Jack Kingston: “even though there are only a few of us present now, I am going to pose a pop quiz to the House. The question is who made…”

“even though there are only a few of us present now, I am going to pose a pop quiz to the House. The question is who made the following statement: 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, I repeat, not a Medicare or Medicaid cut. And we have kept private sector increases so they won't go up as much. So only in Washington do people believe that no one can get by on twice the rate of inflation. So when you hear all this business about cuts, let me caution you, that is not what is going on. Now, who made those comments: President Clinton or Newt Gingrich, the Speaker of the House? If you guessed President Clinton, you were right. He made those comments on October 5, 1993. On May 16, 1995, more recently, he said, ``I believe we have to slow the growth of Medicare.'' Mr. Speaker, compare the comments of President Clinton to what you hear tonight on the House floor from people like the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Pallone]. Then think for a moment on this particular quote. This is a quote by the former Democrat Governor of Colorado, Gov. Richard Lamb, in Newsweek May 13, so just the other day: ``I am awed by his,'' referring to President Clinton, ``I am awed by his understanding of this insolvency of Medicare, which just makes his demagoguing worse. He knows what is happening, yet he is poisoning the well.…”