H 4964 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—HOUSE May 16, 1995

PRAYER

The Chaplain Rev. James David Ford,

D.D., offered the following prayer:

We pray, O God, for the spiritual virtues that are the gift of Your hand and

the promise of Your word. For faith to

reach beyond the usual barriers of time

and space, we offer our thanksgiving;

for hope to see Your assurances and to

claim Your promises, we offer our

praise; for love to know fulfillment of

all our endeavors and to relate to others in freedom and trust, we offer our

adoration. May these gifts, gracious

God, be on our lips and written in our

hearts that we will be filled with Your

gifts and enjoy Your peace that passes

all human understanding. In Your

name, we pray. Amen.

The SPEAKER. The Chair has examTHE JOURNAL

fined the Journal of the last day’s proceedings and announces to the House

his approval thereof.

Pursuant to clause 1, rule I, the Journal stands approved.

The SPEAKER. Will the gentleman

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

ffrom Ohio [Mr. TRAFICANT] come forward and lead the House in the Pledge

of Allegiance.

Mr. TRAFICANT led the Pledge of

Allegiance as follows:

I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the

United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God,

indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE SPEAKER

The SPEAKER. There will be 15 1-

fminutes on each side.

AN ABSENCE OF LEADERSHIP

FROM THE WHITE HOUSE

f(Mr. HOKE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1

minute.)

Mr. HOKE. Mr. Speaker, Thomas Jefferson said, ‘‘We should consider ourselves unauthorized to saddle posterity

with our debts, and morally bound to

pay them ourselves.’’ And yet——

At the end of Friday, the national

debt stood at $4,859,130,968,274 and 89

cents, an increase of roughly $2.3 billion from the day before.

The debt burden for each individual

American, including those babies born

over the weekend, now stands at $18,537

and 2 cents.

In the time it takes me to finish this

short 1-minute speech, the national

debt will have increased by another

$1,597,222 and 20 cents.

Despite the financial and moral imperative to act, President Clinton has

failed to demonstrate even the slightest interest in this matter.

It has been 75 days since we challenged the President to present his

plan to balance the budget and 19 days

since we asked him to help us help fix

Medicare.

In the absence of leadership from the

White House, Republicans have offered

a blueprint to balance the budget by

2002 so that our children will have a future free from debt and a standard of

living better than our own.

Mr. President, where is your plan. We

are still waiting.

(Mr. GUTIERREZ asked and was

MEDICARE TAX CUT

fgiven permission to address the House

for 1 minute and to revise and extend

his remarks.)

Mr. GUTIERREZ. Mr. Speaker, the

Republicans have now unveiled their

slash-for-cash budget.

The Republicans will slash Medicare

by nearly $300 billion to get the cash

for a tax cut of that same amount.

How?

It’s simple.

If you are a senior citizen, you will

just have to cough up about $3,500 in

out-of-pocket costs to pay for Medicare

cuts.

Then, the top 1 percent of the

wealthiest American families can rake

in over $20,000 each in tax cuts.

See? Simple. Slash for cash.

In fact, the Republicans could make

the whole process much simpler.

With this handy envelope.

Elderly Americans—those who guided

us out of a depression and through a

world war, those who educated us, fed

us and led us—you just put your money

in here.

Then send if off to the wealthy, in

care of the Republican Party, here inside the beltway.

But, look at the bright side.

If the Republicans are feeling generous, maybe they will kick in for the

stamps so that you seniors can send in

your money.

NO WHITE HOUSE LEADERSHIP ON

SAVING MEDICARE

f(Mr. BOEHNER asked and was given

permission to address the House for 1

minute.)

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, this

January, Mexico was near bankruptcy,

and the Clinton administration mounted a furious effort to save it.

He might have been misguided or

wrong. But at least he had the courage

to be a leader.

Where is the President now that Medicare is on the same path to bankruptcy as Mexico?

He has made no proposals to save

Medicare, even though his own Cabinet

officials say it is going bankrupt.

He is not even willing to negotiate

with Republicans who are trying to

save it.

Mr. Speaker, the President is willing

to save Mexico, but not the millions of

senior citizens who rely on Medicare.

(Mrs. SCHROEDER asked and was

THE BUDGET

fgiven permission to address the House

for 1 minute.)

Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, we

have now seen a new kind of socialism

introduced in this new budget. It is

called socialism for the rich. You cut

the middle class so you can cut the

richest’s taxes. Yes, everybody gets

cuts, but there is a big difference between a tax cut that equals $20,000 a

year for people making over $200,000 a

year and the cuts that are going to

come to the middle class, which means

the average family is going to be

straining to help mom and dad pay the

additional Medicare costs, the kids

paying additional student loan costs,

kids paying additional school lunch

costs.

I do not think this is fair. I think the

polls today show the Americans have

figured it out. They do not think it is

fair either. Let us go after some of

those pet rocks in the budget that will

put this budget in balance. We need it

in balance, but not on the backs of the

middle class so the fat cats can get one

more tax break.

fHISTORY

(Mrs. SEASTRAND asked and was

given permission to address the House

for 1 minute.)

Mrs. SEASTRAND. Mr. Speaker, we

are on the verge of making history. For

the first time since my 25-year-old son

was born, Congress actually has a plan

to balance the Federal budget. We

made a promise to balance the budget

and protect Social Security. We kept

that promise. We made a promise to

save Medicare from bankruptcy, and

we are keeping that promise to preserve, protect and improve Medicare.

This week we will vote on our plan to

balance the budget and save the future

for our children.

While we are making history, where

is President Clinton? He is defending

the status quo over change and defending big government over local solutions. That is not leadership, and that

is ignoring a crisis and turning your

back on the next generation.

We have several choices: savings

Medicare or allowing the problem to

become a crisis; giving the next generation the family farm or simply

handing them the mortgage; putting

the Federal Government on a sensible

diet or allowing big government to eat

Twinkies off the taxpayer’s plate.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to

consider history this week and vote

with me to provide opportunity for the

next generation.

THE EPA AND SAN DIEGO

f(Mr. TRAFICANT asked and was

given permission to address the House

for 1 minute and to revise and extend

his remarks.)

Mr. TRAFICANT. Mr. Speaker, check

this out. A Mexican spokesman said,
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.