H 4674 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—HOUSE May 10, 1995

There is no reason that we should be

making these cuts that will hurt the

elderly, the young, and those hoping to

lead our country during the next century, our college students, so that

those making over $200,000 a year can

be given a big tax break. That is right.

Those 1 million fortunate Americans

who make over $200,000 a year will be

getting a $20,000 tax break while 37 million seniors are losing $900 a year.

CONTRACT WITH OUR CHILDREN

THE REPUBLICAN BUDGET IS A

f(Mr. TIAHRT asked and was given

permission to address the House for 1

minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. TIAHRT. Mr. Speaker, once

again we are experiencing a historical

day. Today the House Committee on

the Budget will submit a plan to balance the budget by 2002. It is the only

plan around today to balance the budget, and it has been since 1968 that the

Federal Government has balanced its

budget resulting in almost a $5 trillion

debt. Common sense tells us that we

can no longer afford such irresponsibility. We can no longer put the burden of

this debt onto our children. The budget

Republicans will introduce is a contract with our children. We must balance the budget so our children’s future will be free of debt and full of opportunity.

This budget and the debate is not

about money as much as it is about our

children. We cannot allow an out-ofcontrol Federal budget to rob our kids

of freedom and economic security. It is

just plain wrong to make them responsible for our mismanagement.

I ask my colleagues to join together

on this historical day and help restore

the American dream to our children.

BALANCING THE BUDGET ON THE

BACKS OF SENIORS

f(Ms. JACKSON-LEE asked and was

given permission to address the House

for 1 minute and to revise and extend

her remarks.)

Ms. JACKSON-LEE. Mr. Speaker, I

rise this morning, as the Committee on

the Budget is meeting and deliberating.

But more importantly, as we are instructed to keep close to our constituents, I have come back recently from

interacting with the constituents of

the 18th Congressional District in

Texas, and what I have heard most of

all is that we should work together,

that we should focus our issues not as

Democratic or Republican, but as

American issues, and yet, as the Committee on the Budget deliberates, they

now talk about cutting Medicare

spending between $270 and $280 billion

over the next 7 years and $184 billion

for Medicaid.

Mr. Speaker, these are not workingclass/middle-class issues. These are issues of the American working people

who want to confront better health

care for their citizens.

My seniors have said to me, ‘‘Don’t

cut Medicare, make it more efficient.

Cut the waste, but don’t cut Medicare.’’

Now we find that the new budget plan

is on the backs of seniors in America.

But it is not only on the backs of seniors. It is on our medical facilities, our

community hospitals. It is on our physicians who dedicate their lives to serving American working people.

We must confront this as an American issue, and we must not turn our

backs on our seniors. I will not let

Texas down. I will not let the citizens

of the 18th Congressional District down

by recklessly cutting Medicare and

Medicaid for an ill-conceived budget.

WE ARE NOT CUTTING MEDICARE

(Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland asked

fand was given permission to address

the House for 1 minute and to revise

and extend his remarks.)

Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland. Mr.

Speaker, I feel compelled to respond to

the allegations that this budget cuts

Medicare and cuts Medicaid; that just

is not true. Just look at the budget,

and look at the figures in the budget.

Today every Medicare recipient, the

average across the country, gets $4,700.

At the end of this budget process that

will have risen to $6,300. That is not a

cut.

What we are going to do is to preserve the Medicare system. It is now

doomed unless one does something

about it going bankrupt by 2002. We are

not cutting Medicare. It will increase

from $4,700 to $6,300 per every recipient;

that is not a cut.

Let me say it again: When you go

from $4,700 to $6,300, that’s not a cut.

Please be productive. Please join us

in this process to perfecting a budget

that is going to save our country for

our children. Do not continue with

REPUBLICAN TAX CUTS FOR MILthese misstatements of fact.

LIONAIRES WILL LEAD TO RAfTIONING OF HEALTH CARE

(Mr. BROWN of Ohio asked and was

given permission to address the House

for 1 minute.)

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker,

Republicans love to say that they are

not cutting Medicare and Medicaid,

they are only slowing their growth.

What they do not tell us is that Medicare and Medicaid reform is actually

health care rationing. House Republicans want to cut Medicare and want

to cut Medicaid to pay for tax cuts for

the wealthy, for wealthy special interests and to pay for star wars. Republicans want to force the elderly into

HMO’s and to health maintenance organizations which will only lead to rationing of health care and will lead to

taking away of physician choice. Republicans want to do that all because

some people in this House want to cut

taxes on millionaires, cut taxes on millionaires forcing Medicare and Medicaid patients into rationing and taking

away their physician choice. Mr.

Speaker, it simply does not make

sense.

WASHINGTON PHILANTHROPY

f(Ms. PRYCE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1

minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)

Ms. PRYCE. Mr. Speaker, in the

early 1990’s, a study was completed by

political scientist James L. Payne. Mr.

Payne tabulated the witnesses who appeared before congressional hearings.

The findings are astonishing. He found

that 95.7 percent of those who appeared

came to urge more spending. Only 0.7

percent came to urge against more

spending.

Washington has created a culture of

spending. People come to Washington,

perhaps with good intentions, and are

sucked into this philanthropic swirl,

where problems somehow go away if

more tax dollars are spent.

Well, the game is up. Last November,

the American people said ‘‘enough’’

and put Republicans in charge of Congress to put an end to the 40-year-long

philanthropic tendencies of our friends

on the other side.

If spending tax money truly solves

problems, America would be the most

trouble free society in the world. But

we’re not. Today, America is facing a

$4 trillion national debt in the face of

some of the worst societal conditions

we have ever witnessed. It’s time to

break Washington’s spending culture.

Philanthropy is a wonderful thing, but

not with tax dollars.

MEDICARE AND MEDICAID CUTS

WILL PUSH MANY SENIORS

fBELOW THE POVERTY LINE

Mr. WAXMAN asked and was given

permission to address the House for 1

minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, the level

of Medicare and Medicaid cuts would

gut health care for the elderly and the

poor leading to rationing of health care

to those people to whom we promised

health security: $400 billion over 7

years; that is a breathtaking amount.

That will mean cuts in Medicaid for

the frail, elderly, and nursing homes,

leaving them to languish there without

care, if they are lucky enough to get

into a nursing home at all. Community, at-home-nursing services will be

cut, denying them that assistance as

well. Hundreds of hospitals and clinics

will be forced to close because they

will not be able to afford care to the

newly under-insured as well as all the

uninsured of which there are 42 million

in this country, a problem the Republicans even refuse to acknowledge exists. Doctors will turn Medicare patients away as their payment levels to

them start resembling those for Medicaid, and greater costs will be borne for

the elderly who live on fixed incomes,