Greg Ganske

In the last 7 years we spent $492 billion. We propose in our budget spending $878 billion. That is an increase, folks, of $386 billion in welfare spending.

And I would just like to point out some of the facts versus the myths that we have heard so much of over the last several weeks. The first myth is this: Congress' budget is cutting Medicare spending.

If we go from 492 to 878, I do not know anyone in my district that calls that a decrease.

What is the fact? What are the numbers in the last 7 years we spent? $926 billion. And we propose spending $1,600 billion in the next 7 years.

Let us talk about the next myth. The next myth is Congress' budget makes draconian cuts in welfare funding. I think I have heard that word draconian about a thousand times in the last 3 weeks. Well, how much did we spend on welfare in the…

But still allowing 7.2 percent growth each year on the average. Remember when President Clinton and Mrs. Clinton presented their plan just a year and a half ago, they proposed an increase of about 6.8 percent. At that time they said that…

One of the provisions in our plan says that if a Medicare beneficiary identifies an area of fraud or abuse, that they can participate in recovering some of the cost.

Myth: Congress' budget guts student loans. What is the fact? The fact is that in 1995 we spent $24 billion; in 1996 we spend $26 billion; in 1997, $28 billion; 1998, $30 billion; 1999, $32 billion; in the year 2000, $33 billion; the year…

Exactly. And that has been a flawed funding formula based on over-utilization in certain areas.

County by county. Every county in the country has a rate determined by the Health Care Financing Administration, by Medicare. Unfortunately, the difference between some counties and other counties is huge. Let me give you an example. This…

Particularly in urban areas, and this is a situation where everyone in my counties are paying exactly the same Medicare tax as everyone in the other counties that are getting more than twice as much per beneficiary. That is why, for…

One of the things that is currently happening in the Medicare Program is a trend toward increased utilization or increased opportunity for health maintenance organizations. This is happening. It is going to continue to happen, whether…

For the last 25 or 30 years, the average income family in this country has stagnated. I mean, you can talk to the President of the AFL-CIO. He will tell you exactly the same thing. Part of that is because in 1950, the average income family…

One thing should be known, and that is that, at least in my district, there is a Federal credit union that is open and available to provide interest free loans to Federal employees if things are pretty tight. I certainly would like to get…

Some people will say, oh, that is just economics. But those are economics that affect real people. I have a lot of farmers in my district. They run expensive farm operations. It costs a lot to run a farm these days. Most of them do not…

And I personally think that that would be the time then that we should bring the Federal employees back. I think it should be noted, though, that I am not saying that the President has to agree with our plan. I am not saying we have to…

let us put into perspective what seems to be one of the most contentious parts of the Interior appropriations bill, harvesting part of the Alaska Tongass Forest. If this table represented Alaska, the Tongass Forest would represent a…

we have heard a lot of hot air about tax cuts for the rich, tax cuts for the rich. Well, as many of the Members know, myself and another Member who is sitting in the body today earlier in the year worked hard to lower the tax cap for the…

I think people back home get all mixed up when we are talking about CBO, Congressional Budget Office, or OMB, Office of Management and Budget. That is the administration's predictors of economics. But I try to explain it to them this way…

The gentleman is on the Committee on the Budget, and he very well knows that when Congress passes budgets, we certainly did not get every economic prediction that we wanted to from the Congressional Budget Office.

We had to work with the assumptions that they gave us, just like we would expect the President to work with the CBO on their assumptions.

If I would help the budget negotiations, I would bring the DeSoto to Washington and drive it down to the White House.

If we look at it on an annual basis the benefit that a Medicare beneficiary would get, for instance, in Nebraska or Iowa or Oregon, it would be in this range, below $4,000 on an annual basis. In some parts of the country it is $6,000. The…

I think we ought to spend a little bit of time on the so-called tax cuts for the rich. I think we ought to spend some time on some of the specific items in Medicare that were discussed by the previous discussants. But I think maybe we…

I think if he would finally put a plan on the table that the CBO scored as balanced, it does not matter what is in it. He can put his priorities in it. It would be a sign of good faith with Congress, if the President is truly interested in…