it works. it creates a public option for those across the country as part of health care reform is long overdue. we need to build on and improve medicare, and we can do that. we want to make sure it is based on science and best outcomes, we encourage preventive care and see the elements in our society where people can do things to make their own health care better. time and again we hear the republicans come to the floor as if they're parts of the travel channel. they don't want to talk about america and the problems we face. they want to talk about england, new zealand, australia, canada -- they don't want to talk about the united states of america. it's time for them to come home and recognize we can improve our health care system letting americans keep the health insurance they have if they want to keep it, making sure we start to bring costs down, making quality health insurance available and giving families

the piece of mine that the cost of health insurance will not go through the roof and beyond their means. that sort pa of the debate. i see two of -- that is part of the debate. i see two of my colleagues are on the floor and i ask unanimous consent the reminder of my statement be entered in the record. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. durbin: i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from new york. mr. schumer: i thank my colleague and friend from illinois for his outstanding words once again on health care. and on the fact that we need some kind of check on the insurance companies -- our colleagues offer nothing, they just point to canada and england which is a totally different system than we are focusing on. second, i thank my colleague from oregon doing a great job in his first year in the senate for his generosity so i can speak for a brief moment, share with my colleagues some words about an act of bravery that occurred in my state yesterday.

mr. president, as the senate right now debates some of the biggest national issues of our time, it's important to sometimes take a step back and look to see some of the great acts that are happening every day in our towns, cities and states. so lied like to call -- so i'd like to call attention to an act of heroicness yesterday morning at south orange town middle school in new york, in rock land county, 45 minutes from new york city, a disgruntled man with a gun stormed into the school superintendent and grabbed the superintendent by the neck tie and started threatening him and making demands. at least three gun shots were fired.

this is the kind of situation that would have scared most everyone but as we've learned now, ken mitchell is no ordinary person. with his safety and the state of his students on the line he showed remarkable courage and wrestled the gunman down to the frowned. he was able to grab the gun, kick it out of the way and get the gunman pinned on the ground. usually, when a s.w.a.t. team arrived at the scene of a crime they are the ones to do the serious crime fighting but this time by the time they got there they walked in on the school superintendent who had already disarmed and pinned to the ground the dangerous criminal. to top it off the superintendent mitchell recognized one of the s.w.a.t. team members he had once coached as a kid on the local hockey team. according to people on the scene, mr. mitchell was ready to get back to his office.

as his brother if law said, "his tie wasn't even messed up," just another day on the job for another great new yorker. mr. president, it should be no secret to anyone that this incident could very quickly have turned into something unspeakable. while the headlines today are the ones of praise, they could have easily been of grief and praise god they weren't. as new york senator, i want to rise publicly and congratulate ken mitchell for his act of bravery and heroism. as a parent myself i know what it's like to send kids off to school in the morning and hope and prayer they'll come back safely. it is people like ken mitchell that make it easy for parents to know that their kids are in good hand when they wave goodbye to

the school bus and send their children off to school. ken mitchell is a reminder that every minute of every day americans are engaging in personal quiet acts of heroism and bravery which we should all be grateful. i'm proud he is from my state and i am proud if even for one moment i can give him some of the recognition he deserves. i'm sure that superintendent mitchell is back at work right now at if nothing happened. however, superintendent ken mitchell, on behalf of all new yorkers, all americans, and parents everywhere, we say, "thank you, it's americans like you that make us proud." i yield the floor and once again thank my colleague from oregon for yielding. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: mr. president, in the coming weeks we will take up what probably is one of the most vexing policy challenges of the last 50 years: how to reform our

health care system and provide affordable, accessible health care to every single american. the goal couldn't be more straightforward, guarantee access for every american. and the stakes couldn't be higher. our small businesses are collapsing under the weight of health insurance premiums. just last month, oregon's largest insurer announced the small business premium was going up 14.7%. that's open top of a 26% increase just the previous year. now, large employers have the challenge as well. in a global economy, our broken health care system is a major competitive disadvantage. a greater share of the price of each car in the united states goes to health care than goes to

steel. $1,500 of the cost of the car goes do health care and in canada that price is zero. if we're going to compete in the world we need competitive cost effective health care system. and, of course, the biggest of back of our expensive ineffective health care is most acutely felt around the kitchen table by our working families. with unemployment skyrocketing, virtually every family is reminded of how tenuous its connection is to health care. just one pink slip away from losing health care for their family. even those with insurance find health costs out of reach. nearly half of the personal bankruptcies are by folks who have health insurance but still couldn't manage all the health care costs when they became ill.

this is what it boils down to: working families in america, if they have health care, they're concerned about the co-pays, concerned about being under insured and concerned about losing their insurance with the loss of a job. those working families without health care are worried about getting sick and how they're going to get well if they're already sick. this doesn't have to be the case. mr. president, health care is already devouring a large portion of our economy, 18% of our gross domestic product. driving long-term federal deficits and crowding out important state investments in education, in infrastructure, in social services, and pretty much everything else. and it's only projected to get worse as our population ages and health care inflation runs rampant year after year. put simply: if we do not reform our health care, our economy

will not thrive. that's a stark choice. our economy and health care are tied together. now, mr. president, i know that none of this is news to you. nor to any members of this esteemed chamber. and, in fact, since president truman, 60 years ago called for health care for every working american as a national priority, we've been struggling to achieve that goal and before he not yet gotten there. we've been periodically trying to fix up a fragmented expensive, unfair system. but the fear of change has always overtaken the sense of possibility. those stakes and that history make it all the more critical that we seize this moment to meet the challenge that president obama has laid out for us and that we deliver on health care reform.

this is the year, 2009 is the year. this is the area to deliver on the promise, to give every american access to affordable health coverage, to ensure our economy has the same potential, the engine of prosperity, the opportunity of employment in this century that it was in the last century. to make this happen, we have to find ways to make our health care system more affordable. we need to spend our health care dollar in smarter ways so we can put money back in the pockets of americans and make our businesses more competitive. the good news is we have lots of examples of how to do this right now. extensive research has documented the regions in our country that spend the most per person on medicare -- that's 60%

more than the rejoins with the lowest -- regions with the lowest expenditure on health care -- they don't end up with better health care. the lowest-spending regions actually have the same or better health care outcomes after you adjust for health history and ages and occupations. plus, the beneficiaries are more satisfied. so if we could take the practices and change them in the high-cost regions do match the low-cost regions, we would save in medicare alone hundreds of billions of dollars. our job is to change the rules of the road so they encourage and enable all providers to act more like the high-performers, those providing higher quality, lower cost health care. that's why this legislation needs to get us to start spending our health care dollars more wisely, investing more in

prevention, investing in chronic disease management, building a research base about what works and what financial incentives are necessary to utilize those practices. rewarding care delivery built around coordination and efficiency rather than fragmentation and volume. we know these things work. and we need to make them the norm, not the exception. mr. president, we cannot stop the bleeding in our health care system without doing something about broken health insurance marketplace. the first thing we need to do is to end the insurance company practices that penalize you if you are he old or if you're sick or if you've ever been sick. i'm outraged when i hear stories from oregonians being turned

away because of their preexisting conditions or pro-expensety toward certain diseases. the folks who need health care the most are being turned away the most. that is not a health care system. mr. president, we have 50 million americans without health care. that's what this conversation is about. taking that 18% of our gross domestic product we spend currently and finding a way to provide good quality coverage to every single american, not leaving out 50 million americans. those are reforms that anyone can get behind. but i understand when we talk about other changes to health insurance, folks can get nervous and worry about the system changing in ways that are not beneficial to them and that's why i keep coming back to this

point: we're going to provide the health care system we have for the people who have it, we're going to imrrv improve ite can provide health care to the 50 million who don't have coverage. with the reforms our citizens will have more choice and choice in health care openings is a good thing. instead of leaving individuals and small groups at mercy of insurance companies providing expensive plans with very high administrative costs, those individuals and those small businesses will be able to participate in a marketplace that groups them together with millions of other americans so they can benefit from the larger pool of health care participants. now this marketplace will resemble something very close to the list of options that federal employees have when you become a

federal employee. you have an option of this plan or this plan or this plan. that's what we're going to do. we're going to provide a list of plans that citizens can choose from to be part after larger pool. we're going to provide a list of plans that small businesses can choose from and benefit from being a part of a larger pool of insured. now, this is a structure that we're familiar with as members of congress. what works for members of congress, what works for u.s. senators will work for working americans. these plans give apples to apples comparisons so that citizens can pick the plan that fits their family the best. it will ensure minimum standards so that our workers are not ripped off. and the access to the marketplace will come with premium assistance so that strapped consumers can get help

affording the premiums to obtain health care. now, given the track record of inefficiencies and cherry picking by private insurers, i think it's imperative that consumers have multiple choices including a public option. that public option is simply a way to describe what we're already providing to our seniors throughout this nation. aublic organized plan, a very efficient plan, the administrative costs of medicare are around 2%, while the administrative cost for our individual applicants to the health care system, for our small businesses is 30%. why not let our individuals -- why not let our small businesses benefit from a 30% improvement in the use of the health care dollar? now this public option would compete on a level playing field

with private plans and further expand choices for consumers and it would be a tool for keeping costs low. and it should be part of any package we put forward. now, you would think that all of us here in this room hearing from our constituents in every corner of our state would understand that this whole conversation is about addressing one of the highest stress factors for working families in every part of this nation. but there are opponents of this reform. my colleagues across the aisle hired a consultant, frank luntz, to prepare a plan to tornado health care. -- torpedo health care. this plan came out in april. this 25-page document about how to kill any plan that's put forward. and this goes on to say it doesn't matter what the specifics of the plan are, just adopt language that attacks it and frames it the opposite of what it really is.

because what this document says is that americans want this health care reform so you can't fight it head-on, you have to recharacterize it, reframe it. so what does this plan that's been put out to kill health care say? it says time is on our side. if we can slow the process down, we can kill it. well, you know, windows of opportunity are open for a certain period of time and then they close. so i suppose that's smart advice if you want to kill health care. but if you want to do something for the 50 million americans without health care, then we need to move quickly forward with health care reform. now, this document -- this republican document about how to kill health care, it says: say that the plan is centered around politicians. say that it's -- that it is about bureaucrats. say that it's about washington,

d.c. well, i'm not sure what there is about providing health care options to 50 million working americans who struggle every day to address the cost of health care and often end up in personal bankruptcy and forego all kinds of other opportunities so that their child can go to the doctor. that has nothing to do with bureaucrats. that has nothing to do with washington. that has everything to do with family values, strengthening the foundation of our families. now, this document about how to kill health care, this says, bring in denial, horror stories from canada or other parts of the world to suggest to people they'll lose their relationship with their doctor. that somehow they'll be jerkd out of the arrangements that they found to be so satisfactory. scare them. scare the citizens of the united states. well, i can tell you that what is scaring the citizens of the united states is they can't

afford their health care. they want us to do something about it. bringing up false horror stories that have no bearing on the plan before us to scare -- to scare our citizens and make them worry even more, that's not responsible. what's responsible is to do something about a broken health care system. this plan has lots more about how to kill health care. it says: take and say that this will destroy the personalized doctor-patient relationship. take and say that this will create waste, fraud, and abuse, and so on and so forth. every poll tested set of words designed to decrease support an scare people into foregoing this opportunity, this once in a decade -- or pass this once in a generation opportunity that we have to change the health care system. now, you may think that i'm raising this document before you, this -- this plan for how to kill health care, and that

maybe it doesn't have any bear s on the real debate. but it does. these talking points are being echoed in this very chamber in order to kill health care. let's see. here we go. frank luntz's memo, that's his memo on how to kill health care, came out in april. it says talking point number five, health care horror stories in canada does resonate, but you have to humanize them. we recommend the phrase government takeover rather than government run or government control. because government takeover sounds even scarier. what did we hear in this chamber from our minority leader just recently? i quote -- "americans are concerned about a government takeover of health care and for good reason." and it goes on. so recognize that that is a

point that's coming from a document about how to kill health care, not a responsible debate about the plan we have in front of us. let's take a look at another example. frank luntz's memo. his memo, talking points three and four. time is a government health care killer, nothing -- than the expectation that this plan will result in delayed and denied treatment. the arguments against the plan -- i'll note that this is about a plan that wasn't written, it's about any plan put forward. the arguments against this plan must center around politicians, bureaucrats in washington. note the emphasis on saying that the plan will result in delays and deny treatment. and what have reheard on the floor of this chamber from the minority leader? we have heard just recently and i quote -- "americans don't want to be forced by bureaucrats." that comes right out of the talking points. to give up the health care plan

to be pushed into a washington-run government plan. right out of those talking points. they don't want to wait two years for surgery. and they don't want to be told they're too old for surgery. all of this straight out of this road map. my friends, it is irresponsible in the face of 50 million americans without health care with working americans in every one of our states going bankrupt as they struggle with health care expenses. it's irresponsible to utilize a road map of rhetoric that comes from polling about how to scare people. that's irresponsible. what we need to do today is lay out a plan on how we can create affordable, accessible health care for every single american. addressing one of the biggest factors that degrades the quality of life for our citizens across this nation.

now, we have a unique opportunity. we have an opportunity because small business wants help with those 26% increases and 14.7% increases in premiums that they're having to pay and they're not able to continue paying them. and large businesses are asking for help to become cost competitive so that we can restore manufacturing in our nation and put people to work and rebuild the middle class and have successful corporations operating out of america. and families around the kitchen table are asking for help today. they know how they struggled. they know if they have health care they might lose it next week when they lose their job. they know if they have health care, they might not be able to make the co-pays if they have something serious happen with their child. and they know that if they don't have health care, that they're

going to have to forego virtually everything else or perhaps forego the treatment itself because they won't be able to afford those -- afford to make those payments to the doctor or to the hospital. this is the moment when families and small businesses and large businesses are coming together to paint a new vision to improve the quality of life. to strengthen the foundation for our families. let us seize this moment. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska. a senator: mr. president, i rise today to introduce a piece of legislation that i believe that the senate should consider immediately. mr. johanns: i believe this legislation is so important that it just can't wait. the legislation is called the free enterprise act of 2009, and its purpose an effect is very

straightforward and very simple. a senator: with the senator from idaho allow me a brief interruption? the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska. mr. johanns: yes. mr. merkley: i ask unanimous consent that the period for morning business be extended until 11:30 a.m. with senators permitted to speak up to 10 minutes each. the presiding officer: is there any objection? no objection, so ordered. mr. merkley: i thank my colleague from the state of idaho. thank you. the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska. mr. johanns: the legislation that i introduced today, as i said, mr. president, is the free enterprise act of 2009. and its purpose is very straightforward. the free enterprise act of 2009 requires prior congressional approval of any tarp funding that results in the government taking a common or preferred equity interest in any private entity. since the inception of the tarp

program, my colleagues from both sides of the aisle, in a very bipartisan way, have voiced concerns over the management, the oversight, and the purpose of tarp. yet, the program continues to drift away from its original purpose to buy toxic assets and keep credit flowing. that was the purpose of tarp when it was sold back in october. tarp was never intended -- never intended to be a revolvin revolving $700 billion blank check for the administration to use however it sees fit. but, unfortunately, that's exactly what it has become. first, the checks were used to bail out the banks. then to the struggling insurance giant a.i.g., then to the floundering housing market. and despite a december vote by

congress that rejected specific -- specifically rejected a bailout of the auto industry, tarp funds are now being used to bank roll the auto industry. i am quite certain that most of my colleagues would have looked at me in disbelief if i would have said just a few months ago that tarp funds would essentially be used to buy a private auto company, general motors, and then rush it through bankruptcy. yet, last monday the administration -- the obama administration announced that it would provide $30 billion more in tarp funds to buy general moarnts. to own a 60% ownership interest in the company. -- general motors. to own a 60% ownership interest in the company. now the bottom line is, mr. president, that the government is involved in major industrial sectors, housing, banking,

insurance, and now automobiles. there is no longer a clear distinction between companies owned by investors and entities owned and backed by the government. i am deeply troubled by the change of how business is conducted in america -- business in america is conducted. i worry that we're causing irreparable dangers in damages to our private market system. but i am equally troubled and worried that all of these ownership and management decisions are being made -- really buying a car company without congressional input or approval. now, mr. president, many may completely disagree with me. and think that the government should get in the auto business, that they should own a 60% stake in general motors. or that the government should be a 34% owner of citigroup. t