On the recordJuly 9, 1996
I want to again present some information about this erroneous claim. I know the President is continuing to run advertising claiming Republicans are cutting Medicare, which is not true. The President has claimed that with his rhetoric about Medicare, he is saying, ``When I talk about Medicare, there's no difference about what I say about Medicare than when the Republicans talk about defense.'' The reality, however, is that since 1987 there has been a steady decline in defense spending. In fact, it is at the lowest percent of our gross national product ever. Recently, in response to a question from CNN's Wolf Blitzer, President Clinton admitted in fact that Republicans are not cutting Medicare. He is right about that because spending on this program will increase at almost 7 percent a year. So the spending not only is going up, but it is going up above inflation at roughly 7 percent a year.
Source
govinfo.gov
