H 4798 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—HOUSE May 11, 1995

BUDGET RESOLUTION A PRODUCT

OF SECRECY

(Mr. DOGGETT asked and was given

permission to address the House for 1

minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, this

morning around 1 or 1:15 a budget resolution was adopted by the House Committee on the Budget. It is the product

of secrecy, of task forces meeting,

working as a shadow government in

this Capitol, to design a budget resolution. And if you had sat there from 10

in the morning until a little after 1 in

the morning the next day as I have,

you would understand why it has been

necessary to conceive this budget resolution in secret, because the members

of the Republican caucus have again

broken their word.

They have broken their word about

having an open House, which they

promised on the first day. And the reason it was so essential for them to operate in secrecy is that they are breaking their word to seniors across this

country. They are coming after Medicare to the tune of almost $300 billion

in cuts, directly out of the pockets of

American seniors.

Finally, after being pressed, they admitted that copayments are going up

for American seniors and that many

seniors will see a cut in their benefits.

They just do not know who has been

marked for the most pain.

FEDERAL BUDGET MUST BE

BROUGHT UNDER CONTROL

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

minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, time is

running out.

If Congress fails to address the out-of

control Federal budget, it will soon be

too late for our children’s future.

If we fail to end the irresponsible

spending that Washington has engaged

in for the last 25 years, we can say

goodbye to the American dream, and

say hello to a diminished standard of

living for our kids.

The consequences are jut too great to

imagine if we do not bring the Federal

budget into balance. In just 10 years, at

current projections, the Federal Government will be unable to pay for anything beyond the service on the debt

and entitlements. That means no defense, no law enforcement, or any other

domestic spending.

Mr. Speaker, Republicans are committed to bringing budgetary sanity

out of budgetary chaos. We will balance the budget by eliminating outdated agencies, waste, and programs

that simply do not work. All the liberal Democrats can offer is class warfare rhetoric and posture for the best

political angle. They totally fail to realize that the future of America is on

the line and that time is running out.

GOP BUDGET RESOLUTION

(Mr. FOGLIETTA asked and was

given permission to address the House

for 1 minute and to revise and extend

his remarks.)

Mr. FOGLIETTA. Mr. Speaker, is it

any surprise how the Republicans

would reach a balanced budget in 7

years? By breaking our contract with

senior citizens, with veterans, with the

most vulnerable people in our society,

and with those of us who live in cities.

I take the floor today to challenge

just one aspect of this disastrous plan,

that which would bankrupt American

mass transit. The best way that we can

empower people and bring them out of

poverty and welfare is to help them get

jobs and to keep those jobs. This requires meeting practical needs, job

training, child care, health insurance,

and mass transit. We must help people

get to their jobs on safe, dependable,

and economical public transit.

Thus I rise to oppose some of the aspects of this mean-spirited budget plan

and to oppose, as strongly as I can, the

end of the Federal Government’s commitment to mass transportation.

ZERO DEFICIT BUDGET

RESOLUTION PASSED

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

minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HOKE. Mr. Speaker, Rome burns

and Nero fiddles. Since yesterday at

this time, the national debt has increased $548 million. That is almost $23

million every single hour, $383,000

every single minute, $9,000 every second. Every newborn baby enters the

world owing $17,300 of his or her share

of the national debt. That means that

between yesterday morning at this

time and today, we have on a per capita basis increased the debt about $2.10

each.

Thomas Jefferson said that ‘‘We

should consider ourselves unauthorized

to saddle posterity with our debts, and

morally bound to pay them ourselves.’’

Yesterday the Republican members of

the Committee on the Budget, joined

by one of the Democrat members of the

committee, passed what will be a zero,

goose egg, nothing, no deficit in the

year 2002, balanced budget resolution.

MEDICARE RECIPIENTS PLACED

AT GREAT RISK

f(Mrs. CLAYTON asked and was given

permission to address the House for 1

minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mrs. CLAYTON. Mr. Speaker, we now

know that the majority proposes to reduce Medicare spending by $250 billion

over the next 7 years. This will mean

the average Medicare patient’s benefits

will be reduced by $132 in 1996 to $2,000

in the balanced budget year 2002. Outof-pocket costs will rise as well. Each

American on Medicare, and their families, can expect to be responsible for

thousands of dollars of additional costs

per year. The import of these huge

spending reductions are profound—less

people will have access to quality

health care, and our Nation’s hospitals

will be put at great risk.

As Medicare goes under the knife, so

too does funding for medical education,

especially teaching hospitals, such as

Pitt Memorial, in my congressional

district. Hospitals like Pitt Memorial

receive about 30 percent of their funding for resident training. They get additional funds for graduate medical

education programs. These funds provide such hospitals with the financial

cushion so that they can continue to

provide care for Medicare patients.

Who will pick up the slack for this essential funding—certainly not the

States, the counties or the people? I invite my colleagues from across the

aisle to really consider the impact that

these deep spending reductions will

have on millions of seniors and their

families. This will end Medicare, as we

know it.

Mr. Speaker, if these huge reductions

go into effect. Medicare patients and

their families will suffer.

TIME WARP

f(Mr. CHRYSLER asked and was given

permission to address the House for 1

minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. CHRYSLER. Mr. Speaker, my

colleagues on the other side of the aisle

are caught in a time warp.

They are still thinking like the Congress of old, where through the magic

of baseline budgeting, Democrats could

claim they were cutting spending when

actually they were spending more than

ever.

Now they come to the floor and claim

that Republicans are cutting Medicare,

when the cold, hard facts are just the

opposite.

As you can see by this chart, the per

capita expenditure in Medicare will increase from $4,700 to $6,300 over the

next 7 years.

In Democrat parlance, that is a cut,

but to most Americans that is a significant increase.

Coupled with our reforms, which will

weed out waste and fraud, we will protect, improve, and preserve Medicare

far into the next century.

Mr. Speaker, House Democrats who

come to the floor today will continue

to attack Republicans for cutting Medicare. But as this chart shows, the

truth is far different from the Democrat version of reality.

MEDICARE CUTS PAY FOR TAX

CUTS FOR WEALTHY

f(Mr. ROMERO-BARCELO ́ asked and

was given permission to address the

House for 1 minute and to revise and

extend his remarks.)