Gingrich Says Democrats Lie on Medicare : Politics: In appearance at Nixon Library, the House Speaker challenges President to debate GOP’s reform package ‘before any audience.’

House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Saturday challenged President Clinton to a debate on Medicare and accused Democrats of lying to senior citizens about budget cuts outlined in the Republican Medicare reform package.

Speaking at a fund-raiser for Rep. Jay Kim (R-Diamond Bar) at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace, Gingrich (R-Ga.) told an enthusiastic audience of about 300 people that Clinton has not been telling the truth about Medicare spending.

“This is a sort of the Clinton Wonderland of making up facts,” he said, standing beside Kim and between statues of Nikita S. Khrushchev and Anwar Sadat in the Summit of World Leaders Room.

“The Democrats have been lying totally, immorally,” he said. “They’re trying to frighten 70-year-old people.”

After seven years under the Republican plan, Gingrich said, the government would wind up spending an average of $6,700 a year for every senior, compared to the $4,800-a-year average now spent. Republicans, Gingrich said, were not cutting anything for the elderly.

“Is that a plus or a minus?” he asked. “I’ll go anywhere in the country, in front of any audience, and debate that.”

The complicated legislation, known as the Medicare Preservation Act, which passed the House Thursday, would yield $270 billion in savings by the year 2002, Republicans say, by curtailing payments to hospitals, increasing out-of-pocket expenses for patients and channeling many seniors into less-expensive managed-care systems.

The White House has countered that the Republican plan would restrict payments to doctors and hospitals so severely that many will become unwilling to treat Medicare patients. Clinton has proposed $124 billion in Medicare cuts over 10 years.

The Speaker on Saturday also thanked Kim for supporting his proposed multibillion-dollar plan, announced Friday, under which the federal government would fully reimburse states for providing emergency medical care to illegal immigrants.

“We’re going to make the federal government pay for the problems it creates by failing to do its job protecting the border,” he said.

California, estimated to have half the country’s illegal immigrants, could receive more than $400 million a year under the plan Gingrich outlined.

Gingrich called Kim, the first Korean American in Congress, an example of the American dream and proof that minorities don’t need to “gerrymander and rig the game” to succeed. Kim represents a district that includes parts of north Orange County.

“This is what people can accomplish if they don’t gripe and they don’t whine,” he said. “He happens to be the best candidate. People of all ethnic backgrounds vote for the best person, not just for their race.”

After the speech, Kim gave credit for the success of the breakfast fund-raiser to Gingrich, whom he described as an excellent orator and the father of the GOP “contract with America.”

“It’s all up to Mr. Clinton now,” he said, adding that he asked the Speaker to appear because he is “more popular than Clinton himself.”

When Gingrich visited the library in August, more than 1,000 people showed up as the Speaker autographed copies of his new book, “To Renew America,” while demonstrators marched outside.

John Fields, 72, of Tustin was thrilled to hear Gingrich’s 45-minute speech.

“I really agree with everything the Speaker has to say and, unlike the ones we’ve had in the past, you see him out here and you know where he stands,” he said. “He’s real convincing.”

Although Fields and his wife Louise, 73, are registered Democrats, they have voted for Republicans ever since Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt died in 1945.

“The changes in Medicare are scary. I think a lot of seniors are scared,” said Louise Fields. “You don’t want to pay more but if it’s going to fizzle out for everybody, you’ve got to do something and Gingrich has a lot of good ideas.”