The historic Medicare vote is pending in the House of Representatives. Kwame Holman begins our report, followed by a debate between Pete Peterson of the Blackstone Group and Joseph Califano, president and chairman of the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

KWAME HOLMAN: Anyone who listened to House members describe the provisions of the Republican plan to reform Medicare today easily could have assumed Democrats and Republicans were talking about two entirely different pieces of legislation.

REP. BILL ARCHER, (R) Texas: Our bill is innovative, bold, and visionary. It is long-term. When it comes to a program as important as Medicare, nothing else is acceptable.

REP. PETE STARK, (D) California: These cuts they've proposed will hurt and hurt badly. Real people, hard-working Americans who pay into Medicare for years, won't get community health care centers; they won't get safety net systems to provide them Medicare. For 30 years, we have been working successfully to uphold the one true contract with America, and that's Medicare. We have not and will not agree to breaking that contract.

KWAME HOLMAN: For their parts, Republicans argued that $270 billion in Medicare savings over the next seven years are necessary to ensure the program's solvency.

REP. SCOTT KLUG, (R) Wisconsin: The President's own trustees say in seven years the Medicare Trust Fund is tapped out. There is zero left, absolutely zippo.

SPOKESMAN: We're going to pass this bill because our constituents want to save Medicare not just for today's seniors but for their children and for their grandchildren. That's the moral imperative we have before us.

KWAME HOLMAN: Republicans tried to assure seniors they still would receive the same quality of care currently available under Medicare.

REP. NANCY JOHNSON, (R) Connecticut: In fact, our bill guarantees all Medicare benefits for future retirees as well as for current retirees and increases spending per retire $2,000 over the seven years, which is just as much as we increased spending over the last seven years, thus, absolutely guaranteeing the benefits will be there for America's seniors.

KWAME HOLMAN: And Republicans said seniors would be offered new health care alternatives never before available.

REP. DAN MILLER, (R) Florida: Those that want to choose a medical savings account, great, let 'em choose it. Those that want to go into managed care, great, let 'em choose it. Why not let local doctors and local hospitals who deliver the care to their local communities offer their own program? What's wrong with that? Why deny choice?

KWAME HOLMAN: But Democrats disputed every argument that Republicans made. They charged Republicans are cutting more money than is needed to keep Medicare solvent.

REP. BARBARA KENNELLY, (D) Connecticut: My experience tells me that a $90 billion problem does not need a $270 billion solution.

REP. JOHN DINGELL, (D) Michigan: There's only one reason that this bill is required, and that is to provide tax cuts for the rich, financed at the expense of senior citizens and Medicare recipients.

KWAME HOLMAN: They charged the quality of Medicare would suffer under the Republican plan.

REP. ROSA DELAURO, (D) Connecticut: It means seniors will see their premiums increase and their benefits decrease. For seniors, this plan should be called the "pay more, get less" plan.

KWAME HOLMAN: And Democrats disputed the attractiveness of the Republican plan to offer health care options.

REP. HENRY WAXMAN, (D) California: This will take away the choice of a doctor. It will herd people into managed care plans. That's not a bad choice if you want an HMO, but that shouldn't be your only choice.

KWAME HOLMAN: Throughout the weeks of Medicare debate, Republicans fearful of losing the public opinion battle over their plan have bristled over the Democrats' attacks. That continued today.

REP. MICHAEL BILIRAKIS, (R) Florida: Mr. Chairman, I'll use the word shame. Shame on those politicians who over the years, not just now, used scare tactics and misinformation to frighten our senior citizens all in the interest of getting votes through fear. These actions are unconscionable.

REP. CARRIE MEEK, (D) Florida: What you are doing is fooling the senior citizens. And you say to me, don't scare them. I need to scare them and say look out, it's coming. Would you know a hurricane is coming and you don't do anything about it? I'm telling it all over this country. I will continue to say that you are not telling the full truth to these senior citizens.

KWAME HOLMAN: The Democrats proposed their own Medicare reform plan with only $90 billion in savings, but it was defeated, failing to attract even one Republican vote.

SPOKESMAN: The yays are 149; the nays are 283; the motion is not agreed to.

KWAME HOLMAN: The Republican plan was expected to be approved simply on the strength of the Republican majority, but President Clinton has threatened to veto the plan, possibly setting the stage for another vote on a Medicare compromise.