May 16, 1995 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—HOUSE H 4963

Sure, there are provisions in the

budget I wish were not there. But that

is the beauty of it. Nothing is excluded.

Everyone will feel the squeeze. While

Federal spending increases each year

under the plan, it increases at a slower

rate to allow revenues to catch up with

spending, or, as William Safire wrote

yesterday of the civil war general, who

instructed a gunner to ‘‘elevate them

sights a little lower.’’

Under the plan, power and money are

shifted back to the States and local

communities. In welfare, Medicaid, nutrition programs, and job training,

there is consolidation, elimination of

needless duplication, and block granting to the States.

The budget plan would save Medicare

from bankruptcy. On April 3d of this

year, the Medicare trustees, three of

whom are Clinton administration appointees, sounded the alarm with their

warning that Medicare part A would

run out of money in 2001. this budget

plan puts a tourniquet on Medicare to

stop the hemorrhaging while a task

force develops long-term solutions.

Meanwhile, the President has been unwilling to assist in finding those solutions. Here again, expect the fear mongers and the scare tacticians to be out

in force.

Under the Committee on the Budget

assumption, spending on every Medicare beneficiary would actually increase, from an average of $4,684 now to

almost $6,300 in the year 2002.

But I believe that the most important feature of this budget plan is the

tax relief for the hard-pressed American family. This budget plan provides

for the full $500 per child tax credit. It

provides for our correction of the marriage penalty. It allows the implementing of the adoption tax credit and the

elder care credited. It allows for the

raising of the earnings limit on Social

Security recipients. These very meaningful pro-family policies will only be a

reality if we pass the House GOP budget plan.

It was Alan Greenspan who, in pointing out some of the benefits that would

happen if we balanced the budget, said

if our economy was not constrained by

Federal deficits, the balanced budget

would mean a lower interest rate, higher productivity, improved purchasing

power, reduced inflation, and accelerated long-term economic growth. Paul

Johnson, the noted historian, asserts

that the legitimization of envy is that

which a stable society should fear the

most. And there are going to be repeated efforts to legitimize envy by

pitting one group of Americans against

another group of Americans.

I think Thomas Jefferson, one of our

Founding Fathers, said it best when he

said, ‘‘To preserve our independence,

we must not let our rulers load us with

public debt. We must make our choice

between economy and liberty, or confusion and servitude.’’

That is the choice that this Congress

will face this week. I believe that most

Americans know in their guts, most

Americans know instinctively, that

balancing the budget is the right thing

to do, and we must do it for our children and for our grandchildren.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under

PRESERVING MEDICARE

fthe Speaker’s announced policy of May

12, 1995, the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. FOX] is recognized during

morning business for 5 minutes.

Mr. FOX of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, my colleague that just spoke certainly has eloquently expressed the importance of making sure we preserve,

protect, and make sure we continue

Medicare as we know it here in the

United States.

Medicare provides an important

source of health security for 32 million

of our Nation’s senior citizens and 4

million disabled persons. But Medicare

spending has been rising 10 to 11 percent a year, and if costs continue to

soar, everyone will have to pay more.

Medicare can be preserved, protected,

and improved while increasing its

spending, but at a slower rate of

growth. Last year in its annual report,

the Social Security and Medicare board

of trustees projected that part A trust

fund, the hospital insurance trust fund,

starts going broke in 1996. Next year

the Medicare part A trust fund will

spend $1 billion more than it takes in.

The trustees who included Labor Secretary Robert Reich, Health and

Human Services Secretary Donna

Shalala, and then-Treasury Secretary

Lloyd Bentsen, all members of the

Clinton Cabinet, concluded that the

Federal hospital insurance trust fund,

which pays inpatient hospital expense,

will be able to pay for only about 7

years, and is severely out of financial

balance in the long range.

Again, Just last month, the trustees,

including now-Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, replacing Bentsen, issued an

equally gloomy forecast, which indicated that the part A trust fund would

be bankrupt by 2002.

The trustees have called for prompt,

effective, and decisive action to save

the fund from insolvency.

Despite recommendation of this Presidential commission and the disclosure

by his own Cabinet officials, President

Clinton has failed to act on Medicare.

What is more, the financial pressure on

Medicare will only grow when baby

boomers start to retire.

Our efforts to protect Medicare from

bankruptcy and to balance the budget

by the year 2002 are taking place simultaneously. It is crucial that the American people understand that Medicare

has to be reformed, irrespective of the

budget deficit. Even if we had a zero

deficit today, we would still have to

take action that is prevention for

Medicare’s bankruptcy. It is a fact if

Medicare goes bankrupt by law, no

payments can be made for hospital care

for Medicare beneficiaries or from any

other trust fund paid services.

Just a few weeks ago it was not well

known about this impending disaster

because the Clinton administration had

swept it under the rug. As Medicare

travels the road toward bankruptcy,

President Clinton has been AWOL, absent without leadership. He has even

refused to participate in a bipartisan

effort to save Medicare. Not until the

Republicans stepped forward to talk

openly and honestly about the Medicare crisis was anybody aware of the

extent of the problem.

Republicans believe we owe it to our

senior citizens to save Medicare from

bankruptcy. House Republicans have

determined to save Medicare by using

new approaches, new management, and

new technologies, to improve it, preserve it, and protect it. Congress has

an unprecedented opportunity to want

to take a fundament reform of the

Medicare Program. Action on Medicare

will run parallel to and occur during

the same period as action on the budget.

One of the steps we will be taking is

to create a Medicare preservation task

force to look at the various proposals

and determine what steps need to be

taken to eliminate fraud and abuse in

the system, and to make sure it is

more efficient.

One of the other creative thoughts on

the system is to make sure that we

give our senior citizens incentive to

cure the system by paying them 25 percent of any waste or fraud that they

can find in their own bills. It would be

one way to strengthen and empower

our senior citizens in making sure a

better system is improved.

House Republicans will increase Medicare spending, from $4,700 per retiree

today to $6,300 per retiree by 2002. That

is a 34-percent increase in Medicare

spending per retiree. There is no proposed cut in Medicare. We will preserve

the current Medicare system for seniors. No one will be forced into the system. But at the same time we need to

develop a new series of choices so senior citizens can control their own destiny.

We want to enter into a dialog with

the people and to make sure Medicare,

that is important to all of our seniors,

is, in fact, preserved.

We as a nation must undertake this

effort to continue the dialog, to work

together for change, and to make sure

that both sides of the aisle are working

to make sure that Medicare is preserved, protected, and, in fact, is even

stronger in years ahead.

fRECESS

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 12 of rule I, the Chair declares the House in recess until 10 a.m.

Accordingly (at 9 o’clock and 42 minutes a.m.), the House stood in recess

until 10 o’clock a.m.

The recess having expired, the House

AFTER RECESS

fwas called to order by the Speaker at

10 o’clock a.m.