Date: 1995-10-10
Speaker: GENE GREEN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

I will yield. but let me make my remarks about the Medicare to my colleague from Arizona because I want to make sure my colleagues understand that that is what our morning hour here is about. so we can exchange ideas and talk about it. Over the last week I spent a lot of time in my district. like other Members have. and I used this last week to meet with constituents. and visit a number of my senior citizens centers. and answer their questions. and I have not had the opportunity to host our Social Security Commissioner. Dr. Shirley Chater. in Houston. and she toured one of our westend senior citizen centers. the Magnolia Senior Nutrition site. and also the Texas Medical Center to talk with those who are most affected by the proposed cutbacks in Medicare. You will notice I did not say cuts. cutbacks. because when you add more population to it and you do not plan for that increase. it is a cutback. Ms. Chater made an interesting point during her visit. I would like to reiterate it. We have all heard the word "bankrupt" a lot. All by friends on the other side of the aisle stand up and wave the Medicare Trustees report and explain how they are trying to save the system from going bankrupt. Ms. Chater is not only Social Security Administrator. but she is also one of the trustees of the Medicare trust fund. and she pointed out to the seniors in Houston. TX that the system really is not going bankrupt. It may have problems that need to be addressed. like it has eight times or nine times in its history over the last 30 years. but as long as people paid into the trust fund. those of us who are earning now. it is not going bankrupt as long as we plan for the future. My friends on the other side of the aisle say we are scaring seniors. Seniors ought to be scared. I think the polls show they are getting scared by what they hear. In fact. they should be the ones that should quit scaring seniors into thinking they are going to cut $270 million out of Medicare and it will not be around next year unless they do that. because that is what the fear is: Unless we cut $270 million out of the growth over 7 years we will not have Medicare next year. We will have Medicare next year. we will have it the year after that. but we need to have a reasonable plan to get its policies on expenditures in line like we do every Federal program. but not $270 billion. more like $90 billion. It is not true. and it is is wrong to scare the people into thinking that. Let us be honest with the American people. They need 3270 billion to meet their tax cut goals. I have heard those goals were met with the appropriation bills. But. Mr. Speaker. we have only passed one appropriation bill here on this floor that went to the President. and was vetoed last week. so those cuts are not in place. Now they are talking about cutting Medicare. There are no ifs. ands. or buts. the seniors in this country will have to bear the brunt of the pain to balance that budget to give that tax break. That is the truth. and even the Republican Members of our other body have expressed strong opposition to cutting taxes while simultaneously slashing Medicare. These Senate Republicans are beginning to say. as our Democrat leader. the gentleman from Missouri . has said for months. in fact the gentleman from Missouri was in Houston at another senior citizen site a few months ago. and said that before we start talking about reforming Medicare. let us sit down and look at the whole budget. but let us take off this tax cut of $247 billion. I was in Houston for over a week. and I have talked to hundreds of seniors. Several have asked me to outline what the plan entailed. I have briefly explained $110 billion will come from health care providers. 80 billion from the beneficiaries and their increase In Medicare part B. and $80 billion from future unspecified cuts will be decided by some bureaucrat here in Washington. DC. Of course. that begged the question: Who is going to make that decision? Will these unspecified cuts be out of providers. or will they come from increased beneficiaries cuts? We do not know. but that is the only place this can come out of. unless we take more out of the Federal budget. The translation is. I tell the seniors in my district. to expect more direct hits down the road if this plan passes. My constituents asked me. "Its kind of sketchy to us. Why dont we get some more detail?" I said. "Okay. that is what I will do." I am waiting. because I know the Committee on Ways and Means is still meeting. to see what their plan will do on these unspecified cuts. Mr. Speaker. I know I have exhausted my time. and my colleague. the gentleman from Arizona . has left. But I know that I join with a lot of people. the. AARP. the American Medical Association. and a lot of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who question what may be happening to Medicare if we do not do something reasonable instead of cutting $270 billion.