don't say is that if you take 
all their tax cut proposals in total, it spends the entire projected 
surplus of the country for the next 10 years. Congressman Davis just 
came in, your Congressman--he was nodding his head. So I want to 
acknowledge you. Thank you for being here, sir.
    They spent--you know, they're trying to put the heat on him. They're 
trying to say, ``Well, people in Tampa ought to be mad at him. He's not 
voting for all these tax cuts. Aren't they good?'' It kind of reminds me 
of going to a cafeteria. When I go to a cafeteria, everything I see 
looks good. [Laughter] But if I eat it all, I'll get sick. [Laughter]
    Now, that's what's going on here. So they talk about all these 
wonderful tax cuts. If they become the law, there will be nothing left 
from the projected surplus for a Medicare prescription drug benefit, 
nothing left to lengthen the life of Social Security and Medicare, so 
when the baby boomers retire we don't break our kids and our grandkids, 
nothing left to invest in the education of our children.
    There's something else I'd like to say that all of you can probably 
identify with. This is a projected surplus. This is what we think we'll 
get over the next 10 years. Did you ever get one of those letters from 
Ed McMahon? [Laughter] You know, it probably said, ``You may have won 
$10 million.'' Did you ever get one? ``You may have won $10 million.'' 
Now, if you went out and spent the $10 million the next day, you should 
support their plan. [Laughter] But, if not, you ought to think again 
there.
    When you cut these taxes, the money's gone. And I think it's wrong 
to spend it all. Just this week, we released a report that showed that 
one of their spending proposals, the total repeal of the estate tax, 
would benefit only 4,300 families in Florida, with an average tax cut of 
$434,000. Now, I think there ought to be some changes in the estate tax. 
I think the rate's too high. I think too many family businesses are 
burdened by it. And I'm all for changing it. I've offered to change it. 
But to completely repeal it without taking account of the need here for 
prescription drugs is a big mistake.
    While 4,300 families in Florida would benefit from the estate tax 
repeal, the Medicare prescription drug benefit would provide affordable 
coverage to more than 2.7 million seniors and people with disabilities 
in Florida. Their average income is $18,600.
    Even by Congress's own optimistic efforts, I will say again, these 
tax bills leave nothing for Medicare, for lengthening the life of Social 
Security, and for the drug program, or for education for our children, 
plus which, they'd make it impossible for us to pay this country out of 
debt by 2012. One of the things I've been trying to do is get us out of 
debt. We quadrupled the debt of the country in the 12 years before I 
took office, and we're trying to get rid of it. If we get rid of it, 
interest rates will be lower; incomes will be higher; people will pay 
less for home mortgages--$250 billion over 10 years, by our estimates--
less for car loans, less for college loans. That's the equivalent of a 
big tax

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cut, lower interest rates. So I think this is very, very important.
    Now, there is a better way. The budget that I gave the Congress 
continues our fiscal discipline. It would get us out of debt by 2012, 
for the first time since 1835, and it would put us in great shape for 
the 21st century. It would extend the life of the Social Security Trust 
Fund by more than 50 years. It would extend the life of Medicare by over 
30 years. Medicare was supposed to go broke last year when I took 
office.
    It provides, believe it or not, tax cuts--affordable tax cuts--to 
help people send their kids to college, pay for long-term care for the 
elderly and disabled--a big deal--pay for child care, pay for retirement 
savings, allow people between the ages of 55 and 65 to buy into Medicare 
and give them a tax benefit to do so, because so many of them have lost 
their insurance, and provide marriage penalty tax relief. And believe it 
or not, our plan only costs one-fourth as much as theirs does, but it 
would provide more benefits to 80 percent of the people.
    So there is a way to have a tax cut here and have the money to pay 
for the Medicare prescription drug program, to lengthen the life of 
Medicare and Social Security, to invest in the education of our 
children. And believe it or not, I still leave a lot of this projected 
surplus alone, in my budget, in case it doesn't materialize, or in case 
it does materialize, the next President and the next Congress can make a 
judgment about what to do with it. I just don't believe in spending all 
this money before it comes in. We've tried it before, and it didn't work 
out too well.
    So I hope that all of you will raise your voices. This is not a 
partisan political issue in America. When you go to the pharmacist to 
fill a prescription, nobody asks you whether you voted Republican or 
Democrat for the last 40 years. Nobody asks whether you vote at all. 
You're just a person, and you need the medicine. It should not be a 
partisan political issue in Washington. We have the money. We can do it, 
provide a tax cut, invest in our children, and still get the country out 
of debt. All we have to do is decide what our priorities are, how much 
we care about it, how much people like the people on this stage and in 
this room matter to us, and what kind of America we want to live in.
    So I ask you all, because it's not a partisan issue out here, do 
what you can with your Senators and your Representatives. Raise your 
voices. Tell them it shouldn't be a partisan issue in Washington. You've 
got a lot of lives depending on it. And it's only going to become more 
and more important.
    You know, we're on the verge of breakthroughs for Parkinson's, for 
various kinds of cancers, with the Human Genome Project, which I'm sure 
you read about. We've now sequenced the human gene in its entirety. It 
won't be long; in the next 10 years, it's going to take your breath away 
what we learn how to correct in terms of human health problems.
    I believe that these young children here will, themselves, have 
children that will have a life expectancy at birth in excess of 90 
years. But if we want to do this--this is a high-class problem--I 
believe people with disabilities will find ways to remedy a lot of the 
disabilities, and they will be able to live longer and better lives and 
have more options. But all of that will require us to rely more heavily 
on medicine--not less, more.
    We have put this off long enough. We finally have the money to do 
it. And I think, as a country, we're morally obligated to do it. So I 
ask you to raise your voices. Stick with us. Let's keep working on it 
until we get it done.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

 Note:  The President spoke at 12 p.m. in the activity room. In his 
remarks, he referred to Paul Herrera, president, Barksdale Center Golden 
Age Club; Bill Nelson, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate from 
Florida; Mayor Dick A. Greco of Tampa; senior citizen Sylvia Kessler, 
who introduced the President; and Ed McMahon, spokesperson, Publishers' 
Clearinghouse Sweepstakes.