H 5590 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE May 25, 1995

MEDICARE

(Mr. PORTMAN asked and was given

permission to address the House for 1

minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. Speaker, after

hearing the debate on MediGap this

morning, I am here today to make a

plea on Medicare. Let us stop the

demogoguery—let us roll up our sleeves

and deal with the problem. The Medicare trustees have just reported to us

that if we do nothing to save the system, the part A trust fund, the heart of

the program starts to go broke next

year and is bankrupt entirely in 7 short

years—not unanticipated by those who

have been following it closely—but sobering nonetheless.

Let us deal with it—and the sooner

the better. The new CBO Director told

us the obvious in recent testimony:

‘‘Any delay will require dramatic cuts

and program changes in the future.’’ If

we start to reform the system now, I

believe we can accomplish the twin

goals of saving the program from bankruptcy and improving it through private sector innovation, expanded

choice and cracking down on fraud. We

can do it because, as President Clinton

told the AARP in 1993, ‘‘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. So when you hear all this

business about cuts, let me caution you

that that is not what is going on. We

are going to have increases in Medicare

and Medicaid, and a reduction in the

rate of growth.’’ Let us act now in a bipartisan manner before the problem

gets out of hand.

The Medicare trustee report itself

stated, ‘‘these programs are too important to be politicized and [we] urge

that a highly professional, nonpartisan

approach continue to be followed.’’

DON’T LET REPUBLICANS SLAM

THE DOOR SHUT ON STAFFORD

fLOANS

(Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas asked

and was given permission to address

the House for 1 minute and to revise

and extend his remarks.)

Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr.

Speaker, I rise to speak in opposition

to the Republican budget proposal as it

specifically relates to higher education. Yesterday, I talked about cuts

in our elementary and secondary education funds that will hurt our children

in public schools. Today, I am going to

talk about the House proposal that will

increase college costs for 4.5 million

college students by eliminating the inschool interest subsidy on Stafford

loans. Families who rely on Stafford

student loans would pay up to $3,000

more for the cost of a college education.

These extra costs could put a college

education out of reach for many young

people in my district. I have a picture

here of a young lady, Yuroba Harris.

Yuroba is an honor student at the University of Houston. In order to earn

extra money for books and tuition, she

works in my district office part time,

serving the constituents of the 29th

District in Houston, TX.

Elimination of the in-school interest

subsidy could put college out of reach

for a lot of young people like Yuroba

and other middle-class and poor young

people all over my district. There is an

old proverb: Give a person a fish and

they will eat today. Teach them to fish

and they will eat for a lifetime. Let us

not cut education. Let us make sure

they can eat for a lifetime.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF AMERICA’S

FOREIGN AID PROGRAM

f(Mr. CHABOT asked and was given

permission to address the House for 1

minute and to revise and extend his remarks, and include extraneous matter.)

Mr. CHABOT. Mr. Speaker, we have

been debating the foreign aid bill for

the last few days and we have heard a

lot of criticisms about foreign aid programs. Some are justified and some are

not, but undoubtedly some good things

have been accomplished. I would like

to include in the RECORD, following my

remarks, a recent Cincinnati Post

guest column written by my friend,

Dan Radford, executive secretarytreasurer of the Cincinnati AFL–CIO

Labor Council, who has had a very productive working relationship with the

U.S. Information Agency.

Working under a grant from USIA,

the AFL–CIO’s Free Trade Union Institute has worked closely with trade

union leaders from Ukraine and

Kazakhstan. A delegation from those

former Soviet States recently visited

Cincinnati to get some positive exposure to our political and economic system, with the local labor council serving as host.

It is my hope that as we move toward

a more streamlined and productive foreign policy apparatus, we will be able

to work with groups like this and continue in a more efficient way to provide the means for such positive dialog.

I include the Radford article in the

RECORD at this time as a valuable contribution to the discussion.

The text of the article is as follows:

LABOR UNIONS HELP NURTURE DEMOCRACIES

IN EASTERN EUROPE

(By V. Daniel Radford)

Semyon Karikov and Gennady Nikitin,

trade union leaders from Ukraine and

Kazakhstan, visited our city recently to

learn about the role institutions like unions

play in the community and in our system of

government. Their visit was made possible

by the AFL–CIO’s Free Trade Union Institute under a grant from the U.S. Information

Agency. We at the Cincinnati AFL–CIO

Labor Council served as their local hosts. I

had already been on several educational exchange trips to Romania, Slovakia, and the

Czech Republic under the same FTUI/USIA

program.

Why are these exchanges important, and

why should our government support these

types of activities? Simply put, because it is

in our direct interest to help the countries of

Eastern Europe to build institutions—like

unions—that bring the rule of law and economic stability to their countries.

Educational exchanges can assist in this

process. During their visit, for example,

Karikov and Nikitin met with county and

city officials from both political parties,

with union leaders and rank and file members, and with community political activists.

They were given an overview of labor’s role

in protecting workplace rights and in expressing the voice of workers in politics and

economics of a democratic society. They can

take these lessons about involvement back

to their unions and communities at home.

While Semyon and Gennedy visited our

city, we learned something too, about how

hard life is in the countries of the former Soviet Union. Workers labor in dangerous conditions with no safety equipment and return

home to eat their meager meals in the dark

and cold because there is no heat or electricity. At times they go weeks and sometimes months without pay; they continue

working just to keep their jobs.

Workers in Eastern Europe are still struggling for democracy. In Ukraine and

Kazakhstan democracies are not established,

and the rule of law doesn’t exist. In Ukraine,

for example, a man summoned to the police

station for questioning was tried, convicted,

and carted away to prison on the spot. In

both countries, the so-called ex-communists

have teamed up with former security officers

and mafia-like criminal elements to dominate many aspects of society.

So, for humanitarian reasons alone, the

U.S. should remain engaged in helping those

who seek to build democracy in Eastern Europe.

It is in our own interest as well: the lack

of stability in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and

other countries in the former Soviet Union

directly threatens the United States. Organized crime groups in Russia alone are

roughly ten times larger than the American

Mafia. According to FBI Director Louis

Freeh ‘‘these same crime groups also pose a

significant and direct threat to the United

States * * * (they) are engaged in a wide

range of criminal activities, including complex tax and health care fraud schemes, extortion, money laundering, and drug trafficking.’’

An even more ominous threat, Secretary of

Defense William Perry recently warned, ‘‘are

(the) still more than 20,000 nuclear weapons

in four countries of the former Soviet Union;

Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus.’’

He points out that these weapons ‘‘could be

reconstituted into a threat or that some of

them could find a way to rogue regimes.’’

A growing web of international organized

criminals who can control—and sell—sizable

stockpiles of nuclear weapons: it’s a crisis

waiting to happen.

Only a firm, stable government and economy can keep these weapons and criminals

under control. Democracy with worker participation can help stabilize nations like

Kazakhstan and the Ukraine.

As we have witnessed with Solidarity in

Poland, unions have been key in advancing

the spread of democracy in the region. And,

as we see here at home, unions have a crucial

balancing voice in a market economy. During my FTUI visits, I saw Eastern European

unions taking steps toward greater political

and community involvement, pushing for

free elections, a free press, and an understanding and control of economic forces. I

think our educational exchanges helped

move this process along.

It’s fair to ask ourselves if in this time of

cost cutting, we can afford programs like the

one that brought Semyon and Gennady here.