S6138 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD— SENATE May 4, 1995 

I say to the Senators on both sides of 

the aisle, welcome to health care reform. Welcome to the health care 

issue. It is back. How ironic it is that 

when historians write about the 104th 

Congress, they are going to say that 

the 104th Congress had to address 

health care reform, how to finance it, 

how to deliver health care to people 

out in the communities in an affordable, dignified way. The reason the 

104th Congress finally moved on this 

question is that some Senators realized, finally, that the only way we are 

really going to have deficit reduction 

based on a standard of fairness and the 

only way we are going to make sure we 

are able to provide decent health care 

coverage for all of our citizens, regardless of age or where they live or income, is with significant, meaningful 

health care reform. 

I am ready to work with colleagues 

on both sides of the aisle, because I 

think that will now have to be one of 

our major priorities. 

I yield the floor. 

Mrs. BOXER addressed the Chair. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California is recognized. 

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I want 

to thank my colleague for really putting out in very clear and simple terms 

the kind of crisis that we knew about. 

Indeed, President Clinton was so clear 

in his very first and second State of the 

Union Address when he said, ‘‘If we 

want to have meaningful deficit reduction, we better address the issue of 

health care reform.’’

Here we have a situation—and I serve 

on the Budget Committee. I am waiting for the Republican budget, by the 

way. It is way late. Since I came here, 

I have been on the Budget Committee, 

and the Budget Committee has been on 

time. Not this year. Do you know why? 

Because the Republicans have promised 

certain things they just cannot keep: 

huge deficit reduction, increases in the 

military, big tax breaks for some of the 

wealthiest again. Guess what? They 

said they would not touch Social Security. Thank goodness. Frankly, I think 

a lot of my colleagues made that point 

clear in the balanced budget debate. So 

the only cash cow they can look at is 

Medicare. And at this point, they want 

to cut hundreds of billions of dollars 

out of Medicare, and they realize, how 

can we sell that to the seniors? So they 

are creating this big crisis. 

We talked about the need for health 

care reform. My friend, Senator 

WELLSTONE, was one of the leaders in 

this fight. So I say to my friend, thank 

you for your remarks this morning. It 

is almost poignant that we are at this 

point. Does he not agree? 

Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, I 

thank my colleague from California for 

her gracious remarks. It is ironic that 

indeed we have now come full circle 

back to the last Congress. 

The very people who were so proud of 

having blocked health care reform are 

now talking about a crisis in Medicare, 

talking about how we will finance it, 

and are now making a proposal, I say 

to my colleague, for rather draconian 

cuts in Medicare. But they do not want 

to talk about rationing. Now they really are making proposals that will ration. 

I think there are certain realities 

now that we all hope we will face up to 

and move forward on health care reform. It is the only way to do it. Otherwise, it will be disastrous. 

The kind of proposals I hear people 

making now to cut Medicare will not 

only hurt senior citizens, but as I said, 

will create absolute utter chaos in this 

health care system. They do not deal 

with preexisting conditions, they do 

not deal with any of the bias of not 

having community rating, they do not 

deal with how to make it affordable. If 

anything, it will just have a severe impact. 

Mrs. BOXER. I just want to thank 

my friend again. He is, of course, correct. The kinds of cuts that my colleagues on the Republican side are 

talking about out of Medicare simply 

will ruin Medicare. We cannot possibly, 

in the name of deficit reduction, destroy the Medicare system or the Medicaid system, for that matter. 

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SENATE AGENDA 

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I am 

very pleased that the leader has reserved some time to discuss general 

matters. I want to tie a few pieces together. 

Before Senator WELLSTONE took to 

the floor, the Senator from Missouri 

was praising a Supreme Court decision 

that gave more power to the States. 

Rather than get into that decision, I 

want to point out that in vote after 

vote, the vast majority of my Republican friends here in the Senate have 

voted in these last few days to replace 

State product liability laws, State 

medical malpractice—indeed, all other 

civil laws—with Federal laws, with 

Federal caps. 

We certainly know—at least I certainly feel confident in stating to the 

American people—that these changes 

are going to hurt them. They are going 

to hurt consumers in our Nation by 

substituting politicians’ judgments for 

local judges and juries. 

Here we have spent many, many days 

and many, many hours on a power 

grab—essentially, a Federal Government power grab—brought by this Republican Congress in the Contract With 

America, a power grab to say that we 

in the almighty Senate know better 

than a judge or jury what someone who 

has been burned beyond recognition 

ought to be able to get from those at 

fault; what someone who perhaps was 

paralyzed should get; what someone 

would be able to get if a physician, perhaps in a stupor, makes a dreadful mistake. We have heard of some of those 

situations occurring. 

I think it is very ironic that Senators 

would come to the floor on the Republican side and talk about how they 

think more power ought to be invested 

in the States and then support this 

kind of a bill. 

I hope today, when we vote cloture, 

that we will be able to stop this horrific bill from becoming a law of the 

land. 

Mr. President, while I feel we should 

not be doing that, there are many 

other things I feel we should be doing 

here in the Senate, that we should be 

working on. 

One of those, certainly, to my mind, 

is the confirmation of a new Surgeon 

General for this country, Dr. Henry 

Foster. I want to say that, in between 

my going to committees and my work 

on the floor, I have watched Dr. Foster. 

I am very proud of the way he handled 

himself. 

I see, today, he has gained the support of one Republican on the committee, assuring that there will be at 

least a tie vote. I want to reiterate to 

the majority leader, Senator DOLE, 

what I have written to him twice 

about. I see that the Democrat leader 

is on the floor and I want to thank him 

for being so clear on this point. 

Americans are fair, Mr. President. 

Americans are just. The fact is, this 

man deserves to be heard on this Senate floor. 

We have an AIDS epidemic, we have 

a breast cancer epidemic, we have a 

lung cancer epidemic, we have an epidemic of teen pregnancies, we have too 

many cases of Alzheimer’s, cancer, and 

heart disease in this country. 

We have too much smoking going on 

in this country, too many young kids 

taking up smoking. We need a Surgeon 

General. I do not know why it has to 

take 3 more weeks for the committee 

to vote out Dr. Foster, but so be it. 

I want to say today on the floor what 

I have written to Senator DOLE, that if 

Senator DOLE refuses to bring this 

nomination to the floor, even if it is a 

tie vote or, Mr. President, even if it is 

a losing vote, if Senator DOLE refuses 

to bring this nomination to the floor, I 

reserve my right as a Senator to object 

to Senate business until we can have 

this nomination on the floor. Senator 

DODD yesterday said he thought it 

would be childish for Members to avoid 

this discussion on the floor and I want 

to, again, say that I agree with that. 

Now, Mr. President, I would like to 

speak to one question in my remaining 

5 minutes. Where is the Republican 

budget? Where is the Republican budget? By law, the Budget Committee was 

required to complete work on that 

budget by April 1. It is May 3, 33 days 

after that date, and we still have no 

budget. By law, the entire Congress is 

required to complete work on the budget by April 15. It is May 3—18 days after 

that date—and still no budget. 

For years, my Republican colleagues 

have said we could easily eliminate the 

deficit, and we know how. Not one of 

my Republicans friends voted for the 

budget last year, which cut $500 billion 

from the deficit—not one. They said, 

‘‘We can do it better; we can do it 

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May 4, 1995 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD— SENATE S6139 

quicker; we can do it.’’ Where is the 

budget? 

My Republican friends have overpromised: More military spending; balancing the budget by 2002; tax cuts, 

going up to over $200,000, people will 

get tax cuts. Yes, they have a problem. 

They looked at that budget and they 

saw only one place to go—Medicare. 

When it got out that they were looking 

at cuts of $250 billion out of a program 

that 75 percent of Americans treasure, 

they started to get a little weak in the 

knees. They said: What are we going to 

do? Tell the people that Medicare is in 

crisis. This is the new turn of events. 

Medicare is in crisis, they say. 

Well, I have looked, looked at all the 

reports that have come from the Medicare trustees over the years. There has 

not been a year when Medicare trustees 

did not say, at some point in the future, Medicare will be in trouble. This 

year is no exception, because when this 

Congress was Democratic, we voted to 

shore up the Medicare fund by making 

some tax law changes. 

The Republicans in the House repealed that. If their law continues, 

Medicare will be in trouble in 1999. If 

we can stave them off, we have the 

fund solvent until 2002. 

Yes, we have to fix Medicare. Yes, we 

have to reform Medicare. Yes, we have 

to do it right. But not slash and burn. 

And not outside of the context of comprehensive reform. 

I will say that if the Republicans succeed in this, our seniors will be thrown 

into managed care; they will lose the 

doctor of their choice; they will have 

to pay more out-of-pocket expenses, 

and many hospitals in California are 

going to close. 

Let Members stand tall as Democrats 

in this U.S. Senate. Let Members demand to see this budget. Let Members 

say to our seniors that we will stand 

for seniors and we will not allow the 

seniors of this country to have the 

budget balanced on their backs. They 

deserve more respect than that; they 

deserve much more than that. 

Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the 

floor. 

Mr. DASCHLE addressed the Chair. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The 

Chair recognizes the minority leader 

from South Dakota. 

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WHERE IS THE BUDGET? 

Mr. DASCHLE. I rise to commend my 

colleagues for their eloquent presentation this morning. The Senator from 

California could not have said it better. 

The Senator from California knows, 

as my other colleagues have also indicated they know, the ramifications of 

this budget resolution and the extraordinary problems we face as we consider 

some of the implications of the huge 

cuts in Medicare that are now being 

proposed, as well as the extraordinary 

link between those cuts and the tax cut 

for the wealthy that some of our Republican colleagues have proposed over 

the course of the last several months, 

and, as we have already indicated, the 

House of Representatives has already 

passed. 

The concern I want to address just 

briefly this morning has to do with 

what happens when nothing happens. 

What happens when the budget resolution does not come to the floor in the 

manner the law requires? What happens to the debt? What happens to the 

cost of running the Federal Government each and every day that we 

delay? 

It may come as a surprise to some 

who may be listening that each day we 

delay action on the budget, the Federal 

debt increases by $820 million. The 

budget resolution, of course, was due 

on the 1st of April. The budget resolution was due almost 35 days ago. At 

that time, if you use the day before as 

the baseline, we increased the debt on 

that particular day by $820 million. On 

April 2, only 2 days after the budget 

resolution was supposed to have been 

reported, the debt increase was up to 

$1.6 billion. 

As you can see, in just the first 9 

days since April 1, the debt increased 

by $8.2 billion simply because there has 

been no budget resolution and no opportunity for Congress to address the 

concern that so many of our Republican colleagues say ought to have the 

highest priority in the Congress today. 

Indeed, it should have that priority. 

The situation is beginning to look 

very serious as you go from this chart 

to the next one. The next chart indicates that 10 days after the budget resolution was due the debt had increased 

by $9 billion; 20 days after the budget 

resolution was due the debt had increased $16 billion. So, in just 20 days, 

because of inaction, because we have 

not had a budget resolution, because 

we have not been given an opportunity 

to address the extraordinary consequences of failure in leadership here, 

in just 20 days we have seen an increase 

of $16 billion in the total debt, directly 

attributable to the fact that we have 

not had a budget resolution. 

It gets worse, Mr. President. This 

chart begins to depict how much worse. 

On April 21 that debt increased to $17.2 

billion. As you can see, slowly we are 

going off the chart now. The chart is 

not even big enough to show the debt 

that has accumulated by the last day 

of the month in which the budget resolution was due. 

As we all said, we knew the implications would be serious, but this chart 

shows just how serious. On April 30 we 

now see the debt, as a result of not 

having a budget resolution, go off the 

charts to $24.4 billion. That is $24 billion more than it would have been had 

we been able to stop this growth, this 

excessive increase in debt, on April 1 

when the resolution was due. 

The real story then comes on the 

final chart. At least we hope it will be 

the final chart. The final chart shows 

that on May 1 the increased debt was 

$25.2 billion; on May 2 it was $26 billion; on May 3, another $820 million 

more than the day before—$26.8 billion 

more than on April 1. 

Today I will add yet the newest bar, 

for May 4, $27.6 billion in additional 

debt as a result of the lack of action, as 

a result of the inaction of the Senate 

Budget Committee and our colleagues 

on the Republican side in failing to address this issue. 

This is what we are facing. We are 

going to need charts that I will not be 

able to reach here by the end of this 

week, simply because we have not been 

given the budget resolution that the 

law requires. We all understand. When 

the American taxpayer is told that he 

has to produce his check to pay his 

taxes by April 15, people join long lines 

at the post office in order to ensure 

that they get their return in the mail 

and comply with the law. American 

taxpayers go down to the post office at 

midnight sometimes, on the eve of 

April 15, to ensure that they comply 

with the law. The law says everybody 

has to pay their taxes by April 15, and, 

indeed, the vast majority of American 

people, as law-abiding citizens, comply 

with the law. 

The law also says that the budget 

resolution has to be passed out of the 

Budget Committee by April 1, and out 

of the Senate, the Congress, by April 

15. But we have now seen the cost of inaction. We have now seen what happens 

if nothing is done. We have now seen 

how it is compounded, day after day, 

with increases in cost, increases in 

debt, increases in the complexity of the 

problem we are going to have to address in the coming days. 

I must say, I think the biggest concern that many of my colleagues on 

the other side have as they consider all 

of the ramifications of a budget resolution is a promise that was made last 

November. We heard it time and time 

again. We heard that we can cut taxes, 

we can increase or at least maintain 

defense spending levels, we can balance 

the budget, and we can do all of that 

without touching Social Security. 

Now, given the circumstances, it is 

becoming increasingly apparent that 

that is not possible, that there is no 

way to do all of that, as was promised 

last November. So, as we look at ways 

with which to begin to address it, they 

are coming to the conclusion that one 

of the biggest pools of resources from 

which to draw to pay for the tax cut 

they promised is Medicare. In the name 

of reform, some of our colleagues on 

the other side are suggesting that is 

really what we must do. Let us reform 

Medicare. And in reforming Medicare 

we just happen to see this new pool of 

resources so that we can pay for a tax 

cut for the wealthy. 

Cutting Medicare benefits for the elderly in this way has nothing to do 

with reform. That is not reform. Certainly there has to be some appreciation of the difficulties we are facing in 

Medicare with the trust fund. Everyone 

is willing to concede that. But, to say 

in the name of reform we are going to 

cut benefits, in the name of reform we 

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