May 16, 1995 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—HOUSE H 4965

Mexico has no money to honor NAFTA,

and Uncle Sam will have to clean up

the pollution on the border. Now that

means that millions of gallons of raw

sewage from Tijuana will contaminate

the beaches of San Diego. It also means

that San Diego will have to come up

with $16,000,000 to build the treatment

plant because Mexico was supposed to

but they cannot. But the EPA says, in

any regard, no one is going to build a

treatment plant down there because

you will endanger the habitat of the

pocket mouse.

Beam me up. People in San Diego are

swimming in raw fecal matter, and the

EPA is worried about the pocket

mouse. Ladies and gentlemen, why

don’t we let Mickey Mouse take care of

the pocket mouse and EPA take care of

the American people like they are supposed to.

I say maybe it is time we enforce

NAFTA and also pass the clean water

bill. It is a commonsense bill.

(Mr. JONES asked and was given perA BALANCED BUDGET

fmission to address the House for 1

minute.)

Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, this week

the House of Representatives will make

history. For a quarter century Government has been the problem rather than

the solution. Government policies have

squandered our children’s future, stagnated our workers’ wages, assaulted

our families’ values and eroded our

citizens’ freedoms.

This week, once again the people will

govern. We will vote on a program to

transform the Federal Government by

making it work for the people. Our

plan will balance the budget for the

first time in 25 years by making Government responsible.

Our balanced budget restores our

children’s American dream by ending

the practice of squandering the children’s inheritance on big government.

It returns power to the people by ending the micromanagement of intrusive

Washington bureaucrats. It prepares

for the future by saving programs that

would otherwise go bankrupt like Medicare. It restores democracy by making

government officials public servants.

The people of America want a balanced

budget.

MEDICARE AND THE REPUBLICAN

fBUDGET

(Mr. HINCHEY asked and was given

permission to address the House for 1

minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HINCHEY. Mr. Speaker, Speaker

GINGRICH and the House Republicans

are pulling a fast one on senior citizens

by drastically cutting Medicare and

using savings to fund a $350 billion tax

cut for the wealthy. The Gingrich-Kasich budget plan will cut health care

services for 37 million seniors receiving

Medicare benefits.

Under this plan, Medicare growth

will not keep pace with the rising cost

of health care, the growth in the number of beneficiaries and the inflation

rate.

The result of these cuts will be an additional cost to Medicare recipients of

$1,000 a year—out of their own pocket—

by 2002. To inflict these costs on seniors living on fixed incomes is inhumane.

Where I come from, a person is only

as good as their word. The U.S. Government has made a covenant with senior

citizens and I implore my colleagues to

make sure the Congress honors Medicare promises.

By breaking this promise of a

healthier life for tax cuts for the

wealthy will mean turning our back on

senior citizens and working American

families.

By slashing Medicare to pay for tax

cuts for the wealthy, Speaker GINGRICH

is ensuring that the wealthy get a gold

mine while senior citizens get the

shaft.

URGING SUPPORT FOR A

BALANCED BUDGET

f(Mr. RADANOVICH asked and was

given permission to address the House

for 1 minute.)

Mr. RADANOVICH. Mr. Speaker,

President Clinton claims he wants a

Government that is lean but not mean.

Today the Federal Government is big

and mean. It takes 1 of every 4 dollars

the average family earns. That is

mean. The average family has to spend

more to pay for the cost of Government

than on anything else.

Big government is not just mean to

our families. It is nasty to our children. This year the Federal deficit will

skyrocket to $176 billion. The debt will

explode to $4.7 trillion. That is $75,000

of debt for every family of four. Families beware—the Democratic leadership

does not help you—they thrive on you.

There is a better, leaner way, and we

are voting on it this week. It is our balanced budget and it puts the big, mean

old system on a diet. Our balanced

budget ends deficits by 2002, returns

power, control, and money to families

and restores the American Dream to

our children.

I urge my colleagues to vote for leaner, not meaner, Government. Support

our balanced budget.

(Ms. D

REPUBLICANS AND MEDICARE

ELAURO asked and was given

fpermission to address the House for 1

minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)

Ms. DELAURO. Mr. Speaker, the public is not fooled by the Republican shell

game.

They oppose Republican plans to pay

for a tax break for the privileged few

by cutting Medicare.

Today’s Washington Post tells us

that 56 percent of the people are opposed to the Republican plan to cut

Medicare. They are not fooled by Republican claims of fixing Medicare. The

public is on to the Republican scam of

using Medicare as a piggy bank to pay

for their tax breaks for the privileged

few.

Rather than wiping out billions of

dollars in tax cuts for large corporations, Republicans chose to slash support for the old and the sick.

The Republican chairman of the

House Ways and Means Committee

says he will not touch the billions of

dollars of tax breaks for wealthy corporate special interests.

Mr. Speaker, let us go after the billions in corporate tax breaks before we

stick a ‘‘sick tax’’ on our parents and

grandparents.

(Mr. RIGGS asked and was given perMEDICARE GOING BROKE

fmission to address the House for 1

minute.)

Mr. RIGGS. Mr. Speaker, let me just

respond to the previous speaker by

pointing out the Washington Post also

says, in a column entitled Which Budget, referring to the lack of any proposal

from the House Democrats, ‘‘Democrat

complaints about Republican budget

plans have a hollow and unpersuasive

ring.’’

Mr. Speaker, the silence of those on

the other side of the aisle about Medicare is deafening. All we hear from

them is more distortions, more hot air,

no solutions. But do not take our word

for it about the condition of the Medicare trust fund. Take the word of the

Medicare trustees who said in their

April 3 report, and I quote, ‘‘the

present financing schedule for Medicare is sufficient to ensure the payment of benefits only over the next few

years.’’

The bottom line? The fund is projected to be exhausted in 2001. This

conclusion was reached by three of the

President’s own Cabinet Secretaries

who also double as Medicare trustees:

Secretaries Rubin, Reich, and Shalala.

Mr. Speaker, the American people

are tired of this evasion. They are tired

of the posturing. They sent us here to

Washington to handle the Nation’s

problems, not to avoid them. Republicans are providing leadership while

the White House and the House Democrats are providing scare tactics and

class warfare demagoguery.

(Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas asked

PAIN FOR SENIOR CITIZENS

fand was given permission to address

the House for 1 minute and to revise

and extend his remarks.)

Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr.

Speaker, what the Republicans really

want to do over the next six years is

privatize and eliminate Medicare. A

couple of weeks ago I saw Speaker

GINGRICH on TV saying the cuts in the

budget were going to be large but painless. Painless for whom, I wonder, Not

painless for seniors and not painless for

children.