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[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 72 (Wednesday, May 3, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6128-S6129]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

                   THE FEDERAL BUDGET FOR FISCAL 1996

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, today is May 3, more than a month after 
the law requires a budget resolution to be reported to the Senate for 
debate. It is 18 days past April 15, when the law requires a budget 
resolution to have been completed and passed.
  Yet, the Senate Budget Committee has not even begun to mark up a 
resolution. Instead, a scheduled markup has been delayed until May 8, 
so nothing will be done until then.
  Yet, the current majority has inherited a budget from the last 
Congress in which the deficit is declining. Its task should be easier 
than the task of the last Congress, which made the tough decisions that 
led to deficit decline.
  Meanwhile, although our task in the last Congress was a harder one, 
and we achieved it with no Republican help, we did so within the 
deadlines set by law.
  Republicans campaigned on the claim that they could cut taxes, 
protect defense spending, and balance the budget, all without touching 
Social Security benefits. That was the message heard around the country 
all year last year. That was the message to which Americans responded: 
Cut taxes, protect defense spending, and balance the budget, without 
affecting Social Security.
  Now the time is already past for the first downpayment on that 
promise--the budget resolution required by law.
  All we are hearing is the stirring sound of people changing the 
subject. Republicans have discovered that the Medicare Program faces 
challenges in the years ahead. Democrats told them and the Nation that 
2 years ago, when we shored up the Medicare Program and cut the 
deficit, all without Republican votes.
  Throughout the last 2 years, Republicans have rejected each and every 
proposal offered to help shore up the Medicare Program, with rhetoric 
about reduced choices and higher taxes.
  Now it is time to deliver. If Democratic solutions to the long-term 
problems of an aging population are no good, let us hear Republican 
solutions.
  I fear we will not, because there are not any. The Republican 
discovery of a well-known fact is nothing but an effort to distract 
Americans from their real intentions. House Republicans are considering 
reductions in Medicare growth on the order of $300 billion. Senate 
Republicans have said they will need to reduce normal Medicare growth 
by $200 to $250 billion.
  They all say they are not cutting, they are just reducing growth. But 
if a program grows because more people age and become eligible for it, 
it is pretty obvious that the same number of dollars will stretch a lot 
thinner.
  Medicare program costs are increasing because all health insurance 
costs are increasing. In fact, on a per capita basis, Medicare and 
Medicaid costs are increasing at the same rate as privately insured 
costs. If Medicare growth rates are simply slashed--without reform--to 
a rate of growth half as high, we know who is going to pay.
  The seniors and working people and employers of this country will 
pay, that is who. Hospitals and doctors will just shift costs to 
private insurers. The result will be a massive hidden tax on jobs, a 
massive hidden tax hike on seniors and workers through hikes in 
copayments and deductibles.
  Cost sharing of the kind Republicans are now contemplating are not 
just likely to shift costs to the private sector. They are certain to 
shift costs to the private sector.

[[Page S6129]]

  It will be an invisible tax on the privately insured.
  Some Republicans want to impose this invisible tax to pay for their 
visible tax cut for the wealthy.
  The budget figures and the rate of health care inflation show that 
Medicare can be preserved without massive cuts of the kind some are 
considering. They only reason they need to cut $300 billion from 
Medicare is because they plan to give away $354 billion at the same 
time through a tax cut for the wealthy.
  Americans will not be fooled by talk of bipartisan commissions. They 
will not buy the ruse, where their retired parents' health care is cut 
way back and their own health care costs are exacerbated to quietly 
provide tax breaks to the wealthiest people in the country.
  If Medicare needs reform, it should be reformed in a way that ensures 
seniors will get the care they have been promised, and it should be 
done in the context of health care reform. Medicare should not be cut 
blindly to achieve false savings--or worse, to fund a tax cut for those 
who need it least.
  The first step in this process must be for the majority to do what 
they already should have done--propose a budget.

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