May 18, 1995 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—HOUSE H 5237

CLINTON’S CHANGE OF HEART

CONCERNING MEDICARE

(Mr. STEARNS asked and was given

permission to address the House for 1

minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, let me

just say as one Member who speaks in

this well to the Member who just

spoke, the Democrats have bankrupted

Medicare for 30 years. It is now the Republicans’ responsibility and obligation to preserve, protect, and improve

the Medicare system, which we intend

to do.

Mr. Speaker, I want to give you a

quote and ask who said this quote:

Today Medicaid and Medicare are going up

at three times the rate of inflation. We propose to let it go up at two times the rate of

inflation. That is not a Medicare or Medicaid

cut. We are going to have to have increases

in Medicare and Medicaid, but a reduction in

the rate of growth.

Who said that? President Clinton

said that last year.

Let me give you a quote from Mrs.

Clinton:

We feel confident * * * that we can reduce

the rate of increase in Medicare without undermining quality for Medicare recipients.

That is Mrs. Clinton. That is what

she said. So when the President or Mrs.

Clinton proposed slowing down the rate

of growth in Medicare and Medicaid, it

was not a cut. But now that the Republicans offer our budget which contains

a similar proposal, the Democrats are

now saying it is a cut.

My friends, let us put aside our differences and work in a bipartisan manner to solve the problems of how to

save the Medicare program.

HOW THE BUDGET WILL AFFECT

ANTOINETTE ‘‘TONI’’ PODOJIL

f(Ms. KAPTUR asked and was given

permission to address the House for 1

minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, these Republican Medicare cuts are not just

number-crunching, they mean real

medical service reductions affecting

real people.

Let me introduce you to Toni Podojil

from Cleveland. Toni is 83 years old.

She worked in the textile industry before her first retirement, but with minimum pension benefits and Social Security benefits, which is true with

many women she had to get a job with

the united labor agency. She will have

to retire again soon and they will then

live on a combined pension of about

$600 a month.

Toni is a survivor of uterine cancer,

she has had a heart attack, and she suffers from a hearing loss. Uncovered

medical expenses now equal almost

half her retirement income. When she

retires a second time at age 83, what

can she expect under this unfair budget? A doubled Medicare part B premium; over $553 more a year? An increased part A deductible over $1,200

more a year?

Let us balance the budget, not give

away tax breaks to the wealthiest in

this country.

PRESIDENT’S PROMISED VETO OF

RESCISSIONS BILL IRRESPONfSIBLE

(Mr. CHRISTENSEN asked and was

given permission to address the House

for 1 minute.)

Mr. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker,

President Clinton’s promise to veto the

rescissions bill is irresponsible and

lacking of leadership: irresponsible because just 2 weeks ago the President

pretended to negotiate in good faith

with House Republicans, only to back

out at the last minute for short-term

political gain; lacking of leadership because this President who only 2 years

ago was promising a balanced budget

by 1996 is now incapable of cutting $16

billion, $16 billion, that is only 1 percent that he says he cannot cut.

What reasons does he give? Well, first

he says he wants to eliminate more

pork, but then turns around and says

well, we cannot cut the AmeriCorps

program, the biggest boondoggle there

ever was.

Then he says, ‘‘You can’t cut efforts

to help people,’’ and then turns around

and says he is going to veto the relief

package to Oklahoma City.

The fact the President would save his

veto for this bill demonstrates that he

is more interested in playing politics

than acting as leader. Does anyone

wonder why the American people consider the President irrelevant to the

process?

(Mr. GUTIERREZ asked and was

MEDICARE CHECK

fgiven permission to address the House

for 1 minute.)

Mr. GUTIERREZ. Mr. Speaker, this

country once had a system of checks

and balances. Now with the Republican

budget scam we have checks without

balances. Here is one check, Mr. Speaker, a big check, a whopping $228 billion

check made out by the senior citizens

of this country who face a massive cut

in Medicare, and who is this check

written out to, Mr. Speaker? To the

wealthiest, who will rake in billions

thanks to the Republican budget scam.

Yes, the oldest Americans in this

country will face $3,500 in out-of-pocket medical bills, while the richest

Americans will put $20,000 into their

pockets. What a shame.

But big checks are nothing new to

the GOP. Think about all of the big

campaign checks they got in 1994.

So, Mr. Speaker, go ahead and protect the wealthy and the powerful, and

we Democrats will protect the health

of the powerless.

Go ahead and help those who helped

finance your victory in the last election, while we Democrats will help

those seniors who led us all to victory

in World War II.

Seeing this huge check makes me realize that the Republicans must have

checked their compassion and decency

at the door, Mr. Speaker.

fb 1015

THE JOURNAL

The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr.

WATTS of Oklahoma). Pursuant to

clause 5 of rule I, the pending business

is the question of the Speaker’s approval of the Journal.

The question was taken; and the

Speaker pro tempore announced that

the ayes appeared to have it.

Mr. TATE. Mr. Speaker, I object to

the vote on the ground that a quorum

is not present and make the point of

order that a quorum is not present.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Evidently a quorum is not present.

The Sergeant at Arms will notify absent Members.

The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were—yeas 360, nays 37,

answered ‘‘present’’ 1, not voting 36, as

follows:

[Roll No. 341]

YEAS—360

Ackerman

Allard

Andrews

Archer

Bachus

Baesler

Baker (CA)

Baker (LA)

Baldacci

Ballenger

Barcia

Barr

Barrett (NE)

Barrett (WI)

Bartlett

Barton

Bass

Bateman

Becerra

Beilenson

Bentsen

Bereuter

Bevill

Bilbray

Bilirakis

Bishop

Bliley

Blute

Boehlert

Boehner

Bonilla

Bonior

Borski

Boucher

Brewster

Browder

Brown (FL)

Brown (OH)

Bryant (TN)

Bryant (TX)

Bunn

Bunning

Burr

Burton

Buyer

Callahan

Calvert

Camp

Canady

Cardin

Castle

Chabot

Chambliss

Chenoweth

Christensen

Chrysler

Clement

Clinger

Clyburn

Coble

Coleman

Collins (GA)

Collins (IL)

Collins (MI)

Combest

Condit

Conyers

Cooley

Cox

Coyne

Cramer

Crapo

Cremeans

Cubin

Cunningham

Danner

Davis

Deal

DeLauro

DeLay

Dellums

Deutsch

Diaz-Balart

Dickey

Dicks

Dixon

Doggett

Dooley

Doolittle

Dornan

Doyle

Dreier

Duncan

Dunn

Edwards

Ehlers

Ehrlich

Emerson

English

Eshoo

Evans

Everett

Ewing

Farr

Fawell

Fields (LA)

Flake

Flanagan

Foglietta

Foley

Forbes

Ford

Fowler

Fox

Frank (MA)

Franks (CT)

Franks (NJ)

Frelinghuysen

Frisa

Frost

Funderburk

Furse

Gallegly

Ganske

Gejdenson

Gekas

Geren

Gilchrest

Gilman

Gonzalez

Goodlatte

Goodling

Gordon

Goss

Graham

Greenwood

Gutknecht

Hall (OH)

Hall (TX)

Hamilton

Hancock

Hansen

Hastert

Hastings (WA)

Hayes

Hayworth

Hefner

Heineman

Herger

Hilleary

Hobson

Hoekstra

Hoke

Holden

Horn

Hostettler

Houghton

Hoyer

Hunter

Hutchinson

Hyde

Inglis

Jackson-Lee

Jefferson

Johnson (CT)

Johnson (SD)

Johnson, E. B.

Johnson, Sam

Johnston

Jones

Kanjorski

Kaptur

Kasich

Kelly

Kennedy (RI)

Kennelly

Kildee

Kim

King

Kingston

Klink

Klug

Knollenberg

Kolbe

LaFalce

LaHood