May 3, 1995 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—HOUSE H 4515

one Republican vote, and now they are

criticizing the President and Democrats for not coming up with a plan before they introduce a budget.

Today the majority criticizes us for

not providing leadership on Medicare.

Well, they are the majority. Leadership

is tough. If the Republican majority

wants to continue to live in a dream

world and think that they can balance

the budget without cutting health care

costs, they need to come up with a

plan. Medicare should not be a cut.

THE TRAGEDY IN OKLAHOMA CITY

(Mr. GEKAS asked and was given

fpermission to address the House for 1

minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. GEKAS. Mr. Speaker and Members of the House, following the tragedy in Oklahoma City, as was expected,

tremendous rhetoric grew out of this

fracas that occurred, both from the

right and the left, calling for hearings

on terrorism, international terrorism,

domestic terrorism, paramilitary actions, all kinds of themes and theses

that were propounded following that

tragic event.

But we must focus once and for all on

what happened there and then at that

tragic moment. This was an act of

mass murder, willful, deliberate, intended to kill people, and succeeded in

that.

Our job, as the American people and

the law enforcement and Members of

Congress, communities together, must

focus to bring those culprits to justice,

bring them to the bar of justice, and

then try them for murder and seek the

death penalty. That is the analysis

with which we must start in contemplating what happened in Oklahoma City on that fateful day.

The death penalty, which is favored

by most people in our country, has

never been more appropriate than in

this particular situation.

(Mr. PALLONE asked and was given

GOP MEDICARE CUTS

fpermission to address the House for 1

minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, today,

the Republicans are over 2 weeks late

in producing a budget.

I believe the reason for the Republican delay is that they do not know

how they are going to keep all of their

promises. Part of their answer to balancing the budget is to cut Medicare by

over $300 billion. This means that seniors will have to pay on average an additional $900 in out-of-pocket expenses.

Now, Speaker GINGRICH is claiming

that any Medicare cuts will be used to

keep Medicare solvent. Of course he

forgets to mention that Democrats

have already worked to keep Medicare

from going bankrupt in the past. In addition, it was Democrats, last year,

who put forth an effort to reform

health care and save Medicare.

I believe in balancing the budget and

have always voted in support of a balanced budget, but I feel that any Medicare reform needs to arise in the context of health care reform. It is rising

health care costs that are contributing

to the deficit, not senior citizens.

OPPOSING THE AGREEMENT WITH

fCASTRO

(Mr. DIAZ-BALART asked and was

given permission to address the House

for 1 minute and to revise and extend

his remarks.)

Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Mr. Speaker, the

secretly negotiated agreement between

the Clinton administration and Fidel

Castro, announced yesterday, to return

Cuban refugees to Castro’s state security is unprecedented as well as immoral.

As Speaker GINGRICH declared yesterday, for the first time in history, the

U.S. Government has agreed to cooperate with a Communist dictatorship’s

security forces in order to carry out

the forced return of refugees who managed to escape.

b 1115

The administration now says that

Castro has given it assurances that

those refugees turned over to state security will not be persecuted, and yet

they did not even ask Castro to abrogate his own law that requires jailtime

for those caught trying to leave without permission. An administration official told me yesterday not to worry,

that Castro has prosecutorial discretion. This, Mr. Speaker, this incident,

this agreement, is shameful. It is another attempt to appease a totalitarian

dictator who will still not be satisfied

by the McGovernites who now control

American foreign policy.

(Mr. DOGGETT asked and was given

SAVAGE PLANS FOR MEDICARE

fpermission to address the House for 1

minute.)

Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, the

Gingrichites took a poll, and now they

are scurrying here, there, and everywhere searching for a way to dress up

their plan to slash Medicare.

The Gingrichites are understandably

scared silly that the American public

recognizes that what they have in mind

is a raid of $305 billion from the Medicare trust fund to fund last month’s

$345 billion tax break for the privileged

few.

This week the Gingrichites say, well,

Medicare is in such bad financial shape

that it needs surgery to survive. Well,

I ask, ‘‘Why didn’t they think about

that last month when they were standing on this floor and they approved a

contract tax bill that pulled out $56 billion from the Medicare trust fund?’’

That is right, $56 billion from the

same fund they now complain is going

broke, and, having bled the trust fund,

now they intend to start whacking off

the benefits for America’s seniors.

The Gingrichites do not plan to salvage Medicare; they plan to savage it,

and I think the American people are

smart enough to recognize savagery

when they see it, to know the difference between savagery and salvation.

(Mr. DUNCAN asked and was given

NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER

fpermission to address the House for 1

minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow is our National Day of Prayer, and

there will be events, big and small,

commemorating this all over the Nation. Every faith, every religion, believes prayer is a good thing.

If we have any hope of overcoming

evil things like we saw in Oklahoma

City 2 weeks ago, we need to overcome

evil with good—good things like prayer.

I hope all Americans will participate

in our National Day of Prayer tomorrow, at least in a small way. I do not

say this in any holier-than-thou manner, because I have as many faults as

anyone.

But I do believe this Nation would be

a better place if more people spent

more time in prayer.

The Old Testament tells us:

If my people which are called by my name

shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek

my face, and turn from their wicked ways,

then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive

their sin, and heal their land.

Almost all of us need some type of

healing—physically, emotionally, spiritually. I hope everyone will support

the National Day of Prayer tomorrow.

REPUBLICANS TURNING TO MEDICARE IN ORDER TO PAY FOR

fTAX CUTS

(Mr. DURBIN asked and was given

permission to address the House for 1

minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. Speaker, why have

the Gingrich Republicans failed to

meet the statutory deadline for passing

a House budget resolution? The same

Gingrich Republicans who were so

proud of the fact that they met their

hundred-day deadline for the Republican Contract With America, they

read letters, fan mail, all sorts of comments from their districts about how

proud they were, and yet when it

comes down to the most basic thing,

the spending bill for the Federal Government, the Gingrich Republicans

have just dropped the ball.

Well, Mr. Speaker, the reason is pretty simple. The last item in the Republican contract was a Republican tax

bill which adds $600 billion to our national debt over the next 10 years.

When they sit down and try to figure

out this $600 billion and how to make it

up, they run out of solutions.

Well, where did they turn? They

turned to one of the most important