tv U.S. House of Representatives CSPAN September 10, 2009 1:00pm-4:59pm EDT
1:00 pm
contradiction of the president's assertion that nothing in this plan requires you to change what you have. so that's not quite true. it's not true at all. quote, the president last night, this reform will charge insurance companies a fee for their most expensive policies which will encourage them to provide greater value for the money, an idea which has the support of democrat and republican experts and according to these same experts this modest change could help hold down the cost of health care for all of us in the long run. fact, while some republicans support addressing the current employee exclusion for health insurance in the context of overall tax reform, the president's proposal would raise fees in order to finance new federal spending. a tax increase of hundreds of billions of dollars and one that most of us under republican side would never support. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. burton: finally -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. burton: there's so many of them folks, i can't get through them all. mr. speaker, i'd like to submit this for the record and i'll be
1:01 pm
back. the speaker pro tempore: there is no objection. . mrs. lowey of new york. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? if there's no objection, so ordered. mr. poe: mr. speaker, it was a clear, cool morning in america on september 11 eight years ago. the sun had risen and people of the nation went to work. i was driving my jeep to the courthouse in texas where i served as a judge at the time. and the radio in houston
1:02 pm
interrupted a willie nelson song and reported that a plane had crashed into a tower at the world trade center. then a second plane had hit the other tower in new york city. i, like many others on the road that day, pulled over to the side and listened intensely to the radio and heard about a third plane crashing somewhere in pennsylvania and yet a fourth plane deliberately hitting the pentagon. they were from every state in the united states, 115 foreign countries, of all races and nationalities. they were men and women and america's young people. at the end of the day 2,819 people did not return home to the people that they loved. 343 were firefighters and paramedics. 23 were new york city police
1:03 pm
officers. 37 were port authority officers and 125 were working for the military at the pentagon. 266 others were passengers on airlines. these were the victims of the attack on america on september 11, 2001. the enemy we faced and still face killed in the name of religion the innocence of this nation. america's great because of people like the passengers on flight 93 who called their loved ones and said goodbye and then said, let's roll. they knew it was up to them to stop the terrorists on that plane. they were unarmed and already had seen others murdered before their eyes. but they did what it took to stop the terrorists from doing whatever the terrorists had planned to do to our nation. it didn't matter whether they were flying into the capitol or the white house or exactly what they were going to do. the passengers of flight 93 were not going to let them do it no
1:04 pm
matter what it was. they saved innocent lives on the ground when they forced that plane down in pennsylvania. what makes america great is her people. ordinary americans who strap on hundreds of pounds of gear and run into a building that's on fire to help people who are scared and injured and don't know where to go to be safe. paramedics and police officers and firemen and port authority officers who climbed hundreds of flights of steps, climbing up while everyone else was trying to get out of a building that was on fire. they went into those darkened stair wells even after one building had collapsed. even after they knew that hundreds of their friends and family members and co-workers had just likely been killed when that first building came down, they kept on trying to save people whose lives they had been trained to be responsible for. they took an oath and stood for that oath and we would hope that we would all do the same and
1:05 pm
that's what makes america the rare breed. through the smoke, the fire, the dust and the debris, these extraordinary people showed the world exactly what an american hero looks like. what sets americans apart is the bravery of the people that face challenges. we are continued to be underestimated because no other country, no other country in the world can understand what an american feels -- feels when confronted with the type of evil that confronted us on september 11, 2001. at the end of the day on september 11, 2001, i, like most americans, was mess measurized in front of the tv watching video of the attack on our nation. i noticed that when the planes hit the world trade center thousands of people, good people, sought safety from the terror in the sky. but there was another group, a handful, that rare breed, that when the planes hit those buildings, they ran as hard as
1:06 pm
they could to confront that terror. who were they? well, they were the emergency medical technicians, they were firefighters, they were police officers and they were just regular americans. their first inclination was not to run and hide, their first inclination was to fight back. and that's exactly what they did. they showed the pride that we feel in our country when we see the flag waving and say, these colors don't run. and we mean it. so, mr. speaker, while it's important to remember those that died that day eight years ago, it's just as important to remember those that got to live and had another chance at life because america's first responders were there and answered the call to defend america. and that's just the way it is. the speaker pro tempore: thank you.
1:07 pm
is ms. kaptur of ohio here? the chair recognizes ms. woolsey. for what purpose does do you rise? ms. woolsey: i rise to address the house for five minutes and to expand my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: would you like to claim ms. kaptur's time? ms. woolsey: i'll claim my time i just missed. i was on the list earlier. if that's not appropriate, i will claim -- ask unanimous consent to claim ms. kaptur's time. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, it is so ordered. the gentlelady from california is recognized for five minutes. ms. woolsey: thank you. mr. speaker, tomorrow is the eighth anniversary of one of the most tragic days in american history, september 11, 2001. on that day our nation was attacked by -- and nearly 3,000 americans were killed. we continue to grieve for them and for their families. and tomorrow we celebrate a national day of remembrance and service in their honor and
1:08 pm
memory. soon after 9/11, mr. speaker, american troops invaded afghanistan where the attacks had been planned. many americans have considered the war in afghanistan a good war, our troops have shown incredible skill and bravery in a very difficult conflict over those eight years. but now eight years later our troops are still in afghanistan, still facing a growing u.s. is. the taliban appear -- insurgency. the taliban appears to have gained control of half the country and many al qaeda operatives have fled to pakistan. have as a result, a growing number of americans now oppose a war that no longer serves our national security interests. in three recent polls, more americans called for a reduction in our troop levels rather than increases and in one poll, the
1:09 pm
majority of americans said that the war in afghanistan is simply not worth fighting. despite this, general stanley mcchrystal in afghanistan, is expected to ask the president to commit more troops. there are reports that general mcchrystal may ask for as many as 30,000 more which would bring the american troop level to about 100,000. enlarging the american footprint in afghanistan, mr. speaker, will almost certainly lead the afghan people to see the united states as an occupying force and if history has taught us anything, it is that the afghan people will resist any foreign occupation. that's the bitter lesson that the soviet union and the british empire learned. even secretary of defense robert gates is concerned about the
1:10 pm
problem. in a recent interview secretary gates said he asked general mcchrystal about the, quote, implications of significant additional forces and whether the afghans will see this as the united states becoming more of an occupier rather than a partner. secretary gates also spoke last week about the failures of previous foreign forces in afghanistan. he said one reason for their failures is that the afghans concluded that they were there for their own imperial interests and not there for the interests of the afghanistan people -- afghan people. mr. speaker, the worst thing our nation can do right now is stumble into an occupation that the afghan people do not want, one that will last many years, cost many lives, hundreds of
1:11 pm
billions of dollars that we can't afford. we should not double down on a strategy that hasn't worked. we need a brand new strategy, one that is based among other things on economic development for the afghan people, better governance and improvements in policing and intelligence. we need to have strategies that are the best ways to capture violent extremists and we must have a clear exit strategy and a timetable for the withdrawal of our brave troops. if we do that, if we can stop more people from dying, our troops and the afghan people, we will truly be honoring the 3,000 who died on september 11, 2001. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back.
1:12 pm
for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? the chair recognizes mr. neugebauer for five minutes. nog nog thank you, mr. speaker -- mr. neugebauer: thank you, mr. speaker. i spent much of august talking with people. i held meetings in all parts of the 19th congressional district and was amazed at the tremendous amount of turnout. those who came to these meetings were upset about the direction the government is taking their country. they want their voice to be heard in washington and i told them i would bring their message back to congress with me and hundreds of those attending our meetings filled out these message forms. i would like to -- as i said i would read these comments on the house floor so everyone in congress would know how they feel, the people of the 19th congressional district, and i think people all across america share these same thoughts. so for the next five minutes you're going to hear from the people who came to the august 24
1:13 pm
town hall meeting in abilene, texas, in their own words. david from abilene, texas, wrote these comments, my message to washington is, fix social security, medicare, medicaid and v.a. and welfare first. when they have those systems working in place and working like they're supposed to, we can talk about taking on health care. claude, in my business, i have 19 employees and i have reasonable health coverage for all of my employees and i furnish this at no cost to my employees. two of my employees cover their families at their expense. it's a very good policy. jerry said, i'm 75-year-old male, married 52 years. this is all about enormous debt that i will be leaving for my children and grandchildren. police quit spending and look at ways to improve our current system. charles said, you can borrow --
1:14 pm
you can't barrow your way out of debt -- borrow your way out of debt. when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. whatever happened to common sense? stop the cap and trade bill, it will raise taxes on all and not effect the global climate. drill for oil in alaska and off our coastal waters where there's proven reserves. if the health care bill is good enough for the taxpayers it should be used by the president and the congress and the unions. charlie from abilene said, i do not want the government to control our health care. please do not pass a proposed health care reform. government spend something out of control. please put a cap on spending in all areas, not more bailouts for anybody. please listen and stop spending our money now. bill from abilene asked this question, should this health care bill get passed, will all of the national politicians have to get on it too or will you still keep your individual health insurance you have fow? trudie from abilene says, please
1:15 pm
stand against all bills that are not read and debated. no to government health care. tom from abilene said, you must do everything possible to prevent publicly funded abortions in the health care bill. . maria said people don't see i'm paying for this. lucille from abilene says i do not want government control of my health care. this excess spending is ruining the u.s. please be serious about your country and its citizens. grace from abilene said, no new taxes. we need insurance reform not health care reform. the government bankrupted medicare not the recipients. no more bailouts. when did we start bailing out people that live beyond their means in their high-priced houses? mike from abilene said i'm a 27-year-old retired air force vet. i'm concerned about track for
1:16 pm
life and loss of benefits under the new health care bill. amy from abilene says, please save citizens of this u.s. from paying for abortions and any -- and any encouraging of such form for any funding directly or indirectly euthanasia. karen from abilene, leave our health care alone and cut our taxes. ruth from cisco, please continue to stand for truth and freedom in washington. the health care bill is not about more health care but less rationing. hal from abilene, i'm not against sensible reform. i am against the government control of our economy and health care. in short, stay with the confines of the constitution and out of our lives. marion from abilene, stop the run away spending like cap and trade, fix our prison health care system, support our vets, old and new. emily from abilene, i don't think our congressmen realize --
1:17 pm
i don't think most congressmen realize and understand the true things of the american people. we used to have real regard for our leaders. jerry and camille from ranger, texas, said stop the bailout, stop the outrageous spending. and get back to following the constitution. read all the bills before signing. i was in the front row and i have never been to a town hall meeting before. kay from abilene, i'm opposed to cap and trade which will dramatically reduce our standard of living -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. gnawing gnawing: government has to -- this is from j.m. from abilene. the government has to stop spending and pay our way out of debt. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. neugebauer: this is just a small fraction, mr. speaker, of how the american people feel. i would like to submit the balance of this for the record. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. so ordered. ms. jackson lee, for what purpose does do you rise? the gentlelady from texas. ms. jackson lee: to address the house for five minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from texas is recognized for five minutes.
1:18 pm
ms. jackson lee: thank you very much, mr. speaker. i'm delighted to see you leading today and thank you for your leadership. on just a moment of good news that tells the american people that their government is working, i look forward to holding my job fair number two in houston, texas. where it's been noted that houston has the highest unemployment rate of our state, the state of texas. at the georgia brown convention center in conjunction with the city of houston where we will be hosting private employers, local government, and state and federal government because the stimulus dollars are working and american people want us to create jobs. then we'll have an opportunity to celebrate in my district, the gospel music heritage legislation that myself and the senator from arkansas passed, senator blanch lincoln torques commemorate america's great
1:19 pm
history in gospel music. we'll be at the grace community church on friday, september 18 at 7:340. i say that because there is a reason to be joyful in america. it's a great country. that is why i pause now for a serious moment to reflect on 9/11 and to offer again my deepest sympathy and concern for those families and victims. and just to remind americans that we'll never forget. what brings me here today to take all of that good news or all of that wreck are nation that we are one country, not divided by republicanism or being a democrat or an independent, but we are one family, loving our values and loving democracy. it makes me come today with a very saddened heart. for yesterday the president of the united states rose before this body and offered in the most pointed but kindest and firmest way an extended hand to work and to collaborate with
1:20 pm
americans and those who represent americans in this body. and i have had the privilege of hearing a number of presidents speak to the nation from this place. let me say to you that when a president comes here, he is a guest of this body. it is not republicans and democrats, it is the united states congress for the president's cabinet is here, the senate is here, in some instances the supreme court is here. members are here from all over the country. our guests are here as well. and each time a president has come, whether or not i have an emotional opposition and a reasoned opposition to the position that they may be making, i hold their presence in reverence and respect. last night my heart weighted with sadness for as we spoke to the american people, adults, those of us who are elected, we found the highest level of
1:21 pm
disregard and disrespect. not only was there a shout out, all be it the first amendment is protected, there is a reasonable response of those elected to high public office that when the president stands not the president, the democrat, or the republican, but the president of the united states, i can say this because i denounced the throwing of a shoe at our president on foreign soil, of any kind. i denounced the seeming tolerance of president bush having a shoe thrown at him. it is horrific and a disgrace. just as i denounce holding up papers while the president is speaking, that happened last night. just as i denounce having a sign in your lap, which we are not allowed to wear buttons expressing viewpoint, that happened last night. and just as i denounce words coming out, calling the
1:22 pm
president a liar, it should be denounced by the leadership of my good friends on the other side. this is not an individual act. it should be denounced as inappropriate decorum in this place. and for those who wish to be equally rude by holding up something, let me suggest that it is a free country, and i do appreciate -- sometimes we make mistakes. i admit to mistakes. we have to clarify those mistakes. but i believe it is important to clarify it so the president of the united states's ears can hear it and so this body can hear it. i would hope my friends on the other side of the aisle, the leadership, will come to this well next week and acknowledge that this place should be a place of decorum. yes, members have turned their backs. some members have walked out. that is their privilege. we do not have a despotic nation. and they have the privilege to
1:23 pm
do so. if they disagree with the words being spoken by the president of the united states, but remember he or she is our guest. and when you invite someone into your home, you treat them with the highest level of respect. i am not angry, i am simply saddened and disappointed because so many of my friends on the other side of the aisle expressed their own disappointment, but somewhat in silence. it is important for the american people to know that whoever the president is, no matter where they come from, what background, what region, what state they are the president of the united states. the president told the truth last night and the other side must tell the truth about inappropriate behavior anti-lack of reverence. we -- and the lack of reverence. we need to respect each other. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentlelady from north carolina rise? ms. foxx: permission to address the house for five minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from north carolina
1:24 pm
is recognized for five minutes. ms. foxx: thank you, mr. speaker. tomorrow is the eighth anniversary of the horrific attack on our country on september 11, 2001. we need to remember that there are still people in the world who want to destroy us and all that we stand for. it is up to us at the national level to provide for our national security and we need to focus on that. today someone sent me a column by ben stein that i had not seen but was written in 2003. in this column he does a great job of putting us and trivial things into perspective and i thought that today would be a good day to share this column. entitled how can someone who lives an insane luxury be a star in today's world. as i begin to write -- i'm quoting, as i begin to write this, i slug it as we writers
1:25 pm
say, which means i put a heading on top of the document to identify it, this heading is eo line final, and it gives me a shiver to write it. i have been doing this column for so long that can i not even recall when i started. i loved writing this column so much for so long, i came to believe it would never end. it worked well for a long time, but gradually my changing as a person and the world's change have overtaken it. on a small scale mortgageons while better than ever no longer attracts as many stars as it used to. it's-t still brings in the rich people in droves and definitely some stars. i saw samuel l. jackson there a few days ago and we had a nice visit. right before that i saw and had a splend i had talk with warren beatty in the elevator in which we agreed "splendor in the grass" was a supermovie. but mortgageons is not the star galaxy it once was. beyond that a bigger change has happened. i no longer think who wood stars
1:26 pm
are terribly important. they are uniformly pleasant, friendly people and they treat me better than i deserve to be treated. but a man or woman who makes a huge wage for memorizing lines and reciting them in front of a camera is no longer my idea of a shining star we should look up to. how can a man or woman who makes an eight figure wage and lives in insane luxury be a star in today's world if by star we mean someone bright and powerful and attractive as a role model. real stars are not riding around in the backs of limousines or porches or getting trained in yoga or pilates and eating only raw fruit while they have vietnamese girls do their nails. they can be interesting nice people, but they are not heros to me any longer. a real star is the soldier of the fourth infantry division who poked his head into a hole on a farm near tikrit iraq. could he have been met by a bomb or hail of ak-47 bullets. instead he faced an ackject
1:27 pm
saddam hussein and gratitude of all the decent people in the world. the real star is a soldier sent to disarm a bomb next to a road north of baghdad. he approached it and the bomb went off and killed him. a real star, the kind who haunts my memory night and day, is the u.s. soldier in baghdad who saw a little girl playing with a piece of unexploded ordnance on a street near where he was guarding a station, he pushed her aside and threw himself on it just as it exploded. he left a family dess so lat in california and a little girl alive in baghdad. the stars who deserve media attention are not the one who is have lavish weddings on tv but the ones who patrol the streets of mosul even after two of their buddies were murdered and their bodies battered and stripped for the sin of trying to protect iraqis from terrorists. we put couples with incomes of $100 million a year on the covers of our magazines.
1:28 pm
the noncoms and officers who scrape by on military pay but stand guard in afghanistan and iraq and on ships and submarines and near the arctic circle are anonymous as they live and die. i'm no longer comfortable being a part of a system that has such poor values and do i not want to perpetuate those values by pretending those who -- who is eating at mortons is a big subject. there are plenty of other stars in the american firmament, the policemen and men who go off on patrol in south central and have no idea if they'll return alive, the orderlies and paramedics who bring in people who have been in terrible accidents and prepare them for surgery, the teachers and nurses who throw their whole spirits into caring for autistic children. the kind men and women who work in who isis ps and cancer -- hospices and cancer wards. think of each and every fireman running up the stairs at the world trade center as the towers
1:29 pm
began to collapse. now you have my idea of a real hero. i came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters. this is my highest and best use as a human. i can put it another way, -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. ms. foxx: thank you, madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: mr. schiff, california. mr. moran, kansas. mr. tiahrt, kansas. under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2009, the gentleman from minnesota, mr. ellison, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. mr. ellison: thank you, madam speaker. i'll get a few documents together before we begin the progressive hour.
1:30 pm
mr. ellison: madam speaker, thank you very much. here we are again, another special order with the progressive caucus. it's an honor to be here again, here before the people, to talk about the issues that concern them. no issue is more prominent today than the issue of health care and i'm pleased to be able to discuss this critical issue with our co-chair of the progressive caucus, chairwoman lynn woolsey and i yield to the gentlelady.
1:31 pm
ms. woolsey: thank you very much. i want to thank the gentleman from minnesota, congressman ellison, for every week having a one-hour special order on the very subject of health care. we've done a lot over these last few weeks and the progressive caucus is very proud of the role that we have played in bringing health care to where it is. i think keith said earlier this morning that we probably have just finished the first few innings of a ball game and the ball now after last night's great speech by our president and his clarity and his ability to explain to the country what it is he wants in a health care bill and his willingness to actually bunk some of the myths
1:32 pm
that have been out there and some of the lies that have been told about this health care debate and at the same time talk about what his priorities are and one of those priorities from what he has given us, which is a lamb nated card that lists what he wants -- a laminatek card that lists what he wants -- lamina -- laminated card that lists what he wants, if you don't have insurance, there's four points and the third point says, and this is what -- i'm going there right away because this is what progressives were looking for. if you don't have insurance, quality affordable choices for all americans, this bill would offer a public health insurance option to provide the uninsured who can't find affordable coverage with a real choice. now that says to us that the
1:33 pm
public option, and we want a robust public option, remains on the table, that the ball is in our court. now i guess this is the third or fourth inning in this game of getting things together so that we can bring a health care bill to the floor of the house that is worthy of all americans and now that the ball is in our court we, as the progressive caucus, have pledged to define what we consider a robust public health option to be, to work with our leadership and with the administration and to see that our definition of robust public option is included in health care reform. mr. ellison, you have been absolutely magnificent in helping make that happen. mr. ellison: well, the
1:34 pm
gentlelady yields back, let me commend you for your leadership. we have sent letter after letter to make sure that the white house knew exactly where we stood. the last letter we sent i think we had 60 signatures but that was not the only letter we sent. we have been letting the white house know, letting democratic leadership know, that a public option was essential to reform and so last night i was very grat feud to -- gratified to hear the president not back away from a public option, but to embrace the idea. and i will take credit on behalf of the progressive movement in saying that i think that we helped inform and shape the position that the president ultimately took. the president made a great line, i think you might agree, congresswoman woolsey, when he said, we don't fear the future, we're here to shape it. well, that is absolutely true for the progressive caucus. under your leadership and that of congressman grijalva, the
1:35 pm
progressive congressional caucus has become coming here week after week but not just coming to the house floor, we've been in the debate, we've been meeting, we've been writing letters,, we've been in communication. we, through your advocacy, congresswoman woolsey, and that of congressman >> i hallucinate i have, have been very clear that this -- that we grasp the magnitude of the moment that we're in. that we're not making any mistake about the historic nature of this time and that we are grasping that moment and making sure that we set our country on a path to true health care reform. and that starts with a public option, i believe, and i believe yesterday, we can't celebrate because we haven't got the ball over the fence yet, but i'm happy with the fact that we have kept the president on course and i'm very encouraged by what happened yesterday. but before i yield back to you,
1:36 pm
congresswoman woolsey, i just want to share with you something, i if -- if i may. and that is this big old red box. you see this big box right here? i might need a bunch of these strong pages we have around here to carry it for me. but these box -- but this box represents 63,000 -- 63,692 people who signed a petition saying that they wanted a public option. ms. woolsey: wow. mr. ellison: this is -- let me just take this out of the box for a moment. this is no joke. this is like a lot of work and this is an enormous document right here. all these people said, hey, look, you know, if we're going to mandate care for 49 million new people then how can we mandate care for them if we're going to mandate that they go do business with a monopoly without any way to have competition
1:37 pm
introduced so that prices can be pushed down? and so, this huge document, which has signatures from every state in the union, congresswoman woolsey, the first ones up here are alaska. and if i dip in a little further, then there's california. and they're even by congressional district. and then we could even go a little further and we're in here still in california because you guys got a big state over there. ms. woolsey: yeah. we know that. mr. ellison: congressional district 22. what congressional district -- ms. woolsey: six. mr. ellison: we have a bunch of sixes in here. ms. woolsey: i'm sure you do. mr. ellison: we have sixes for days here. they signed this petition so their names are right here. then we can jump back here to our state, my state of minnesota, which is in here as well. but also massachusetts and missouri, new jersey, nevada, new york, oregon, tennessee. this is the voice of many, many
1:38 pm
americans who understand the time is now. so i just thought i'd mention that in terms of making sure that the public option remains a critical part of the discussion, maintains its status as an essential part of reform, i give credit to the president last night, i give credit to you and congressman grijalva for your leadership and also to the progressive movement because, you know, we're also in -- all in this ting together. i yield back to the gentlelady. ms. woolsey: what day was it? well, it was a sunday in the city of sonoma. i was presented with -- that's a list of names, that is very impressive, but i was presented with a stack of petitions like that and i was so proud. i barely could hold them because they were so heavy. so, let's talk about why it's important to have a public option. mr. ellison: absolutely.
1:39 pm
ms. woolsey: i think it's time that we start repeating the value and the need for a public option. because we get criticized that a public option will cost blah, blah. the public option absolutely saves money. and the reason it does, there's -- the same level of overhead, like medicare or medicaid, because there's no marketing fees, there are no high paid executives in the six and seven figures and there's no shareholders that have to be paid on their stock. so it saves money. the other thing it does, it provides competition to the private health care industry. health insurance industry. and why is that important? well, without competition the
1:40 pm
rates soar and they have been over the years to a point where if it continues, right now one out of every $6 goes to health care in in this country and that number is going to grow so quickly and we will be so embarrassed and in so much trouble that we'll know that we made a huge mistake. we don't want to make that mistake. the other thing -- and you know about competition, let's talk about competition just a minute. the president last night said only about 5% of americans would opt into the public option. well, i truly believe it would be more than that, but at first it might be, you know, and it needs to prove itself and become just a very viable health care provider, which it will be if it's robust like we want. but if it's only 5% of the
1:41 pm
overall, why are the private insurance companies so worried? they do not want a public option. and they don't want any competition and they know that this is the competition they really don't want because it will prove itself over time and more and more people will indeed select the public option when they have that choice. now the other thing that the public option provides, and i know you're going to be able to add more, but security, security for people who are covered on plans by their employers today. one of the big arguments out there is 85%, 75% of all americans already are covered by
1:42 pm
their employer. and they like the coverage. well, you know, they might, they might not. but they are covered. but they are not certain that that coverage will last. and there's a poll, the poll that shows that 60%, 70%, i can't remember exactly, i think 68%, something like that, the people who have insurance feel insecure on whether that insurance will be available to them for as long as they will need it. and certainly they can't feel secure if they lose their job or if they want to take a new job or if their employer decides, i can't afford to cover my employees anymore. and we want the public option to be one of the choices they have in a soft landing, if any of
1:43 pm
that happens to them. and they don't feel that secure and we know it. mr. ellison: let me say that we're defining the public option. what is it? what is this thing they're talking about? this public option? and the gentlelady has already made a number of good points. let's make -- put some more -- sharpen the points a little bit. ms. woolsey: what does it look like? mr. ellison: think first of all not only of the public option but the whole overall package of reform. first of all, if you have health insurance through your job, you'll keep that. if you have health insurance through medicare or medicaid or the v.a., you'll keep that. there will be more people added to the program because there's a lot of people who don't have any health care who are indigent who could apply but there will be money to make sure those folks can get in but those programs will stay in place as they exist now. but then the new thing will be an ex change. and what is an exchange? it's kind of like a grocery store. but it will be online, you can
1:44 pm
go, you can shop for health care insurance products online and this will be the exchange. ms. woolsey: if the gentleman will yield, it will look like a catalog. it will be a print catalog of health care plans available by region. mr. ellison: if you've ever bought furniture or anything else in a catalog or gone on ebay or anything or shopped or if you've ever shopped this way, it's going to be like that. but the question is that on this grocery store that we're talking about, this exchange, there's just the market, will you be able to go into a certain aisle and stop and pick out the public option? in addition to all the other private options? that's all it is. i've been somewhat surprised by people who claim to be free market ears who don't want any competition. it always surprises me when i hear people say, competition and choice and i say, wait a minute, the public option is just one more choice, what could be wrong
1:45 pm
with it? the competition -- the public option is just one more thing that you could get among an array of different choices, why would you not like it? well, another good thing about the public option is that the congressional budget office estimates it will save about $150 billion, one time i said million by accident, i was quickly corrected, you know, billion. and the president made it clear last night that, hey, you know, it's got to survive based on the premiums it collects and the public option, i don't think is worried about that because as the gentlelady points out, don't have to pay a bunch of lobbyists $1.4 million a day, don't have to buy a bunch of -- pay out a bunch of campaign donations to politicians. don't have to advertise and try to get -- try to create demand where there really isn't in any. and the head of the public option will be the secretary of health and human services who i think makes about $174,000 a
1:46 pm
year, quite a bit less than c.e.o.'s at some of the insurance companies, the chief executive of etna makes $24 million a year, the united health group person makes about $3.-some a million. this is base salary. this isn't even other incentives in their packages. . you ask people how do they feel about other public options? by the way this will not be the first public option. this is not the only public option in american society. it's not the first public option. medicare's a public option. social security is a public option for income for seniors. the v.a. is a public option. you don't have to take these services. you cannot accept them. they are an option available for you if you want to take it. so people don't even have to take -- i have heard some people say this is going to be government takeover of health
1:47 pm
care. wait a minute, if you don't like the public option, don't get it. get one of the other products that will be listed on the exchange and you'll be perfectly free to do that. so these are just a few things about the public option that need to be understood. we have really just been joined by one of our personal heroes, john conyers, who never stops fighting. and we are talking about the progressive message tonight and we are talking about health care, the public option. and you, congressman conyers, the original author of h.r. 676, single payer bill which i'm a co-author on and congresswoman woolsey is as well. we yield to you. thank you for coming. mr. conyers: if would you yield to me just very, very briefly. i want to tell you and chairwoman woolsey and the good doctor that is on the floor with her -- with us that i have listened to everything you have
1:48 pm
said. and i want to commend you. i'm so proud that this discussion goes on immediately tonight after the inspirational remarks of the president. especially at the end. just great. now, there was one part that i wanted to remind all the members of the caucus about was the part where he compared the progressive caucus and the single payer concept on the other hand with those of a totally different viewpoint that feel that there should be no employer connection at all. now, that was a tremendously effective rhetorical flourish,
1:49 pm
but the fact remains that i guess there's somebody that -- come to think of it i'm one of the people that would like to separate the employer connection from health care. i hope that doesn't make me a conservative or whatever group that has been promoting that. because i think now that i reflect on it, i think that's not a bad idea. the question is, after we separate it, we separate all people that work for a living with employer connection to their health care, which has been very hurtful for most people, take for example the automobile workers in the detroit area with the three
1:50 pm
major automobile plants, their connection to the relationship worked out between their collective bargaining agent and the corporations has been disastrous because when they close down or move out or relocate, guess what? the employer loses not only his job but he also loses his health care. and he also loses his pension. in many cases. so i think that this should be carefully considered and reconsidered by everyone that heard the brilliant speech last night. that is to say that to reject
1:51 pm
both of these ideas out of hand, the single payer concept and an end to employer connection, the only problem with -- i don't know who is advocating that, but to say that everybody goes out and get his own insurance, well, maybe there is. there are 432 other members beside ourselves, so maybe somebody isn't. but i don't take it as a serious consideration in this very complex subject matter that brings progressives to the floor today. now, on the other hand the universal single payer health care bill is not just a few people that have come up with
1:52 pm
something to involve themselves in the discussion with health care reform. as a matter of fact the single payer concept is one of the oldest ones, oldest serious major notion that's been around. that is to say for those of us who were here when the president was bill clinton and he assigned his wife the task of taking on the reform of health care, we were -- we who are supporting single payer, were summoned to the white house collectively. i remember very much that jerry nadler of new york was there, distinguished member of the judiciary committee. and what happened was that we
1:53 pm
were urged to step back from our initiative, which had been going on for years before the clintons assumed their responsibilitys -- responsibilities on 1600 pennsylvania avenue and after some brief discussion, we agreed that that was the appropriate thing to do. we did it. we did step back. now, that concept is now undergoing a very short shrift in this whole discussion, namely because this whole discussion was initiated on the premise that universal single payer
1:54 pm
health care was too new, too startling, too complex, would take too long to institute so that we are going to start off by not including it in the mix. i'm proud to say that some of the committees did include it in the mix. predominantly george miller of the education and labor committee had members testify before his committee. and charles rangel of the ways and means committee had testimony on universal single health care. there may have been testimony in the energy and commerce committee under the
1:55 pm
distinguished leadership of henry waxman, but i cannot really attest to that at this moment. what i'm saying is that those members who support universal single payer health care have already made a major concession in the discussion. major concession. it just seems to me that this could have been addressed in a different way, and it wasn't. that's water over the dam. but it's still for 86 members and there are more who are not
1:56 pm
co-sponsors of the bill, who were never cut into the measure premises of how we go about it. so for the president to compare that with those people who want everybody to go buy their own insurance any way they can, i think was a mistaken metaphor. and i just wanted to inject that into the discussion because this was a speech that was a call to arms. to the american people and the congress, that there is going to be health care reform. now, the consideration is, however, that where we are right now as you have said so articulately, you and the
1:57 pm
chairwoman, is that we have to not have a public option, we have to have a robust, strong public option. and my job as i see it is to pursue this not that we have one that we discuss or that we may stick one in or that it's a sliver of the whole subject matter, for the reasons you have already articulated in this special order. it's critical, it is not, i hope we can get it. we've got to get it. this bill's name of health care reform will only be justified if we do get it. and i want to pledge that the
1:58 pm
many people in the many places i have been around the country who are not happy that h.r. 676 was not more thoroughly considered, single payer, that we definitely must have an alternative to the dozens and dozens of private insurance companies if we are to have any savings and have any real meaningful reform worthy of the name. i thank the gentleman for yielding. mr. ellison: let me thank the chairman of the judiciary committee, john conyers. let me yield now to congresswoman woolsey. congresswoman, do you have any -- how do you react to some of the things that congressman conyers shared with us just now? do you have any thoughts inspired by that?
1:59 pm
ms. woolsey: well, congressman conyers knows this, that the progressive caucus almost to a person, and there's 85 of us, would have voted right this minute for a single payer. that's what we wanted. and we knew that it was a nonstarter, but we also felt that to get to single payer -- we are not supposed to say that, you know. we are not supposed to tell people, if we -- that the public option could be a step towards single payer, but if it does improves itself like i know it will, more and more people will will, more and more people will select the public plan. so we comprow mized. it was a huge compromise for us. the people in my district, i represent the sixth district in
2:00 pm
california, just across the bridge from san francisco, the golden state bridge, one of the best educated, best -- and one of the most affluent districts in the country, and i say that because they are also one of the most progressive districts in the entire united states of america. when i -- after president obama was sworn in and we started talking health care and i would be at meetings and they would talk single payer, and i knew that wasn't where we were going, and i told them, they actually got tears in their eyes. . i really did. now they're with us. they're with us 100% from a public option. but not just the public option with triggers or coops or mishy mash that's going to put it off
2:01 pm
and never make it happen, they're with us for something that would be modeled after medicare, the medicare provider system, so we don't have -- the public plan doesn't have to go out and put together their own provider system and possibly the rate structure based on medicare. that's how i would do it. and of course it would have all the benefits -- the base benefits that were insisting on for every health care plan and because there won't be the 30% overhead, actually it can be less expensive and have better benefits. mr. ellison: if the gentlelady yields back, there's another thing about the public option we have to point out and that is that it's a vehicle to introduce evidence-based practices that improve the quality of care. the fact is that the private market can only be trusted to do
2:02 pm
whatever makes it the most money. there's nothing wrong with that. that's the country we live in. that's fine. but a public option can take on a public interest and a public spirit which can then say, you know what? there's certain medical practices that enhance health, that make people more well, that are safer, that are less expensive, just because something costs more money did you doesn't mean it's better medicine. and so it's a way to introduce evidence-based practices like cooperative and coordinated care, med callcal home, bundling -- medical home, bundling, things like that. so if you're a patient, you're getting a number of providers helping to keep you healthy so that you don't end up in a very difficult situation. that's another important aspect of this because the more we keep people well, the less we have to spend on hospitalizations and other expensive aspects of the
2:03 pm
system. another key attribute is to why a public option is important. but i just want to ask you all this question, you know, i've been asked and hime sure you have, too, well, are you going to stand in the way of a bill if you don't get your public option? and they ask you this question in such a challenging way like, you're like, ooh, boy, i don't want to be the one who messes everything up, right? and you kind of feel like, on the spot a little bit. well, my question is, i like those people who are against the public option to justify handing over nearly 50 million new customers into an industry that you're going to mandate that they he get health care coverage, but absolutely provide no vehicle to diminish costs. no competition, no choice. you're just -- many markets around the country, and the president pointed this out very well, have one provider. illinois has one provider. many have two providers or
2:04 pm
three. i'm misusing the word provider, insurance company, because a provider and insurance company aren't the same thing. or two insurance companies or three. these people have market power. and there's been this proposal, well, let people buy health insurance across state lines. well, if my state has one insurance company and your state has two, how much choice is that? you know? so the fact is, even that is kind of a red herring. i'm not saying it's a bad idea in essence, but it's nowhere near enough. so my question is, if somebody were to tell you, i want to you buy this stool but it only has two legs and then they say, are you going to let yourself, by insisting on that third leg on that stool, are you going to allow yourself to not have a stool? why do you have to have the third leg on that stool? or better yet, oh, we're going to buy a car but you insist -- and they want to suggest unreasonably so, that you demand
2:05 pm
that there be an engine in the car, right? like you're being this unreasonable person because you insist that there be an engine in the car or an extra leg on that stool. i mean, a public option does not make the bill perfect. it makes the bill function. and so it's important to really drive this point home because people use terms like, oh, well don't make the perfect be the enemy of the good. well, look, you know, it's not a matter of -- we're not talking about ferre effect. perfect will be, in my mind, a single-payer bill. but the fact is, we've compromised already. so this is -- this public option is not -- does not perfect the health care bill, it makes it work. it makes it function. it is essential to the functioning of the whole package. so -- ms. woolsey: do you want to know what i say when they -- mr. ellison: i yield to the gentlelady. ms. woolsey: keith, you were perfect.
2:06 pm
my answer is that health -- we don't have health care reform unless we have a public option. and this is health care reform. now, if we had legislation to tweak around the edges of health insurance, we can do a lot that will be good in this bill. but it would be a health insurance total tweaking bill and so then name it what it is but don't call it health care reform because we're not coming back here and revisiting this in my lifetime and i know it. and i want us to do this right. i don't -- and i believe we will, so i'm not going to go there, you know, would i or wouldn't i? i've drawn the line and many lines before. but i'm not going to vote for something and call it health care reform that isn't. mr. ellison: if the gentlelady would yield, not only have you
2:07 pm
drawn the line, you've held the line. ms. woolsey: thank you. mr. ellison: and we're all grateful for that. let me yield to the gentleman from michigan, congressman conyers. mr. conyers: to my dear colleague from minnesota, keith ellison, there are only several things that can happen in this great historic debate that is now proceeding after the president has summoned us all together to suggest the direction that we might want to take. one, we got a strong public option. two, we got a weak public option. three, we got no public option. my prediction is, with all due respect to all the bean counters of which there's a profusion in
2:08 pm
the capitol hill area, this bill will more than likely succeed if there is a strong public option. i think that that is the way that health care reform will attract the largest number of votes. and conversely, i fear for the health of the health care bill if we don't have a strong public option. now that's my view. i've been in enough of these debates long enough to make in this assessment based on the fact that i've been working on health care for more than half of my political career. and so that's why i think this discussion is so important and i
2:09 pm
want to keep it alive by offering to take out a special order next week, maybe even tomorrow, if it's feasible, because there's so many parts. it's important that we understand this. what would it do to this bill if we tack on some of these suggestions? and i realize the president has to bring us all together, but what woulder to the reform do to this -- would tort reform do to this bill? what would all these exchanges and other contractions do to a bill like this? i want to examine everything and
2:10 pm
we want to work with. i saw members, to their credit, presuming those that were holding up papers last night, i presume those were health care bills with a number on it. if they weren't, or if they were just holding up papers, then somebody has to explain to me what was the purpose. but i remember a discussion that we had in the detroit area and we had -- it was a bipartisan television discussion, but members were talk talking about provisions -- were talking about provisions and notions that there were no bills. well, how do you know that? well, i asked for the number of the bill and there weren't any. so i know there are a lot of theories and a lot of ideas and
2:11 pm
a lot of possibilities, we're loaded with them. but until a possibility is actualized enough to be dropped into that hopper and be assigned a number, and i'm for talking, hey, let's discuss all we want. mr. ellison: will the gentleman from michigan yield? mr. conyers: yes. mr. ellison: thank you, sir. you inspired me, mr. chairman, because you mentioned tort reform. and, you know, i really think the whole tort reform thing is completely bogus. i don't believe that -- i mean, if you talk to health care professionals they say that 1% of health care expenditures are associated with lawsuits. in my own state of minnesota, you have to have a doctor who is an expert in the field swear on
2:12 pm
an affidavit that is detailed before you can even file the complaint for the medical malpractice lawsuit. and insurance rates and medical malpractice insurance rates are not plummeting. the reality is, insurance companies charge doctors a lot of money and then blame lawyers for it. that's what -- that's the scam going on and that's the way that it is. tort reform, there's no need for tor it t reform, but, you know, if the president wants to discuss tort reform, fine, i'm not going to dial that hill. i'm going to dial into the public option hill. i've got my battle lines squared off. we can -- fine, if you want to waste time to satisfy some people talking about tort reform, that's ok, but the reality is, that doesn't save any money, it's not the problem and, you know, look, think that that's a good use of
2:14 pm
2:15 pm
one with no trigger and we can -- next week let's talk about triggers and coops. ok. and i would have a robust public option that was built on the medicare network structure which means the providers, the docs and the hospitals and the clinics that, that take medicare will be able to automatically assumed will take the public option, now i think if they don't want to they don't have to, that's the way it is with medicare also. they take it. this is brand new patients for them paid for by the public plan. and it will be publicly accountable. this plan will work for the public and will be held
2:16 pm
accountable to the people of this country. mr. ellison: if the gentlelady yields back, i think those are some of the essential factors. i think it's good to point out that the progressive caucus has been crystal clear what we mean by public option from the very beginning and i simply reiterate the position we have taken. again, i simply believe that it is the dogged efforts of your leadership -- ms. woolsey: thank you. mr. ellison: and co-chair grijalva as we support our leadership in the caucus together with other members of the democratic caucus together with the progressive community out there, people who signed the petitions that were at a huge stack. people who amassed all of these documents which are double-sided, by the way. all of these 63,692 people sending 65 members of congress
2:17 pm
to encourage them to stick with the public option. ms. woolsey: will the gentleman yield? mr. ellison: yes. ms. woolsey: next time i am going to have mine sent here. i mean, it's really impressive. i think -- i bet you every progressive member has a stack like that. we need to all bring them. mr. ellison: if the gentlelady will yield? ms. woolsey: i'm sure every member. shame on me. mr. ellison: america is already for the kind of change your talking about now and it's essential that president obama debunked myths last night. this chamber has 20, 30 people, of course, there are a lot of folks in the gallery, the fact is that it was packed last night. ms. woolsey: uh-huh. mr. ellison: but each one of the people who was here last night hear the speech heard the president take on those myths head on. and i was very proud of the president when he did that. he made it clear that health
2:18 pm
care reform is not just for the 49 million uninsured, though it is for them too, it's also for the people who have insurance who have seen their rates double over the last two years, who've seen their co-pays go up, who've seen their deductibles get higher and higher and higher so if they do need that medical care -- he talked about this is something we all need and this is good for everybody. he said, look, you know, if you think you're invincible and are never going to get hurt and you don't have health insurance because you want to save money by doing it, if you do get hurt, and we all know that accidents happen every day, then we're all going to cover you because you're going to show up at the emergency room and that's going to come out of our taxes. so he talked about how, you know, how we are really in all this together and it's a myth if you think you can be that rugged individual and go at it alone. you know, he didn't take on the myth of the death panels but i
2:19 pm
wish that he did. i want to reiterate that there is no death panels. it's a myth. it's a simple lie. and the fact is that what these -- what the legislation calls for is to compensate doctors if they have a conversation about end of life with their patients. and this is an extreamly good idea. why? because anyone who has been found themselves in that difficult situation, having a loved one on a ventilator, you want to know what your loved one would want you to do. you want to know, is there d.n.r., is there some sort of will, is there something to help give you guidance as to what their wishes would be? and so this is just good -- this is just dignity. this is the way we need to treat each other. and so i wish the president would have had time to really hit that point. but i know he understands there's no such thing as death panels.
2:20 pm
and so i was happy by and large with the president's speech last night. as congresswoman -- congressman conyers said, we need to stay in the game long, not just short. and so in the final minutes, i am going to hand it over to the gentlelady from california, congresswoman woolsey, our fierce leader in the progressive caucus and you can take us out. ms. woolsey: thank you. and thank you for doing this every week. i am going to read one more time what this card that is laminated -- see, the press is saying to me, well, how do you know he's going to do that? i said, because this will never destruct. and we will always -- you said, we'll say. but, anyway, last night and on this card it says that the plan that the president supports offers a public health insurance option to provide the
2:21 pm
uninsured who can't find affordable coverage with a real choice. it does offer more than the uninsured, but not immediately. so that's very honest there. thank you, mr. ellison. we'll be back. mr. ellison: we yield back, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back his time. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from california rise? ms. woolsey: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that the committee on science and technology may have until 11:59 p.m. on friday, september 11, 2009, to file its report to accompany h.r. 3246. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. ms. woolsey: thank you. the speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2009, the gentleman from georgia, mr. gingrey, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
2:22 pm
mr. gingrey: mr. speaker, my colleagues, i thank you for the opportunity to spend the next hour as the designee of the minority leader on the republican side to talk about what we heard here in this chamber last night beginning about 8:15 in primetime from the president of the united states regarding health care reform. i am pleased to be joined by at least one of my colleagues, there may be others that come during the hour, congressman john fleming from the great state of louisiana will be joining me and we'll be talking about what went on last night. we may even want to address some of the comments that our democratic colleagues just made on this house floor during the previous hour in regard to their enthusiasm for a public plan. indeed, their enthusiasm for a
2:23 pm
single-payer system, national health insurance, if you will. so this gives us a great opportunity. that's what makes this body so great that we can agree to disagree -- agree in a respectful way, the three members of the democratic majority that were just speaking to our colleagues are good friends that i have great respect for. the gentlewoman from california, the gentleman from minnesota, the distinguished gentleman from michigan, we just happen to totally disagree on this issue. and that's why we're here. that's what this is all about, to take an opportunity to point and counterpoint folks remember that. cross fire and things we see on television. you're from the right, you're from the left, you're democrat, you're republican, you're conservative, you're liberal, and your points on what goes on
2:24 pm
in the country will differ. it may be 180 degrees apart. surprisingly enough, there are occasions which we agree on issues. almost 100%. but on this issue there's serious disagreement. and i want to just talk a little bit about how the president started his address to this joint session of congress and, of course, in primetime to the nation on h.r. 3200, the bill that has passed the committees in the house, not passed the whole house, but also the bill that passed the senate health committee. the president talked about that last night. now, typically when the president comes before a joint session of congress it's going to be in this chamber because this is a bigger chamber, as our colleagues know, and the cabinet members come in and there are additional chairs put
2:25 pm
down -- put out here down front for them, for members of the supreme court, for any retired members of congress who may want to come. of course, the galleries were completely full last night. and, madam first lady was sitting over here on this side, and it was quite a setting. i don't think any of us really knew except maybe the democratic leadership and some of the democratic majority party knew ahead of time what the president was going to say. sometimes we get a draft of the speech, and on this particular occasion we didn't. when we sat down in our seats and the magic hour was approaching at just after 8:00 p.m. last night, these cards, these laminated cards were passed out by the clerks of the house. and i want my colleagues to notice, and of course, you did
2:26 pm
see it last night, but there's some script on the front. but there is nothing on the back. so it's not really a two-pager. it's a one-cider, if you will. and -- it's a one-cider, if you will. it's a thumbnail sketch of what the president was going to say to us. so we have typically when we sit down a copy of the speech, and not just the draft, the very speech that the president is going to make right here standing behind that podium as he reads that off of his teleprompters. and so we can follow word by word and indeed if you're -- he's speaking slower by necessity, so we can read ahead and -- on a typical situation, know what he's going to say maybe a page ahead or a page and a half ahead. not last night. i mean, you absolutely did not know what to expect. i know what i hoped to hear him say, and many people asked me about that both before and
2:27 pm
after the speech. but what did you expect, congressman gingrey, you are a doctor, you practiced ob-gyn medicine for over 26 years in your district in northwest georgia, cobb county, marietta, you've delivered 5,200 babies, you've practiced medicine for over 27 years, you sit on the energy and commerce committee where this bill, this h.r. 3200 -- my colleagues, i just happen to have it. fresh copy of it. i think 1,100 pages. pretty thick. kind of hard for me to even hold. you know, what do you think about the bill? and after the august recess when everybody went home, this bill passed the energy and commerce committee. it passed the ways and means
2:28 pm
committee, and it passed the education and labor committee. very narrowly. strictly along party lines. and we went home for the august recess. and that's when things really got exciting. typically during the month of august members are in their district, they're seeing constituents maybe one-on-one, more typically in a town hall meeting setting on a busy day, you might see 50 people or 75. and rarely 1 hupped if the weather's perfect. well, during this august recess, which lasted about 5 1/2 weeks, all across the country congressional members, senators, members of the house, republicans, democrats, independents that held these town hall meetings were seeing 10 times the attendance that they would normally see. so instead of 50 i was seeing
2:29 pm
500. instead of 100 i was seeing 1,000. and this was true i think in every district. and, my colleagues, you know that your constituents were either going to those town hall meetings trying to talk to their members or they were watching on c-span or they were watching on cnn or fox news and they were seeing what was going on. and it was clear, it was clear that most of the people at those town hall meetings were our senior citizens. the ones i held, six or eight or nine, there were a few scatteredings of young people, but -- scatterings of young people, but maybe they were off working or ballgames and maybe it was not on their mind like it was senior citizens, but those senior citizens were there because they were very concerned about how this new bill, this big one, h.r. 3200,
2:30 pm
it's called the america's affordable health choices act of 2009, what it was going to do to their health care coverage. and in particular their concern was a provision in that bill, a provision in that bill that calls for the creation of an exchange where people who do not have health insurance, maybe they have lost their job and in so doing have lost their health insurance or possibly they worked for a company and the -- absolutely, mr. speaker, i will yield for a message. the speaker pro tempore: the chair will receive a message. the messenger: mr. speaker, a message from the president of the united states. the secretary: mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: madam secretary. the secretary: i am directed by the president of the united states to deliver to the house of representatives a message in writing. the speaker pro tempore: the
2:31 pm
gentleman will proceed. mr. gingrey: mr. speaker, thank you for letting us continue. the bottom line is that those seniors that were showing up are very concerned about how you pay for this bill and why the need for the federal government to sell health insurance and compete with the private marketplace for the business of these people that don't have insurance. the bill calls for setting up these exchanges where people can go in their state online typically and shop for health insurance policy and several companies, my colleagues think of blue cross/blue shield or well point or etna or any of the insurance companies that have health insurance as part of that
2:32 pm
product line. and look and see what they offer. what your needs are in regard to your health, what medications you need to be on and what the coverage is and who the doctors are in fact that accept that particular policy. you know in a community who you want to go to, who you want your wife to go for care, who you want your children to go to for pediatric care. so you pick and choose and you also look at the doctors, do you know them or do they have a good reputation? what they charge for standard of protectional care, for the removal of an appendix or for the repair of a fracture. are they competitive? and that system, ladies and gentlemen, my colleagues in the chamber, would work very well and it has worked very well in regard to the prescription drug plan that our medicare
2:33 pm
beneficiaries receive now under the prescription drug plan that we passed back in december of 2003 without government sbemps, without government setting the price control -- interference, without the government setting the price control. because if you let the government participate as a competitor on the field and yet at the same time they are the referee, they set all the standards in regard to what has to be covered, not just by them, but every insurance offering that's competing in that exchange and what they can charge. so the federal government gets a tremendous unfair advantage and eventually what will happen is what the president has promised us repeatedly would not happen. what the president has promised is that if you like the
2:34 pm
insurance that you have, if you like the health insurance that you have, you can keep it and nobody can take it away from you. now that's -- that's a pretty bold promise that the president has made. but the fact is, in this exchange where you have a government plan competing and then you have an administrator of all this called the health choices administrator, now i don't like the social security administrator, a very, very powerful new bureaucrat comes along and says to corporate america, what you are offering in the way of health insurance to your employees, even though they're very happy with it, is not adequate. because we have made a decision that it needs to cover x and it needs to cover y and it needs to cover z and you don't cover one of those three.
2:35 pm
or you don't cover two of those three. or this health choices administrator could also say, we have decided that nobody in any one year is going to pay more than a certain amount of deductible or could he pay -- co-pay or in the aggregate out of pocket expenses and we notice, mr. employer, that even though the people that work for are you very happy with what they have, many of them have signed up for a very low monthly premium with a fairly high deductible, maybe $4,500, maybe $5,000 a year, but they have this catastrophic coverage so that if they get run over by a truck or get hurt on their motorcycle then this catastrophic picks up and they do not end up in bankruptcy. a lot of young people, my colleagues, a lot of young
2:36 pm
americans who are healthy, who may be working in their very first job who are trying to pay for a car, who are paying off a student loan that could be as much as $125,000, who are trying to rent an apartment, who indeed may be just trying to pay down on an engagement ring for their fiance, and they are healthy, they take care of themselves, they don't smoke, they don't drink, they exercise, they run marathons, their parents are in great health, no family history of cancer, no family history of diabetes, heart disease, both sets of grandparents are well into their 90's, and we're going to say to them, the federal government's going to say to them, this plan that you have that works so well for you is not adequate according to what
2:37 pm
we have determined, we uncle sugar, we've made a determination that your plan is not adequate, mr. employer, and you're just going to have to either put in a whole new policy for these workers or you're going to have to pay a fine of 8% of their salary into this exchange. so what happens then eventually, all of these people, the group estimates that as many as 110 million could lose their coverage even though they like it. and they could end up in this exchange and pretty soon the government, which is competing in that exchange, will force all of the other competitors out and you will have that many more people in a government-run medicare-medicaid-like program. now if that's getting to keep what you like, then maybe you can sell me some ocean front property in arizona, my
2:38 pm
colleagues. it clearly is not what the american people want and that's what they told us so clearly during these town hall meetings. i don't know what the president, my colleagues, i don't know what the president was doing during the august break, maybe he and his family took a little vacation, i hope they did, but i expect that he has watched a little television but maybe not. maybe he was himself giving speeches and listening to his own speeches but not watching these other town hall meetings and seeing these ladies and gentlemen with a little gray around the temple saying, what are you about to do to our medicaid program? what's this business we hear about you cutting medicaid $500 billion? mr. president, last year we spent $480 billion on medicaid. if you're going to cut it $500 billion over the next 10 years,
2:39 pm
isn't that more than 10% a year cut? and under medicare right now we know it's a good program but it doesn't cover catastrophic care, it doesn't give us coverage as far as annual physicals, we have to be sick to go in and get our claim honored under medicare, unless, of course, we signed up for medicare advantage which 20% of us did and, oh, by the way, what is this $170 billion cut to medicare advantage? a 17% per year cut in a very popular program to pay for this idea of ensuring everybody when those who are chronically uninsured only amount, my colleagues, to about 5% of our total population. even the president is beginning to admit that. and it would be like saying, you
2:40 pm
know, i've just found out that the ice maker in my refrigerator has gone on the blink. and i got a little estimate and i went by seres or home depot and found out that it will cost me about $350 to replace that ice maker. so you know what i think i'll do? i think i'll spend tens of thousands of dollars remodeling my kitchen. i mean that makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? it's kind of like the old adage of throwing the baby out with the bath water. the bottom line is, there are so many things that we can do to reform our health care system without going to this single-payer national health insurance program. the president, mr. speaker, and my colleagues, last night in the first few minute of his speech, he lamented the fact that since the days of theodore roosevelt, the early 1900's', that we have
2:41 pm
not passed meaningful health care reform and then he referenced who? he referenced two distinguished members of this body, former member john dingell sr. from michigan, current member john dingell who served in this body for over 50 years, a great member, former chairman of the energy and commerce committee, now ameasure to us chairman of energy and commerce committee and he said, these two gentlemen, father and son, in every congress for the last 45, i think he said, have introduced this bill to reform our health care system. well, my colleagues, the president was expressing his great regret that that bill had not passed and that bill was a single-payer national health insurance program just like canada, just like the u.k.,
2:42 pm
uncle sam government bureaucrats running everything and that's what the president was disappointed in, the fact that we had not passed that. i say thank god we have not passed it, even though we have great respect for these members. congressman john conyers, long-serving member from michigan, was just on the floor a few minutes ago talking about the bill, a very similar bill that he introduces in every congress. so that's what we're talking about, these are the things that i wanted to discuss with my colleagues this evening. i want to take a little time now to pass the gavel, the mike, if you will, to my friend from louisiana, dr. fleming, and we're going to continue over this hour to discuss this hugely, hugely important issue to the american people. and i yield to dr. fleming. mr. fleming: well, i thank my friend from georgia, dr. congressman gingrey, for having this debate this afternoon.
2:43 pm
i think this is an appropriate time after, i guess, the climax of all speeches by our president on this topic, health care, i believe last night's speech was believe last night's speech was his 28th major speech with health care reform as its topic. before we get into the meat of this which i'll deal with some of the statements that were made last night, i want to comment on the speech that our president made, thing that struck me during the speech and then afterwards. and first of all let me say that as a physician practicing for over 30 years, a business owner still owning businesses and employing hundreds of people in my businesses, providing health care insurance for them, i came to congress hoping to work in a reform environment. i want health care reform. wanted it before i was elected. but seeking to achieve that
2:44 pm
through private means, through capitalism, through the things that have made america great, not through socialistic government takeover means. so i came to this discussion last night, sat very close to where i am at this moment, hoping that the president would after a very difficult august recess for many of our friends on the other side of the aisle, running into disgruntled americans who were unhappy with the idea of government takeover of health care, would come in a partisan way wanting finally to reach across the aisle, to share some of our ideas, to have -- allow us to participate in the debate as well. but i noticed four things that i want to point out real quickly. want to point out real quickly. number one was his partisan i really felt that his tone was hyper partisan, was really unexpected to me. he's my president, he's the
2:45 pm
president of everyone in this chamber today and i think it's his responsibility to rise above partisanship and i had expected that to be honest but i was disappointed. i noticed a con descending tone, lecturing us on -- lecturing us on how to achieve capitalistic ideals, free market ideals, using socialistic principles. again, i've been a physician in private practice, have owned businesses for a number of years and know of no economic model in creating socialistic or governmental entities will make capitalism or the free market better. thirdly, an accuseatory tone and coming out -- accusatory tone and coming out saying that republicans are lying about h.r. 3200, the democratic bill, and i really take personal
2:46 pm
umbrage over that because everything i've spoken about, everything i've heard from my colleagues is backed up through facts. and while we may disagree at times, even over those fact, i don't think that it's appropriate for us to accuse each other of lying. and then finally, the unsupported claims themselves which we're going to get into in a moment making statements that cannot be in any way supported. so on the one hand, every statement that i know of that i've made and my colleagues can be supported, very clearly, not necessarily with what's directly in the bill but with directly in the bill but with fac and then our president coming to us making statement after statement and repeating them that can't be supported any way, shape or form either in the bill or outside of the bill. so with that i want to -- mr. gingrey: if my colleague will yield for a minute? mr. fleming: yes.
2:47 pm
mr. gingrey: and you mentioned a fact check, dr. fleming, and i have a number of facts on the poster board, on thiesle. i will uncover the first one and comment to the first fact that he mentioned last night. i'm not sure that my colleagues -- you may not be able to see that well, nor could dr. fleming. but here's what it says. and this is a quote from our president. "i will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits, either now or in the future." congressman, can you see the fact, the true fact on that? mr. fleming: yes. yes, i remember him saying this and shaking his finger while he was doing that. and we have been totally unable to find anyone who can agree with this statement. the cost of the bill will be
2:48 pm
anywhere from $1.6 trillion to over $2 trillion. the president says the savings will either come from -- well, really a combination of raising taxes and in savings which really if i could digress for a moment, he's talking about savings, and you alluded to this a little bit, congressman gingrey, about he's going to gut medicare and medicaid $500 billion. $190 billion by killing off medicare advantage, and then the rest would come out directly. and, you know, i was born at night but i wasn't born last night. and i happen to know that myself and many of my physician colleagues who've been dealing with medicare reimbursement for many years, we all know that we're currently being reimbursed under medicare and medicaid well below our costs. we make it up on the private insurance which is what's driving the private insurance cost up. it's the existing
2:49 pm
government-run programs that are running those costs up. and to say that you can take $500 billion out, and it's not going to effect services, it's just not true. it's plainly false to say that. and even with the best estimates we come out with at least, as you say in your poster, $239 billion of deficit over 10 years. so there is nothing at all that supports that statement, sir. mr. gingrey: well, and reclaiming my time, i certainly agree with you. and the president talked about not spending one penny to add to the testifies. and this $239 billion shortfall and the pay-for, this is after cutting medicare $500 billion, as you heard from myself and from dr. fleming, and taxing the rich, whoever they are. i think, unfortunately, the rich are a lot of small business men and women that
2:50 pm
create most of the jobs in this country, tax them anywhere from 1% to 5% and trying to raise an additional $800 billion. so even with the $800 billion worth of taxes, new taxes, and the $500 billion cut to the medicare program, especially medicare advantage, and dr. fleming would i'm sure verify this that 20%, fully 20% of medicare recipients today, my colleagues, choose the medicare advantage program as a delivery system because they get more care. dental care is covered. hearing aids are covered. annual physicals are covered. there's a catastrophic cap. none of that is true under traditional fee for service medicare unless maybe if you have an expensive supplemental policy. so that was the first fact that i wanted to -- and, congressman, if you'll let me
2:51 pm
unveil, if you will, fact number two fact check. and my colleagues, this fact check is this, and, again, we're quoting from the president's speech last night, not 12 hours ago. "nothing in this plan will require you to change the coverage or the doctor that you have." now, let me repeat that because this is an important fact check. "nothing in this plan will require you to change the coverage or the doctor that you have." congressman. mr. fleming: yes, sir. well, you know, if you look in the four corners of the bill itself there's no statement that says that it will change the coverage or the doctor you have. however, remember that it's the impact of the law that really dictates the outcome. first of all, you just
2:52 pm
mentioned that 25% of medicare recipients are on medicare advantage which is the privatization part of medicare in general where they're able to get more services through private insurance than they can on regular medicare. well, that -- the financing for that program will be killed off. so that's 25% of medicare recipients will lose medicare advantage. so whatever doctors, whatever services they're getting will definitely be changed. that's an outright -- mr. gingrey: reclaiming my time. even if they wanted to keep it it would no longer be there for them because if you cut it to the bone, and this cut in medicare advantage is like 17% a year, the insurance companies that offer that product will just simply say, i'm sorry, you're going to have to -- we're shutting our doors and you have to find yourself a doctor who will accept you under medicare fee for service? mr. fleming: absolutely. secondly, as i described before, medicare and medicaid,
2:53 pm
the current government-run programs, and they only survive today because of the tremendous subsidy that's going on from private insurance, and even with that will run out of money in eight years. so we don't -- we haven't even solved that problem. but if you look at the fact that the current government-run programs are themselves being subsidized by private insurance, once you create this government option, which will cost employers 8% of their payroll, it will begin to pull people out of private insurance and onto the rolls of the single payer government-run system. and little by little, well, quite rapidly, the cost of private insurance will begin to dramatically rise. and the differential between the 8% of payroll that they will be required under the government option and the 15% or 20% or whatever it's going to end up being with private insurance, that disparity will
2:54 pm
be so large that employers will have to be put in a position will be forced to dump their employees into the public option, the government-run system. and as you point out there, the one study shows that as many as 114 million americans will be the ones dumped into the system. mr. gingrey: well, and, again, reclaiming my time, this is a point i made earlier, mr. speaker, and again, i want to repeat to our colleagues, this business about if you like what you have that you can keep it, you may want to keep it. an example, we use medicare advantage. but you may be prohibited from keeping it because it's not offered anymore. and the same thing in regard to, if you work for an employer, mr. speaker, and that employer says, look, you know, we got a menu. and the way it works. that's the way it works for the
2:55 pm
federal employee benefit plan. those of us who work for the federal government, you have choices of five or six things that you might want. high option, low option, standard option. you might want dental coverage. you might not. you might want eye coverage. you might not. you might indeed want a low premium, very low monthly premium with a high deductible combined with a health savings account. a lot of federal employees choose that. a lot of employees for these large companies choose that. whether we're talking about wal-mart, coca-cola, lockheed, whatever. and they have that as their choice, but the federal government under this massive new bureaucracy with i think 53 different agencies making decisions under the tept of health and human services, but the most, mr. speaker --
2:56 pm
department of health and human services, but the most, mr. speaker, the one with the stronger voices will be the health administers -- and they can say there will be a grace period up to 2013, i think, dr. fleming. mr. fleming: yes. mr. gingrey: they can say to a company, gosh, i noticed you have a lot of your employees who have picked the high deductible low premium plan, these young workers that are just out of college or just out of high school. well, you know what, mr. employer, we're not going to approve that because we've decided that nobody can spend that much money out of pocket in any one year. that's one of our requirements. so you're going to have to come up with something entirely different and, yes, more expensive, and that's when what representative fleming was saying, mr. speaker, the employer's going to say, you know what, it's not worth it to me. heck, i'll just pay the 8% fine for each of these employees and i'll let them go into this government plan.
2:57 pm
so you talking about if you like what you got you can keep it, you can keep it until you can't keep it. that's going to be in 2013. mr. fleming: will the gentleman yield for just a moment? mr. gingrey: yes, of course. mr. fleming: this, according to our president and our colleagues on the democratic side, suggest that this government option will be sort of an antidote to the problem we have in insurance today that there's not enough competition. and, again, i don't know of any economics textbook, any economic model that suggests that the way to create more competition in the workplace or in the business world is to create artificial pricing which is what this does. so what artificial pricing does, particularly when it's backed up by taxpayer dollars in effect creates a situation where insurance companies will be put out of business. and that will, of course, cave the entire insurance industry.
2:58 pm
mr. gingrey: and i thought we'd go to the next fact then, again, quoting from our president last night. "not a dollar of the medicare trust fund will be used to pay for this plan." i think he spoke the truth there because i don't think there's any money left in the medicare trust fund. i think past congresses for many years have spent that money like crazy, and it should, as we all agree i think, every member, every constituent, certainly every medicare recipient would say that that trust fund ought to be lock boxed and it should not be touched for any federal expenditure except for the solvency of the medicare plan. so, yeah, i agree with him, "not a dollar of the medicare trust fund will be used to pay for this plan." the fact is that it's not just a trust fund, he's taking the money right out of the hide of
2:59 pm
the medicare money. not the fat, but the muscle and the cart ledge and the -- cartilage and the bone, $500 billion out of medicare. and then he went on to say that he promises that if his bill does not save money that more cuts will come. hear me, members, who might be on medicare and your constituents surely are, more cuts will come. now, the next fact. the president early in the speech said this -- now, i wondered if he was listening, and i don't know what he was listening to during the month of august, but he said, and this is his quote from his speech last night to this joint session and to the -- and to
3:00 pm
the television audience, to all americans, "a strong majority of americans still favor a public insurance option." what's the fact, dr. fleming? mr. fleming: well, that's a bait and switch. what the polls actually show is a majority of americans favor health insurance reform. however, when you ask them specifically about the public option, as you point out in your poster, only 42% of americans approve and 52% disapprove. so we have a 10% gap, most americans do not approve of a public insurance option or what we call government takeover. and really you see this in the town halls. i don't know about you, congressman gingrey, but in my town halls i did a number of town halls in my district during
3:01 pm
august and overwhelmingly i'd say by a fact of about 95% to 98% were against any sort of government-run insurance and only a handful suggested they were for it in any way. and really other polling that we've done suggests similar statistics. so i would -- and the other thing that you don't see here is intensity. the intensity level against government-run health care is far stronger than those who are in favor of it. mr. gingrey: well, and again, reclaiming my time, in regard to the facts, when we went home for the august recess, president obama his overall approval rating -- and let's face it, politicians pay attention to spols -- polls and certainly our commander in chief and the highest politician in the country is the president of the united states and he pays attention to his approval rating. and it dropped over 10% in the five-week period of time and 57%
3:02 pm
of the people in the country when we left here at the first of august were in favor of this health reform plan but now it's down to 42%. so, again, this fact check, i think, is very important. well, my colleagues, the point that we're getting to is this, based on the speech that the president gave last night it's pretty clear to me, it's pretty clear to this member, to this physician member, that the president has not listened. he maybe listened to ms. pelosi, the speaker of the house, he maybe lisped to mr. reid, the majority leader of the senate, he maybe listened to charlie rangel, the gentleman who chairs the ways and means committee, possibly he is listening to
3:03 pm
henry waxman, the chairman of the committee that i serve on, energy and commerce, or maybe his friend from california, george miller, who chairs the education and labor committee in the house. and maybe he's listening to chris dodd, the senator from connecticut who chairs the health, education pension committee, the h.e.p. kept, in the united states senate. but he is not listening to the american people. we don't -- we've come to not expect, my colleagues, him to listen to the loyal minority and to give the minority truly an opportunity to participate on the front end of having input in these very important bills. we're talking about 17% of our economy is health care and john
3:04 pm
fleming and phil gingrey together probably have 70 years of clinical experience, mr. speaker, in the practice of medicine and i'm talking about where you see patients, i'm not talking about writing papers or teaching at some ivory tower medical facility. i'm talking about in urban and rural america seeing patients across all aspects financial, socioeconomic, ethnicity, with all kinds of problems and our specialties are different. and yet we've got these 70 years of clinical experience that we could have, should have, would have brought to the table and not once were we invited. so the president is listening to somebody but he's not listening to some experts that could help him and he sure is not listening to the american people. the american people said very
3:05 pm
clearly and again, when i wasn't holding town hall meetings, i was watching them, i was a c-span junkie, you know, i was an you insomniac, i'm a senior citizen so i don't sleep a lot. and the people were saying, mr. president, no government-run health care, don't cut senior care to pay for this health reform. we don't need to remodel the kitchen, we gist need to fix the ice maker -- we don't need to -- we just need to mix the ice maker. don't raise the deficit. we just heard that your guy, mr. orszag, the director of the office of management and budget at the white house, your man, you put him there, he's a brilliant economist, and he just said that over the next 10 years your deficit spending, your red ink is going to total $9 trillion. now, ladies and gentlemen, my colleagues, we are currently $11
3:06 pm
trillion in debt in this country. $11 -- 11 plus nine is 20. that's about $45,000 worth of debt for every man, woman and child and we are going to do this massive health reform change and spend another $1.5 trillion when, yes, 14,000 people every day are losing their jobs and something like five million have lost their jobs since february when we passed the economic spendulous and recovery act that was going to stop unemployment at 8.5% and start growing jobs? unemployment snow 10%. and -- unemployment now is 10% and we haven't again to grown a job yet. the american people said, don't race the -- raise the deficit. american people said, health care choices, not government dictates. american people said, bipartisan compromise. mr. president, you're not listening.
3:07 pm
well, just a few additional points to be made, mr. speaker, and my colleagues. the truth behind the democrats' health care proposal, 5.5 million jobs will be destroyed just by the business tax proposals in this plan. as i pointed out, 114 million americans could lose their current health insurance. so much for if you like what you have, you can keep it. $500 billion in medicare cuts. 20% increase in seniors' medicare prescription drug premiums, $800 billion in new tax hikes and that's just the beginning. now, my colleagues, many times you have on the majority side of
3:08 pm
the aisle, you have said the republicans are the party of no. well, at first i took umbrage to that. it's almost like a member of our side of the aisle in a moment of passion made a statement last night that he regretted and apologized to the president, when this issue of whether or not any of this new health care benefit and these subsidies would be going to illegal immigrants. that invokes a lot of passion and a lot of people -- in a lot of people in this country, including members of this body. and when i hear the democratic majority say we're the party of no, i get upset about that. or at least i used to and now i realize that maybe we are the party of no, mr. speaker. but it's spelt k-n-o-w. it's spelt k-n-o-w.
3:09 pm
and we do know and we do know and we do have a plan, we do have a second opinion, if you want to put it in medical. we have a second opinion on everything that comes through this congress. we had a second opinion on energy reform, mr. speaker. we reject the cap and trade scheme that would cost every family at least $2,500 a year more in electricity costs. when china and india, with their 2.5 billion people, get off scot-free because they are so-called developing nation -- they are a so-called developing nation. they're developing all right. they're eating our lunch, that's what they're doing. and they're taking away all of our manufacturing jobs. so, mr. speaker, we have an idea, we have a second opinion on energy, we have a second opinion on how to reform health care.
3:10 pm
no, it's not 1,100 pages. it's 260 pages. it's called empowering patients first act. it's not h.r. 3200. it's h.r. 3400. and this is just one of four or maybe five republican bills that are alternatives, second opinions, that can solve this problem in a bipartisan way without breaking the bank. but do you think we get an opportunity to have a hearing on these bills? do you think we have an opportunity to have our amendments vetted? do you think when whatever comes before this floor so that all members can vote on it that any republican will have an opportunity to either offer a bill or even an amendment? i have, as part of this bill, an amendment on liability reform that, you know, it's passed
3:11 pm
every year when we republicans controlled the house and it probably would save the cost of health care $150 billion a year because doctors wouldn't be doing all these unnecessary defensive tests which could be down right dangerous to patients. so, yeah, this is a second opinion. and yet you won't hear much about it. except from us. and opportunities like this, my colleagues, and we take this opportunity. maybe when some of our members have already, you know, headed for the airport and can't wait to get home to their families and the children and grandchildren. i certainly can't blame them for that. but this is our only opportunity, mr. speaker. that's why dr. fleming and i are here, to make sure that you understand that we're not the party of no. we're the party of k-n-o-w and i
3:12 pm
would like at this point to yield back to my friend from louisiana for a few minutes. mr. fleming: i thank the gentleman. to follow up on h.r. 3400, which i am also an original co-sponsor of, you know, the president last night talked about a lot of laudable goals such as doing away with the whole idea of pre-existing illness that would deny care. denying care to someone who developed a disease while on the insurance. the ability, if you lose your job, to keep your insurance. well, you know what? this bill provides for all of that. these are all structural problems that are easily fixable. you know, our insurance system that we have today for health care was developed in the 1940's when insurance was only a catastrophic umbrella coverage, it was not what it is today. and so really through some very simple things, tearing down the walls between states so that any american can buy any insurance policy within the borders of the
3:13 pm
united states, that would create the kind of healthy robust competition we need to lift service and reduce cost. to simply pass a law, a very simple law, that says you can't deny coverage as a result, you can't even ask what pre-existing illnesses you've had in the past. or if like a friend of mine who had a routine clon scope just, you know, as a preventive tool, he was found to have a couple of benign polyps. and i can tell you, that man may die in bed at age 100, he may get run over by a bus but he will never die of cancer of the colon. however, that's the reason why he lost his insurance. because polyps were found on an examination that he well should have had. these atrocities should not occur and h.r. 3400 resolves those issues and it also has tort reform, which you talked
3:14 pm
about, which h.r. 3200, the democrat bill, does not have. so really, all the problems we have, virtually all of them, all the solutions are found within h.r. 3400 and yet and still you mentioned about participating in the process. the president said last night, and i'll quote him, i will continue to seek common ground in the weeks ahead. if you come to me with a serious set of proposals, i will be there to listen. my door is always open. well, on may 13, the house republicans wrote him a letter asking for that. we're yet to hear a response. he's never commented as commented. as far as i know he's never read h.r. 3400. i think we have something better to offer and certainly something that could offer tremendous amendments to the bill already before us. mr. gingrey: dr. fleming, i thank you for those comments and i certainly agree with you. the president did say that, he
3:15 pm
said, you know, if you've got a good idea, bring it to me. and i would say this to the president, because we do, as john fleming said, we do have some good ideas, not just the two of us, but members on both sides of the aisle. the more conservative members on the democratic side, the blue dog coalition of 52 members, they need to be heard and i think thus far they've been heard but they've been ignored at the same time. . what i would say to the president as we wrap up this hour, this is what i would suggest to the president. we have all heard the expression around here -- in fact i think the late senator kennedy was famous for this, maybe he coined the phrase, don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. now, if president obama thinks that h.r. 3200, the big bill,
3:16 pm
with the public plan in it, is the perfect, but the american people in a very resounding way has said, mr. president, we don't want the public plan because we fear that that's just a trojan horse and it's two steps toward a single payer national health insurance where you have rationing such as they do in canada and the u.k. then the president could, and i wish he would have last night, said to us, well, we can't pass what i think is the perfect, because american people are afraid of it. i feel that they are wrong, i fear that they have been scared, i fear that they have gotten misinformation, but nevertheless they have spoken pretty clearly and the members on both sides of the aisle have heard because they came back to washington, they told me, and i'm just going to have to pull that public plan
3:17 pm
option out and let's get together with the republicans and the senate and in the house and let's draw up a new bill. and let's do the not perfect but the good, and dr. fleming, representative fleming mentioned some of the things. equalize the tax treatment so that everybody gets discounted health care. absolutely put in the subsidies for people who are not poor enough to qualify for our safety net programs like medicaid, but they don't have enough income to purchase health insurance for them and for their children. they get government subsidies based on a sliding scale. make the insurance companies accept people with pre-existing conditions. don't let them put caps on how much coverage you get in any one year. if you get real sick in any one year, whatever the bill is, the insurance company should pay it after you paid your co-pay and deductible. maybe the next five years they
3:18 pm
won't have to pay anything and you won't have any claims. and let's create these high-risk pools across each and every state where people with multiple illnesses can get coverage at a reasonable rate. and yes, indeed, help those who need help with subsidies both from the state and from the federal government. just a few -- let people purchase health insurance across state lines where maybe they are cheaper. if you live, as i did for a long time, in augusta, georgia, it was just a half mile across the river to north augusta, south carolina. why can't people go from across state lines and purchase health insurance? they can do it to buy a gun or television set. again all of these provisions are in the bill, h.r. 3200, which i showed you just a second ago, here it is. so, mr. president, in your opinion, not in ours, but in
3:19 pm
your opinion this may not be the perfect, but i tell you what, it's darn good. and if we can get together in a bipartisan way for the american people and let's get this done and then let november 2, 2010, take care of itself, and as far as your political future, mr. president, let's let 2012 take care of itself. let the american people be the judge, but let's get this done in a bipartisan way. and let's for once listen to the american people. for that, mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the chair lays before the house the following communication. the clerk: to the congress of the united states, section 202-d of the national emergencies act provides for the automatic termination of a national emergency unless, prior to the anniversary date of its declaration, the president publishes in the federal register and transmits to the
3:20 pm
congress a notice stating that the emergency is to continue in effect beyond the anniversary date. consistent with this provision, i have sent to the federal register the enclosed notice stating that the emergency declared with respect to the terrorist attacks on the united states of september 11, 2001, is to continue in effect for an additional year. the terrorist threat that led to the declaration on september 14, 2001, of a national emergency continues. for this reason i have determined that it is necessary to continue in effect after september 14, 2009, the national emergency with respect to the terrorist threat. signed, barack obama, the white house, september 10, 2009. the speaker pro tempore: referred to the committee on foreign affairs and ordered printed. the chair lays before the house the following enrolled bill. the clerk: senate joint resolution 9, joint resolution
3:21 pm
providing for the appointment of france a. cordova as senior regent of the board of regents of the smithsonian. the speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2009, the chair recognizes the gentleman from colorado, mr. polis, for 60 minutes. mr. polis: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, over the last month i have asked my constituents to share their health care stories with me so that i can share them with the nation with regard to how we can improve upon our current health care system and some of the problems that exist many americans every day. one of my constituents from boulder asked her name not be used. when she was 17, she was diagnosed with h.p.v. virus that causes cervical cancer. it wasn't an easy diagnosis to reach. she had the symptoms of a
3:22 pm
miscarriage, but she wasn't pregnant. that was later verified by the doctors. the only other syndrome that matched her symptoms was cervical cancer. because of her age and the fact that she hadn't been sexually active for long enough to develop lesions, her doctors said it was statistically impossible for her to have them. she said it was most likely a problem with the pill. she returned every day of the week, had exams and was given no information. she continually asked for a test to see if she had cancer or tumors. but her doctor refused and said they would be a waste of money and insurance probably wouldn't cover them. even when she said she'd paid for the test, she was denied them. she asked for a referral to a different doctor and the doctor wouldn't give her a referral for the same reason. statistically nothing is wrong, they said. and it would be a waste of money. finally this young woman asked her mom to come with her and after making them wait for an hour until the office closed, the doctor had a conference with other doctors and finally gave a referral. she gave an appointment, found out what was wrong, and had
3:23 pm
surgery to fix it. thank goodness that her mother helped her out with the cost. now this young lady is having similar problems. she saw her new doctor to see what was wrong and decided they needed to run a few tests. she didn't tell her that the sixth test would add up to over $1,000 and her insurance only covered $300. when this young lady from boulder, colorado, was 20 years old, she went through what too many americans are are victims of, and unfortunately she was raped and she contracted herpies -- herpes. she started generic medication but didn't work so she was prescribed valtrax, no generic, now it costs her out of pocket touchdown00 a month just for medication which she can't afford most months. madam chair it is for women such as this across our country that we need to pass health care reform so that people don't have to be told no by their doctor,
3:24 pm
no by their insurance company, and they can get ongoing treatment for conditions that aren't their fault, might have been misdiagnosed, but they still have a healthy life ahead of them. and by passing health care reform now, we can ensure the next generation of americans won't have to go through what this young lady in boulder, colorado, did. thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise to share with the house stories from our second congressional district in colorado about real people's experience with health care. one gentleman in my district, fellow by the name of alex, a friend of mine, and gave permission for his story to be used on the floor of the house, went through a very difficult experience three years ago when his mother died of lung cancer. the average life expectancy of a person with lung cancer as advanced as hers was only eight weeks when she was diagnosed, but she was a fighter. soon after her diagnosis, she began receiving treatment with
3:25 pm
modern hormonelike drugs. for whatever reason whether it was a new drugs, good luck, or her shear determination she endured for three years after she was given eight weeks to live. alex still remembers very clearly a day when she was visiting his mother when she received yet another letter from the insurance company explaining that her treatments which cost about $60,000 for just a few months of treatment, were not covered by insurance. alex and his family knew that they would lose her soon. and they tried to spend their time together as a family enjoying her final days, giving her the opportunity to play with her grandchildren and spend time with her family. but every hour that she and alex's father engaged in the battle with the heartless insurance companies over these issues was precious time and stress that could have been better spent. and their fear of not being able to afford treatment, of her
3:26 pm
guilt, and having so many resources spent on her behalf were not things that the family wanted to discuss. when someone was facing the end of their life. they had much more important things on their minds and their hearts. this constituent, alex from boulder, writes, improved health care in america should allow families the confidence and peace to focus on each other when it matters most. and it should move us away from having to fight with our insurance providers when we have better things to do. well said, alex, and i think that the house of representatives can learn a lot from the experience that you allowed to be shared before our body. thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise to share stories of real people from colorado who shared with me their health care experiences so that i might share them with the house of representatives to build the case and show what's happening in health care today and how we need to change it. one of my constituents, a woman
3:27 pm
from north glen, whoed asked that her name not be used in sharing this story, told me that she's a 32-year-old woman who pays $642 a month for health care. that doesn't even include her prescription drugs, which average $100 to $200 a month. she has a bad knee so when her cobra expired, she had to continue her health care plan and didn't qualify for less expensive plans. she only works part-time with her new job. fortunately right now her boyfriend is able to cover her overwhelming medical expenses or she believes she wouldn't have any health care at all. she had m.r.i.'s for her knees at $300 each and more recently her brain was diagnosed as having too much fluid in it and she had to have it drained. in the last six months, she said she spent $1,500 just in medical images out of pocket and she can't afford to keep doing this. she writes if there is another
3:28 pm
option for me i would take it in a heartbeat, please help. those are words that we in congress need to heed to provide another option for this woman from north glen and for millions of americans like her who are caught between jobs, out of work, and lack care. through the exchanges that are being created in this health care reform, we are creating a low-cost option for people who are self-employed, for people who are unemployed, for people who work at small companies. preventing pricing discrimination based on pre-existing conditions that would bring health care to people like this woman from north glen. it's her we need to keep in mind as we move with speed to pass health care reform in this body. thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise today to share stories with you of real people from colorado who have had trouble with our health care system, who shared their stories with me, who wanted me to convey to the house of representatives and the country what they have been dealing with and how we have this tremendous opportunity to improve it.
3:29 pm
one of my constituents is debi from boulder, debi's son was diagnosed in 2000 with type one diabetes when he was just 4 years old. from that moment on, debi and her family knew if at any time their health insurance ended, their son could not possibly be able to get health insurance again at a reasonable cost because of the pre-existing condition. if debi's husband were to lose his job, they would have to get cobra or pay for insurance themselves out of pocket. they'll always worry under the current health care system that their son might not have continued coverage as an adult. because it takes very little break in coverage to be unable to receive coverage in the future. debi is hopeful that the public option will be available as a backup and competitor to the private insurance plans out there. debi writes that diabetes is such an expensive chronic
3:30 pm
disease and without proper medication, diabetics will go into comas or seizures with the possibility of death. debi's son needs insulin daily and to have glucose testing and supplies to regulate, that's the minimum requirement. but without insurance, debi writes, that's an impossibility unless one is wealthy. . debby has asked the united states congress to pass the public option and health care reform, to take some of the fear from her son's life and from her son's mother's daily worries. there are millions of families across the country like debby's. families that worry about a pre-existing condition that wasn't their fault, it may have been genetic, it may have been a childhood illness. i have a friend who at age 41 had a heart attack. he ate healthy, lived healthy, worked out. it still happened. for him to be uncoverble for the rest his life. what kind of system do we have in this country where people like debby's son who was
3:31 pm
diagnosed at age 4 with diabetes has a difficult life ahead of them in terms of getting coverage? this would help debby's son and debby's family and ensure that everybody in this country has the health care that they need and the chance to succeed. thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise today to share stories from real people in colorado, about the urgent need for health care reform in this country. one of my constituents gave me a very powerful story. she asked that her name not be used. she lives in lewisville, colorado. she and her husband sell health insurance through a small agency. and she confided to me that she knows first-hand how broken the system really is. she wants to see congress pass real reform and she writes that
3:32 pm
she understands that that reform might make part of her own job obsolete. they make a good living selling insurance and they think that their job isn't necessary. they help folks navigate a very complicated system. however, she knows that they can only help people who already have money. the u.s., she writes, rations health care based on income and that is just wrong. health care should not be profit -based. she writes, greed is very american and has infiltrated the health care industry in a most dangerous way. i truly believe the only way to solve this mess is to make the insurance companies switch to nonprofit entities much like kaiser perm nen day. i believe that what is happening is terrible. in our country we worship the right to make a profit instead of the right to health carement please work to change that. how powerful that a woman whose
3:33 pm
income derives from an industry, puts food on the table, sees what's happening in that industry, sees the wasted effort spent on sales and marketing, of an ever-more complex system, with the proposed health care reform that we're talking about in washington, we will simplify this system, give people one-stop shopping through the exchange, a low-cost option that small employers, unemployed, self-employed people can sign up for and have a multitude of options on a single menu, without the need for sales executives or sales associates to market two people, we're bringing the choices right to their door step and creating savings in the process that will go back into covering more americans and providing better quality of health care for everyone. thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise today to share with the house of representatives powerful stories from colorado, from real people who shared with me their experiences with health care.
3:34 pm
and what we can do better to improve health care through health care reform. renee from north glen, colorado, shared with me that she lived in canada for 10 years with her husband. they had been transfer there had as part of his job -- therefored there as part of his job. renee's experience in canada is that the health care system worked extremely well and she's been diagnosed and dealt with major illnesses while she was there. renee was impressed that she had an amazing doctor that she was able to choose from a multitude of doctors of her own free will and she had is a thank same doctor for her entire 10 years in canada. but when renee and her husband moved back to colorado, they went into business on their own, they started a small business that employed seven staff. it's always a financial struggle to pay high premiums but they made those perm sacrifices to keep their employees ensured and do the right thing as employers. but then the insurance company
3:35 pm
dropped them and they picked up another and they had to change physicians. this happens across our country every day. it happened another time and once again a new physician, a new history, a new relationship, and the last 10 years that they've been in the united states she and her small company have been through about six different insurance programs and unfortunately that's all too common. if the u.s. can come up with a coherent insurance plan that lowers premiums, renee as a small businesswoman writes, the economy will start picking up steam again with the extra capital that businesses will gain by lower premiums. renee further writes that the scare mongering that's put out by the insurance lobby is mind numbing. the horror stories of other countries' systems is sheer ignorance, our situation in the united states is far worse and more people die because of lack of health care. it is real experiences of real americans like renee that will win out at the end of the day and help convince america that we need health care reform to help people like renee see the same doctor for 10 years, save
3:36 pm
small businesses money by creating exchanges which allow small businesses to enter larger risk pools, banning price discrimination based on pre-existing conditions and tax credits to businesses for covering the employees. i call upon the house of representatives to pass health care reform and help reny's -- renee's business and her own personal healthy establishing a relationship with a doctor for a period of time. thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise today to share stories of real people in colorado and their experiences with our health care system and suggestions and recommendations for how we can improve it through health care reform. debby from brookfield shared a story with me that i want to share with you in the house today. debby was run over as a pedestrian in a car accident. she broke her back in three places and both knees and shoulders had to be redone with surgery and she pushed her
3:37 pm
husband out of the way and was further injured in that process. she was laid up for three years in bed and had to have seven surgeries. she then lost her insurance. she cannot with these conditions, she writes, i can't get re-insured. we need this health care reform. mr. speaker, there are millions of americans like debby who have been in accidents, had pre-existing conditions, one of the things we accomplished in this health care reform bill is we ban pricing discrimination and exclusions based on pre-existing conditions. we allow people like debby to access health care through an exchange, with a maximum amount of pocket, with a low deductible, be able to afford the health care they need to live a productive life. and not have to worry every moment about losing their home, their assets and their families to medical costs and difficulties.
3:38 pm
thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise today to share with you stories of real people from colorado making the case for why we need health care reform in this country. i have a constituent who lives in westminster, westminster, colorado, he asks that his name not be used. he shared with me that 10 years ago after his son and daughter were married and they began starting a family, they're both small business people, own and operate their own business, neither one has employees, and both incomes barely pay their bills. they found that insurance was unavailable for them. they were in their childbearing years, didn't have large amounts of exposable income and didn't have enough equity in their businesses. so, like a lot of americans starting out, trying to build a company or an idea from scratch, they scrapped together what they
3:39 pm
could, they saved nickels and dimes in an effort to collect enough money to afford to have the baby and family that they wanted. fortunately they saved part of the necessary $10,000 for hospital expenses and the hospital agreed to give them a payment plan, kind of like buying a car. they had a beautiful little girl. shortly therefore a second child, a boy. the oldest child is about 4 and they still haven't been able to pay off their debts to the hospital for their two children, those debts continue to hang over their heads. they pay a monthly bill that's attached with enormous interest. the irony in this story is that their businesses are are now doing better. they have employees and their equity positions have blossomed. now the insurance sales people call begging them to accept their coverage. they take the obvious position of refusing to sell when the chance of payout is high and begging the sale when it's obvious they will be selling to healthy young individuals who
3:40 pm
have the where with all to pay all their bills. the gentleman from westminster who shared this story believes that we need to make sure that future generations of americans don't face the same difficulties that his daughter faced and seasonal in raising their family. to be born into a legacy of debt before you even speak your first words. under the proposed health care reforms, we can ensure that small businesses, self-employed individuals, have access to low cost exchanges, small businesses receive tax credits to help them afford the cost of health care. depending on people's income level for a family of four, up to $73,000 a year in income, that family, that's about 400% of poverty, the family will receive affordability credits or vouchers to be able to use at the insurance provider of their choice. to help put insurance in reach of more american families, we can help improve the peace of mind and health outcomes for families like this family in
3:41 pm
westminster nationally. thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise today to share with my colleagues in the house of representatives stories from real people in colorado about why we need health care reform today. pat from westminster writes in think a feel strongly we must have a public option for health care. health care reform is intended to provide health care, not profits, for insurance companies. pat writes that pat had public option plans for most of her life. and all of them delivered excellent health care. she worked for the military overseas and had excellent care. she worked for the federal government in the united states and had the coverage provided through the office of personnel management. she now has medicare in addition to the plan, excellent coverage. she has never been denied necessary care and she's been
3:42 pm
given care that was far better than what she expected. as a result today she's 70, she's in much better condition and health than many of her contemporaries. she exercises daily and goes dancing several times weekly. life is good and it is due large part, she writes, to good health and dental care with a lifetime as a member of a public option. maligned frequently by our colleagues on the other side of the aisle as government-run health care, as socialized medicine. we have a constituent, pat, from with westminster who writes in and says thank goodness for her public plan. if only more people would have the opportunity to participate in this kind of public plan, a lot of america's ills would dissipate, people would be healthier and we would save money in providing care to all americans. in his story of people like pat that can inspire us to pass the public option as part of
3:43 pm
comprehensive health care reform. thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise today to share with you and the house of representatives real stories of people from colorado and their experiences with our health care system. i have a constituent in silver thorn, colorado. he asks that his name not be used. and he's shared with me that his health insurance premiums between 2007 and 2008 went up from $900 a month to $1,500 a month. both he and his wife are healthy. they rarely use insurance. but his wife just turned 60 so united health care said that was the primary reason for the increase. this family in silver thorn could not continue to carry their coverage so they are currently uninsured, waiting several years until medicare
3:44 pm
kicks in. while he was covered, he decided he needed a full physical. he hadn't had one in five years. his policy provided one to -- up to one physical per year. he called to make sure it was covered and told it was. he was asked, are you sure it's covered? are you sure it's covered? they said rning don't worry, it's covered. go get your physical. then, like a lot of what happens with americans dealing with insurance companies, bait and switch, sure enough, they got billed for most of the cost, about $550 for a physical and the insurance company only paid $120. so this gentleman from silver thorn called to protest, he said, you told me you'd cover the tests. why didn't you cover the tests? how can i have a physical without tests? that's part of it. by definition a physical is a series of tests. the gentleman from silver thorn further writes that he has so many friends with similar stories. he hopes that he never has to
3:45 pm
sign up with an insurance company again. through comprehensive health care reform we can allow people like this gentleman from silver thorn and his wife, who worry in their golden years before they're eligible for medicare, what are they going to do? losing their benefits at 62 years old, by having a low cost exchange and a public option, effectively people like this gentleman from silver thorn can buy into medicare early. that's one of the proposals of the public option, the version of the public option that's in the bill, passed out of the education and labor committee, and the ways and means committee , is essentially a program with a provider network is he have very similar to medicare, allows gentlemen like this pepper from silver thorn, colorado, my congressional district, to buy into medicare a few years early at a low cost and be able to avoid going without health care during a time in his life that is a critical time to have health care. thank you, mr. speaker. .
3:46 pm
i would like to inquire as to how much time remains. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman has 36 minutes remaining. mr. polis: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise today to share with the house of representatives stories of real people from colorado and the issues they have had with our current health care system and why we need to reform it. one of my constituents from westminster, colorado, she asked her name not be used, shared a very powerful story with me. she shared the story of her daughter who has multiple sclerosis, m.s., so she can't get health care insurance at any cost. it took her over three years to be approved for disability through social security and she had to wait another year until she could apply for medicare. during that time, she couldn't obtain any insurance, including medicaid.
3:47 pm
this constituent from westminster told me, something really needs to change so that everyone can receive the health care they need no matter what. many people who are employed only have 80/20 health care after several thousands of dollars are spent on deductibles. this story repeats itself too often all across our country. people who suffer from pre-existing conditions, could have been genetic, a childhood illness. i had a friend who was -- who is 41 years old. he did everything right. lived a healthy lifestyle. he still had a heart attack at 41, that will be a pre-existing condition for the rest of his life. so, too, this woman's daughter from westminster who deals with m.s. will be insurable only at an extremely high cost for her life and only after going through a several year process that resulted in her getting disability. one of the important accomplishments of the proposed health care reform is we ban pricing discrimination and exclusions based on pre-existing conditions. i call upon the house to act to
3:48 pm
pass health care reform that helps people like this family from westminster have affordable health care reform throughout their lives. thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise today to share with you real stories from people of colorado who shared with me their stories to inform the house of representatives and let my colleagues know how critical it is that we pass health care reform. one of my constituents lives in boulder. she asked that her name not be used in talking about this story. she's employed and she has health care. she considers herself one of the lucky ones. nevertheless she has a firsthand viewpoint of how the system is broken. she carefully planned for the hip surgery that her daughter needed. she paid what she thought were the out-of-pocket costs, $15,000.
3:49 pm
she was ok with that, she had that, she paid that. but still the bills came. this woman has a doctorate, a ph.d. and yet she spent hours trying to understand the amazing array of e.o.b.'s, explanation of benefits, statements, and bills that barraged her. she had to learn the nuances of the system and that her main out-of-pocket costs didn't really cover the billed cost. in other words, despite all of her research and being able to afford and put aside $15,000, she found that she she's still responsible for the balance, over $5,000. heaven help those, she says, who don't have the time, resources, or patience to sort through all this mess. she writes, that she fully supports president obama's health care reform and believes that we need to pass health care reform immediately. can you imagine, this is a woman with a ph.d., can you imagine somebody who is just learning
3:50 pm
english who hasn't graduated high school dealing with a complex it of a barrage of forms that i dare most members of congress to be able to understand and comprehend. through health care reform we can simplify that by creating the exchange we provide one-stop shopping for people who are self-employed, unemployed, a low-cost option. tax credits, affordability credits to help people get the health care they need to afford the treatments they need. that's why we need to pass health care reform to move our country forward, cover uninsured americans, and make our country more competitive. thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise today to share with you and the house of representatives real stories of americans who are struggling with our health care system today. gary klein from broomfield asks that i share his story on the floor of the house of representatives. he told me, his parents never
3:51 pm
had health care insurance, his father was self-employed. didn't make very much money. his mother needed three surgeries in 2004, just after she turned 65. fortunately she was old enough to qualify for medicare, otherwise, gary writes, that his parents would likely be bankrupt today. after a lifetime of hard work and running their own business and raising their kids, gary writes that other people shouldn't have to go through bankruptcy in order to be able to afford medical care. there are millions of people like gary and his family across this country. one of the things that we accomplish in this bill is we hope to reduce medical bankruptcies. we require that any policy will have no more ever than a $10,000 out-of-pocket per year for a family. to help reduce the number of bankruptcies. many will have less. through the exchanges that are are being created, we will have
3:52 pm
a competitive, low-cost option for people who are self-employed like gary's father. people who are unemployed, people who are between jobs. they will have access of one low cost to a large risk of pool. there will be no pricing discrimination based on pre-existing conditions norks exclusions based on pre-existing conditions. what is, what if gary's mother needed three surgeries in 2002 when she was 63 years old? it would have driven the family to bankruptcy. it's for families like this across our country like gary's in broomfield that we need to pass health care reform today. i call upon my colleagues to join me in passing president obama's health care reform package. thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise today to share with you and the house of representatives stories about real coloradoans and their
3:53 pm
experiences with our health care system today and why we need to reform it. claudia from boulder shared her story with me. she's 72 years old. and she's on medicare. claudia believes that anyone on medicare should support health care reform so that the rest of our citizens have the same access to medical support that the elderly have today. those elderly people who don't support reform, claudia writes, should examine how they would survive without medicare. in the exchange that's being created and the public option, we effective-l allow people to buy into medicare before they are eligible by age. you know, people sometimes approach me and they say i'm scared of what a single payer system would mean or i'm scared of what socialized medicine is. you know, all of these concepts already exist in our country to varying degrees. we have a socialized medicine
3:54 pm
system which means government owned hospitals, government-employed doctors, that's our v.a. system. that exists today. serves our veterans who have served us so well. we have a single payer system, that's medicare. that claudia told us about. that's a single payer system for seniors, covers every senior. we have a wish wash of private systems as well for people who are not yet medicare eligible and have not served our country. what this bill will help accomplish is making health care more affordable. nobody will have to take the medicare option to buy in earlier or public option. many will choose private options. but low-income individuals will get affordability considered as read toits buy the option of their choice. small businesses and people who are self-employed will get tax credits to help them afford the quality of health care. claudia is right. anybody on medicare today should take a look in the mirror and say, thank goodness i don't have to worry about my medical care. can't we do that for the rest of america? i call upon my colleagues in the
3:55 pm
house of representatives to join claudia in her call for comprehensive health care reform. thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise today to share with the house of representatives real stories from people in colorado about why we need health care reform and what their experiences in their lives and what they have learned that i can share with the house of representatives. danny reed from thornton shared with me a story that i wanted to share with you on the floor of the house of representatives. the issue that he raised is with his out-of-pocket premiums, an issue that is no stranger to many of us. danny considers himself lucky with his health as well as the wealth -- health of his wife and his two kids. now his kids have grown up and
3:56 pm
are in college, but through all the years of paying $311 every two weeks with a $30 co-pay, danny noted that that really adds up. danny can't even remember the last time he or his wife have been to a doctor. his kids get their sports checkups every year now. now his daughter's old enough and she has her own insurance. so danny was able to take her off of his and -- it turns out he doesn't even save any money by doing that. under this particular plan that danny has and the conditions that he faces, somebody who has more kids would pay the same as he does with one kid because they say it's family coverage, but then they get tax breaks because of the child, the chide credit uncome. danny like a lot of americans is tired of paying these high prices and really can really make me -- he worries about the ins and outs of his son playing college football and he has to find a way like a lot of
3:57 pm
americans to keep more money per paycheck. as he puts it, he says good luck with this mess. this is a mess that affects so many american families. even families like danny reed's family that has health care insurance is still suffering from huge out-of-pocket costs. money away from college tuitions, money away from upgrading the house or buying a car for the kids or when their car breaks down. money away from anything else that they might spend it on. the very type of expenditures we need to get our economy going again and creating demand. danny and his family can't make because all their extra money is going to health care. finally, with comprehensive health care reform, we will help get these costs under control. we create a low-cost option in the exchange where people can shop. a pricing pressure to stop this upward escalation of insurance fees. real competition for the insurance industry that will help danny's family and millions of american families like danny have more of the money that keep
3:58 pm
more of the money they earn through her -- their hard work and spend it on their priorities instead of leaking off every week, month, year towards health care that they seldom see. thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise today to share with you stories of -- that my constituents in colorado have shared with me and asked me to make statements on their behalf on the floor of the house of representatives to urge my colleagues to support health care reform. larry woods from lewisville, colorado shared with me the story that even though his wife has a good job, the health care coverage consists ever paying $200 a month towards an $875 bill. $675 month out of pocket. because larry's small business serves residential home developers whose current needs
3:59 pm
in this recession are nearly nonexistent. larry and his wife need to economize on almost everything like a lot of families in this recession. they don't have a great policy. and their out-of-poningt costs for health care are the -- out-of-pocket costs for health care are the largest fraction of their spending it it exceeds the cost of their mortgage and food bill. larry's policy only covers generic medications and more than once they have simply not been able to buy the medication prescribed. and there were no good alternatives. there are millions of families like larry's struggling to get by with the cost of out-of-pocket costs of health care. they have insurance. he's not among the uninsured, yet still money is leaving their family as they economize in this recession for out-of-pocket costs for the health care they need. through comprehensive health care reform, we are creating a low cost exchange that will allow access to a multitude of
4:00 pm
plans creating real competition in the marketplace. the public option will ensure that every insurance company faces real competition in every marketplace. driving efficiency, making sure that of every dollar spent on insurance more of that comes back to the customer in benefits rather than going out the door in excess of c.e.o. salaries or shareholder profits. for families like larry we need to pass comprehensive health care reform. thank you, mr. speaker. . mr. speaker, how much time remains? the speaker pro tempore: approximately 25 minutes. mr. polis: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise today to share with you and the house of representatives real stories from people of colorado, their own personal stories of why we need health care reform in this country. a constituent of mine, bill
4:01 pm
simple, from boulder, colorado, shared a compelling story with me that i feel will help encourage my colleagues on the house of representatives to support health care reform. bill writes that he's known for a long time that the problems in our multipayer system is resistant to change. his story that he shares is -- his professional experience as a psycho therapist. bill is a psycho therapist in private practice and he has a lot of experience billing health insurance companies. he shared with me that health insurance companies haven't raised their allowable limits for outpatient psychotherapy for 15 to 20 years. because they had behavioral carveouts to policy. this adds another layer of bureaucratic expense. another 20% to the already 30%, a total of about 50% overhead. bill spends hours hasling with them. any mistakes that they make always seems to be in their
4:02 pm
favor. this is time away from his practice, away from seeing patients, away from his family just dealing with health care insurance. by the way, those others at the other end of the line working for the insurance companies, they're getting paid salaries. when you pay your insurance premiums is going to those saying what is covered and what isn't covered. bill shared with me that frequently providers -- the insurers only have to pay what kicks in after a sky high deductible for the year has met. preferred provider networks really have phantom lists. they look good but are often made up of providers who are gone, moved out of town, diseesed or not accepting that particular insurer. bill shared with me that single payer financing is best but second best is a robust public option that people can buy into regardless of their status. i hear a lot of frustration, not just from family affected
4:03 pm
by loss of health care, worrying about losing their health care but providers. doctors overwhelmed with paperwork, taking money, time and resources away from their practice, away from patient health. simply to fill out paperwork for insurance companies and battle them of what's reimbursed, by creating real competition in the insurance industry. we will give providers the ability to pick insurers that are easier to work with, that have streamline procedures, the exchange will allow for a standardized procedure across the insurers. and practitioners like bill simple and others across the country will have cost savings across the country that they can pass on across the country. thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise today to share with you and the house of representatives real stories of coloradans who have a lot of experience dealing with the ends and outs of health care
4:04 pm
that our body here in the house of representatives could learn from. one of my constituents in westminster who asked that his name not be used wanted me to share his story with you. his story relates to the diabetes that he suffers from like so many other millions of americans. his insurance insists that he use generic brands of controlled substance for his diabetes. he participated in a study which he could reduce high triglycerides by 70% by using the name brand. he was removed as a candidate from the study. he advised his doctor of the readings and the improvement, and the doctor redecided he should go back to the generic drug and wait to see if his reading went back to previous levels before allowing him to switch to the drug used while participating in the study. this constituent from westminster felt that this took
4:05 pm
away his choice even after he stated the cost from generic to primary is affordable, he was willing to pate difference. the insurance company made the decision on what drug he could use after the near miraculous results of the trial drug. he wasn't even able to pay for it out of his own pocket. we need a system that promotes innovation. lack of competition in the insurance company has hurt others across the country. they need access to new, to experimental treatments that work by promoting innovation among insurance companies, we open the door to practices of encourage approximating new types of therapies that can actually save money over time by reducing the need for catastrophic costs in the long run. it's compelling stories like these which make the urgent case for why we need to pass health care reform. thank you, mr. speaker.
4:06 pm
thank you, mr. speaker. find my page here. mr. speaker, i rise today to share with you and the house of representatives stories of real people from colorado who shared with me their experiences with health care and why it's so urgent for congress to pass comprehensive health care reform. one of my constituents, jane marshall, from lafayette, shared a very compelling story with me that i want to share with you to help show what many american families are going through. the story that jane shares is an exs a ber ating story and she's -- exacerbating story and she knows that there's the hope of a happy ending because of a health care plan and her family's contribution in helping that occur by sharing this story. jane and her husband have five
4:07 pm
children. ages 20, 18, 15, 12 and 8. and their health care has always been determined by her husband's employer. the company that her husband worked for has changed insurance companies from h.m.o.'s to p.p.o.'s to h.s.a.'s to whatever policy or company was fiscally appealing to them at that time. with no regard to continuity, allowing families the keep their doctor or anything else. this meant that none of their five children ever established a relationship with a pediatrician that they would even grow to know and trust. no sooner would they get to know one pediatrician as it would be switched as their company switched their health care company. the insurance changed again and the process would start all over again. the list and the amount of paper that jane had to go through would appall all of us.
4:08 pm
then, two women in jane's husband's office was diagnosed with cancer within a two-year period. their family insurance rates skyrocketed because of the small risk pool of the business. they researched thess can lated rates to determine the risk behind the increase because two people in the group plan was considered high risk. the whole plan had to cost a lot more. they weren't even notified of that by the employer or the insurance company until they got the bills. then they, like a lot of families, had to find it necessary to insure themselves and their children out of pocket because the cost of insurance through jane's husband's company became unaffordable. they acquired insurance plan with kaiser, but the only plan they could afford was a very basic one with large deductibles, and those deductibles loom like heavy weights on the family as they worry what would happen if either one needed to be
4:09 pm
hospitalized or needed mother-in-law care. additionally, from the transition from her husband's insurance to kaiser, they are son was denied coverage of coverage because of a diagnosis he had. one of the things that we accomplish in this bill is we create low-cost exchanges to provide competition among insurance companies. people that are uninsured, small businesses can be part of one large risk pool and have a competitive environment, high quality at a low rate. we also ban pricing discrimination and exclusions based on pre-existing conditions. jane's husband recently lost his job. as many americans have during this recession. they're hanging on waiting for the economy to turn around, waiting for him to find employment and hopefully to find insurance coverage. in the meantime, they're paying out of pocket more than they can afford for insurance. their situation caused them to
4:10 pm
evaluate their finances from a survival perspective and make any and all cuts that they had to to keep paying those premiums. jane shared that insurance itself is not far from the chopping block of what they might need to cut to get by, put food on the table and continue to live their lives. while jane feels that the waters before her is murky, she has hope, hope that this congress will act and pass comprehensive health care reform so that families like jane's across this country have access to a low-cost option, receive affordability credits to help afford health care, and drive down the cost of care and ensure that kids growing up can see the same pediatrician for 10, 20 years as they're growing up and build those relationships and that's why for the sake of jane marshall and millions of americans like her we need to pass comprehensive health care reform. thank you, mr. speaker.
4:11 pm
mr. speaker, i rise today to share with you and the house of representatives real stories, people from colorado and their experiences with health care and why we need to pass health care reform now. one woman from colorado who told me her story and asked that her name not be shared had a son who was born with a hernia in 1987. he received emergency surgery shortly after birth and although the first five years he had several related hospital stays, he grew up a pretty healthy kid. at that time this woman didn't have to worry about whether or not insurance would pay for the treatment he needed. he received the very best care through their health provider. but two years ago their son
4:12 pm
started having chest pains, difficulty breathing and was developing problems with his spine. he was a junior in college at the time and he was trying hard to keep on top of his studies and not be impacted by poor health. he saw several doctors who all said he had a condition that might have been related to his initial surgery at birth that needed an operation to correct the abnormality. but his mother's insurance company, cigna, refused to approve the surgery three times over a year and a half claiming that his health was not compromised enough. certainly during surgery on someone's health who is compromised is an incredibly bad idea. fortunately, they were finally able to attain cigna's approval when the chief surgeon contacted the cigna representative and discussed the case. fortunately, his health didn't deteriorate during the year and a half wait. and after the surgery in march recovered pretty easily.
4:13 pm
how many people like this young man don't have parents who are able to be aggressive advocates for them? what if his mother didn't have a high school education, was just learning english? what if his mother wasn't with us? what if that year and a half had made the difference between a lifetime of incapacitation and a productive healthy lifetime for this young man? that is why we need to pass comprehensive health care reform, ban pricing discrimination, create more competition in the insurance industry so that insurers who routinely fight the very people that they are there to help lose business to others who are willing to pass those price in premiums back to their patients in the form of health care. thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise today to share with you stories of real people from colorado and their experiences with health care
4:14 pm
and why we need to pass health care reform. a woman from colorado who asked that her name not be used shared a very powerful story with me that i wanted to share with my colleagues in the house of representatives. her eldest daughter who she refers to as a beautiful, talented, caring and devoted woman, recently passed away after a painful six months of cancer of the spine. it's very difficult, as any parent who's lost a kid knows, to lose any child. her daughter was 59 years of age at the time. and she had no health insurance for six years. she was bipolar and had been denied health insurance as a single woman. in part because of her pre-existing condition. for four years she suffered pain in her back and legs and shoulders. she went to chiropractic and massage therapy for some kind, any kind of relief, paying out of pocket when she could afford to. finally she was admitted to a
4:15 pm
hospital that had quality doctors and those doctors detected that she had cancer of the spine that at that point was far enough advanced for -- too far advanced for chemotherapy to be of any help. . that cancer could have been detected early enough for treatment that worked. yet another carkt of our health care system. access to preventive care to early detection makes all the difference whether a person lives or dies and the costs of treating that individual. early detection of breast cancer, early detection of cervical cancer, early detection of lung cancer, in this case, spinal cancer, is a life and death equation. how many more americans must die, die before we pass comprehensive health care reform
4:16 pm
that bans discriminations based on pre-existing conditions and exclusions based on pre-existing conditions, affordability credits to afford the health care plan of their choice so they can be diagnosed early and treated early to prevent this terrible fate that this daughter's faced under our watch in this great country. thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise today to share with you stories of real people from colorado who share their stories with me and asked that i share those stories with the house of representatives to convince my colleagues for the urgent need for health care reform. a woman from colorado who asked that her name not be used, shared with me that she's a physician, a provider, she is professionally active as a doctor. several years ago, she left her
4:17 pm
hospital-based job and entered private practice. she here self was able to afford cobra health insurance, but she had ovarian cancer in 2001 before she was covered through united healthcare and has been considered to have been in remission since september, 2001. when her cobra expired this year, united healthcare, golden rule, accepted her but with a rider stating they would not cover any cancer treatment of any variety. although she can provide care to hundreds of people because she is a doctor, she herself has no medical insurance for the medical condition she is likely to need it for. she shared with me that a public option is critical for health care reform and hops we will have a universal health care system that covers everybody. how embar asing as a --
4:18 pm
embarrassing as a nation that someone who heels the sick doesn't have access to health care insurance. one of the things that this health care reform effort accomplishes that we ban discriminations and exclusions based on pre-existing conditions anybody who has had cervical cancer can't be discriminated because of that and won't have that condition or any other cancer excluded. it's for individuals like this and millions of others across the country that we need to act now to pass comprehensive health care reform. thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise today to share with you stories of real people from colorado who shared with me their stories of why we need to pass health care reform.
4:19 pm
one woman from lakewood, colorado asked that her name not be used and she said she is in good health and relies on kaiser and medicare but she has two daughters and both of whom have two children each and she aren't eligible for medicaid. they lack coverage. this woman knows that we need to pass health care reform so her grandchildren grow up with the right kind of health care. with the affordability credits that are provided for in this bill for a family of four, up to $73,000 in income, they will receive affordability credits to help them pay for insurance of their choice for them and their family. it's for families like this across the country, grandparents and parents who know we need to cover every child and family
4:20 pm
with affordable health care in this country so they can grow up seeing the same doctor, build those relationships to build healthy habits. i call on my colleagues to pass health care reform. thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise today to share with you real stories of people from colorado and their experiences with our health care system and why we need to reform it. gary laura from denver shared a compelling story with me and i wanted to share that with you on the floor of house of representatives. gary has worked in public health for 24 years first as a public health adviser in new orleans. he saw the issues that face individuals who don't have health care, many individuals if they had a public option for health care would be diagnosed
4:21 pm
before a condition is too expensive or too difficult to treat. gary shares that in the old charity hospital, people would have to have limbs removed because they never had access to preventive care and show up in the emergency room as a last resort. it's a very common problem across our great country. when an individual doesn't have access to preventive care, as the story i shared earlier about the woman who had spinal cancer, didn't have insurance, wasn't diagnosed until it was too late and left it to her mother to share that story, which i hope becomes a legacy that helps pass health care reform in this country, but this happens far too often and costs all of us more when somebody is uninsured and doesn't have access. goes in after the fact and has
4:22 pm
to have a limb removed because of untreated diabetes or any other condition. it costs us all more. those costs are passed to us who have insurance resulting in higher insurance premiums. that is why we need to pass comprehensive health care reform. thank you, mr. speaker. for what purpose does the gentleman from colorado rise? mr. polis: i move that the house do now adjourn. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on the motion to adjourn. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the motion is agreed to. l
4:24 pm
>> this week, the supreme court held a certain section -- certain -- held a session tree will replace it on he will be america and the courts hard coded marked the first appearance on the bench of justice sonia sotomayor. here is former justice sandra day o'connor on what is like to be a woman on the court. >> i am sure that the future will show we have other women serving on the court. it is hard to be the only woman on the court, which i experienced for about 10 years or so. in a population which, these days, produces at least 50% of law school graduates being women, it is realistic to think in terms of a number of women on the court, not just one tree >> hear from other justices during supreme court week as we look at home to america's highest court
4:25 pm
beginning on october 4. >> how does max baucus's health- care draft being greeted by fellow committee members and senators? >> the draft that was put out is having mixed reaction. some of the more liberal democrats on the committee such as senator jay rockefeller and raw and white has expressed concerns they have with it. one of the sticking point is it does not have a public auction. -- jay rockefeller jayron white hair. instead, as a co-op system. he had a hard time accepting there might not be -- that might not be included in the bill. >> this bipartisan group has been meeting for several weeks. what is the timetable for senator baucus he getting the bill through his finance
4:26 pm
committee? >> he said yesterday that he was going to move forward and have a chairman's mark of the bill ready early or mid next week, with or without republican support. he has been trying for several months to get republican support and it's time to move whether he has it or not. he expects to have a marked up the week of september 21, so the following week, when it comes out. >> how can he move forward if he does not have republican support? >> it will be tough for him to move forward. most are expecting that at least senator olympia snowe, a republican from maine, will support the bill. that will help bring the democrats once they get to the set, if they can keep their pockets in line, they will have the 60 votes needed for the procedural vote to move on this legislation. he would like the number of
4:27 pm
republicans to be higher because it makes their job a lot easier and that makes the bill more sustainable. >> how did president obama's speech -- how was it received by the senate in particular? how did it impact the discussions at this group is having in senate finance committee? >> senator baucus said this morning that he met with a group of six that have been negotiating this bipartisan proposal. they gave them a ton of more confidence. there were so many similarities -- he said it breathed new life into the efforts. so much of what president obama talked about -- the $900 billion price tag, the deficit-neutral bill, taxing the cadillac insurance plans, and the list goes on, are very similar to what the finance group is looking at. they felt their efforts were bolstered by the similarities in the speech and their proposal.
4:28 pm
>> but you mentioned there will not likely be a public auction in what this group opposes. -- a public auction in what this group proposes. >> the president did leave the door open for proposals like the co-op a proposal being considered. there is also something called the trigger option which would be a public option that would kick in only if the public interest don't seem to be offering it. the president did seem to leave some leeway where he might be able to sign a bill that did not have the public auction in it. senator baucus seemed confident -- the public option in it. >> how was the house going to get moving forward on their three versions of health care legislation? >> i am not exactly sure when the house will move. i have not called them as closely and we have actually not hurt when they will be good --
4:29 pm
we have not heard when they will be moving to vote. it seems they want to see what the finance committee comes up with so they know where everything stands before they bring this to the floor. >> thank you for joining us. thank you. >> members of congress are talking about that president obama's speech on health care. the house republican leader gave his reaction during a capitol hill briefing. this is about 15 minutes. >> sorry for the delay. we appreciated having the president here last night. unfortunately, what the american people got was not a new health- care plan, it was just another lecture.
4:30 pm
he had a chance to really put the government-run plan to bed, but unfortunately he did not do it. he also repeated many of the same talking points that simply do not reflect what is in hr 3200, the democrat house bill. first, he said he would not sign a bill that would add one dime to the deficit. clearly, hr 3200 adds about four hundred 30 two billion dollars to the deficit in the first few years. -- adds about four hundred 30 two billion dollars to the deficit in the first few years. buthe congressional budget offie has made it clear that what it will do to the deficit beyond 10 years, it would increase it dramatically. the president also said nothing
4:31 pm
will require you to change your plan. as we all know, according to the cbo and others, millions of americans can be forced out of their plan. it may not require you to change your plan, but if you look at the employer mandate and what it means on employers, it is clear that some number of employers will drop their plan, pay their 8% tax, and their employees will be forced into the government option. second, if you look at the language in the plan, all employer-provided plans would have to have their plan approved by the department of labor and the new health choices star within the first five years. -- health choices czar. the result of that is that a lot of things offered by employers will be dropped as a result of that -- a result of that
4:32 pm
requirement. there are organizations that have estimated tens of millions of americans could in fact be forced out of their employer- provided coverage into the government plan. third, he said illegal immigrants would not get government benefits. but the non-partisan congressional research service on august 26 says in part, hr 3200 does not contain any restrictions on non-citizens are dissipating in and paying for coverage through the exchange, whether the non-citizens are legally or illegally present or in the united states temporarily or permanently. this report makes it pretty clear. second, there were two opportunities in committee for house democrats to make clear that illegal immigrants would not be covered by putting in
4:33 pm
requirements to show citizenship. both of those amendments were rejected. fourth, he said i will protect medicare. but the democrat plan includes more than $500 billion worth of cuts to medicare over the next 10 years. there are reports after reports making it clear that benefit cuts or services will be cut to medicare recipients. secondly, i would point out that part of their pay for in this plan of medicare cuts would be to take away medicare advantage. about 25% of seniors get their health care through medicare advantage. there is not any question that if you cut the medicare advantage payments, seniors are going to get less services. when it is all said and done,
4:34 pm
when you listen to the president's speech and thought about, there was nothing new in the president's speech last night. as i told you in july, before congress adjourned, the american people are angry. they're frustrated, they're fed up with washington, i heard that message everywhere i went. i had workers at the denver airport stop me to say keep fighting for us. as i was walking down the hall to come into this room, a visitor to the capital stopped me to say keep fighting for us. i think that was all capped off by the tea party in westchester last weekend with some 18th thousand people -- some 18,000 people who made it clear they don't want the government any more involved in the delivery of health care. i think the democrats made a critical mistake when it went on for august. they went home to try to sell
4:35 pm
their plan instead of listening to the american people. at the end of the day, when americans get engaged in their government, their government listens. the american people have never been more engaged in their government than they are right now. i think we can find common ground on sensible changes to the current health-care system. the doctor last night lay out some concrete proposals that we could agree on in a matter of days. just take one -- medical malpractice reform. medical malpractice reform and the defensive medicine doctors practice in order to protect themselves from lawsuits. i did a press conference in wyoming last week with dr. hu said if i have a patient who comes in with a headache and wit -- with a doctor who said if i had a patient comes in with a headache, he says i have no choice but to order an mri for
4:36 pm
the person. this is the kind of defensive medication that could save us $127 billion a year in the current system. at the end of the day, the american people want us to handle on the cost of health care in america. that should be the number-one priority. with that, i would be happy to answer any questions. >> what kind of message do you think it sends [inaudible] to disrespect the president on the house floor before a national audience. [inaudible] the same kind of behavior at from american -- >> as mr. wilson said last night, his behavior was
4:37 pm
inappropriate. i think that is why he apologized to the president and i'm glad the president accepted his apology. >> [inaudible] we also heard other republicans shouting things like not true and read the bill. do you feel in general nor members showed a lack of respect? >> i think all of us know that there is a lot of emotion around this issue of the government involved in our health care. we sought exhibited over august. i believe people ought to be respectful and we ought to have civil discourse in america. but don't underestimate the amount of emotion people are feeling. i should also say it is not just health care. the frustration people are feeling is about the stimulus bill that is not working, and budget deficits of a trillion
4:38 pm
dollars and more for as far as the eye can see, record levels of public debt, a captain trade system that will undermine our economy, and on top of that, they are seeing this proposal on health care. americans are frustrated, they're angry, and most importantly, they are scared to death. they're scared to death that the country they grew up and is not going to be the country their kids and grandkids grew up in. >> are there all kinds of things that make people emotional that have not been broken out on the house floor -- >> other than this one instance last night, there was nothing really unusual that happened on the floor. i can remember when president bush was here and some of the things that were said and meant -- and the motions that were released. but i think mr. wilson made it clear that his behavior was inappropriate. >> in the report you referred
4:39 pm
to, are you saying that what mr. wilson was saying is accurate. you might just have said it a different way or not catcall from the back of the house chamber? >> i'm trying to deal with the facts. the fact is iscrs says there is nothing in this bill that will prevent these people from getting this type of insurance. secondly, as i pointed out, democrats on two different committees had two opportunities to make it clear that illegal immigrants are not going to be covered under this plan. they rejected both of them. you can read the report. is right here. >> [inaudible] >> i am outlining the facts as i
4:40 pm
know them. [inaudible] >> i have not at this point. there are a lot of the options available. at the end of the day, it's not about this bill or that bill. it is really about president pushing the reset button. there is a way to start this process over and i think that's what the american people want. let's start over in a bipartisan way and let's work on those things we can agree on. we could do medical malpractice reform by itself tomorrow. >> [inaudible] >> i am hoping he will work with us to have real medical malpractice reform because if it is not real medical malpractice reform, the defense of met -- the defensive medicine, which is where the savings are, will of
4:41 pm
the practice. >> [inaudible] >> i think we could do a lot more. >> [inaudible] >> there were a lot of reasons why the last vote was left open. i did have a conversation with mr. wilson. i'm not going to relate the contents of my private conversation with him. >> [inaudible] >> are you embarrassed by this behavior or are you encouraged? >> i think mr. wilson made it clear that he said his behavior was inappropriate and he apologized for it. i'm glad he did. >> as leader of your party, is this embarrassing?
4:42 pm
>> i think mr. wilson summed up best when he said his behavior was inappropriate. >> you said president obama would likely try to put lipstick on a pig. did you see anything in the speech the president said that was flat out not true? >> i have pointed out things i would disagree with earlier in this press conference. i also said at the end of the day that there was nothing new offered by the president. >> [inaudible] [inaudible]
4:43 pm
what are the concrete proposals -- >> you have the house working group solutions on health care, you have a proposal there. you have hr 3400, or you could go to health care.gop.gov. the website was unveiled last night. >> [inaudible] >> i suspect it will cover more than a democrat plan which i think cbo made it clear that after 10 years of this being in effect, they're still 30 million people uninsured. >> do you think the democrats and president, speaking to congress, maybe there are making
4:44 pm
progress [inaudible] >> if you step back at the 30,000 foot level and begin to listen to with the president said last night, almost all bloody had to say was aimed at democrats, whether he was referring -- almost all of what he had to say was aimed at democrats. whether he was referring to progressive to hang in there, i think a lot of it was aimed at more moderate democrat members, trying to bring them on board. >> [inaudible] >> don't know. thank you. >> the speaker of the house also spoke today about last night's joint session with president obama. she also addressed to our's 8 anniversary of september 11 and the ongoing debate over health care in the legislation. due to technical difficulties, we join is about three minutes into the speaker's remarks. this is about 20 minutes.
4:45 pm
>> this week, as you know, is the anniversary of 9/11, tomorrow. yesterday, we had three ceremonies, one where we dedicated a plant -- a plaque to those who went down in pennsylvania. their names are on all of the capital for all who visit here to be able to honor the memory specifically of the people on that flight. we had a memorial service in statuary hall where we could further honor the families and thank them for their sacrifice. they turned their sacrifice and grief into action to make american state -- to make america safer and we will be forever in their dad and we will never forget. -- we will be forever in their debts and we will never forget.
4:46 pm
while we stop to mourn our loss and remember their valor, to declare over and over again that we will fight terrorism and we will not be deterred by the terrorists, we continue our work and right now, health care is the order of the day. we will be addressing our education bill in the week had and regulatory reform and other issues that we want to finish in this session of congress. >> last night, there was some mention of [inaudible] congressman wilson in some way. >> i have not had that conversation. the episode was unfortunate and mr. wilson has apologized. time for to talk about health care and not mr. wilson.
4:47 pm
>> in retrospect, when it happened, you seemed stunned. was there something in the rules that you could have gaveled him out of order or instructed the sergeant at arms to remove him or anything like that when the incident occurred? >> it was stunning to hear such a statement made on the floor of the house when the president of the united states is speaking. i remind you the rules of the house, while members can go to the floor and misrepresent from morning until night things that are not true about legislation, if you said the gentleman is not telling the truth, your words would be taken down. it is against the rules of the house, no matter how absurd statements are that a member might be making. let's not spend time on that. but there is a procedure that could have been implemented.
4:48 pm
i think the president did the right thing and discontinued on from it and did not give any more attention than it deserved. >> did you think about gaveling him out of order? >> if he had continued, the parliamentarian passed a piece of paper that said what the options were. i said we're just going to move on. >> could you tell us what your time table is on getting a health care brith -- health care bill to the floor. second, could you address the extension of unemployment benefits [inaudible] and have you talked with mr. reid about passing something quickly? >> the unemployment insurance is essential. that is on our agenda to be dealt with. i want to go into the
4:49 pm
particulars right here. it is pretty clear cut. there is no mystery to it. this is very necessary for us to address. in terms of a timetable on health care, when we are ready, we will take the bill to the floor. we are waiting for the senate finance committee and it is good news that will be marking up a bill soon and we will see a bill i think next tuesday. members will have an idea of what is in the bill. from what we have heard, there are many good things that are consistent with what we have in our bills. there are some areas of disagreement, but that is the legislative process. i want to see this agreement, they're just different proposals and we will see how we resolve different pieces of legislation. i am confident the president will sign a bill this year. >> are there any non-negotiable demands you have before this legislation.
4:50 pm
in particular, is a public auction that yet long supported one of them -- a public auction -- a public option when you support? >> the best way to keep insurance companies honest, to increase competition so that we can lower-cost and improve quality, expand coverage and retain choice, if you like what you have, you can keep it. if somebody has a better idea, put it on the table. that is with the president said. in the month of august, while people were complaining about the public auction, they only put on the table and had with their best shot, misrepresentation and obstruction. so far, we have not seen a better idea, but it could be there. this is about a goal, not about provisions. as long as the goal of
4:51 pm
affordability, accessibility, and quality, goals that we have in the legislation, that we will go forward with that bill. but you never go and i don't think you ever really go into a negotiation and say there are some things that are non- negotiable. one of those would be that we not pass the bill. that seems to be the goal of many here. as the president said, the status quo is not sustainable. it is not sustainable for individuals, possible for businesses, not sustainable for our economy, and not sustainable for our budget. the cost to medicare and medicaid and the increased cost will take us so deeply into debt that we must pass the bill that is paid for, a certain limit, establishing priorities, that lowers cost as we go into the future. >> if i could change the subject
4:52 pm
for a moment -- the latest revelations in the case against chairman riegle -- unreported income in excess of -- chairman rangell -- to run an ethical house of representatives, what is your view toward this latest revelation and the you have confidence? should he step aside while the ethics committee finishes the investigation? >> i do not think he should step aside. the purpose of the committee -- he asked for the ethics committee to investigate his situation. they had been doing that, they will be making a recommendation to the congress following their own investigation. that i think is the appropriate time for any decision to be made. >> the president made his address last night and you talked about the senate finance committee working on its bill. do you have a road map in your mind about how you go about
4:53 pm
blending all this together? can you eliminate how you blend these bills? >> [unintelligible] our three committees in the house had reported out the bill. one bill in the senate which is very consistent with the principles and provisions in the house bill. in the course of that month, we had conference calls on a regular basis with our full caucus and then some other conference calls or meetings as we travel around the country on this subject. members, as i said, knowing best how to communicate with their constituents had their meetings. one-on-one, teleconferences, town hall meetings, all different kinds of coming together in communication. they have brought us back the benefit of the wisdom of the
4:54 pm
thinking of their constituents and we have had eight -- we had a caucus as soon as we got back and we have been having a series of meetings. yesterday's, some of the meetings today will be ongoing as to what are the priority issues people would like to see more clarity or additional resources or fewer resources, what ever does. we're in very close contacts with our members. we had at other caucasus morning -- by the way, all of these meetings have been very, very positive and i'm very proud of our members. i think they have sustained the effort at verbally during the break, more than admirably. we are in a better place to go forward. as issues emerge, let's drill down on the public auction, strolled on what it means on small business and senior citizens. -- on the public option.
4:55 pm
i have seen statements are baffling to me. the public option save tens of billions of dollars, contrary to reports it will say -- will cost trillions of dollars. it's save tens of billions of dollars. it's important to have all the facts and figures. secondly, seniors, seniors benefit greatly from this legislation despite the fear tactics that have been put out there. the closing of the doughnut hole, 400% of poverty in terms of subsidies, very important to the seniors. none of you are affected by that, but some of you are. that is an important issue for seniors not old enough to be on medicare, but maybe have lost their jobs and not have health insurance.
4:56 pm
the third when a small business. this is a great bill for small business. that is why a small business majority has been so forceful in its advocacy for it. but numbers have to have the particulars. they have some suggestions and refinements. there are issues like interstate portability, regional disparities in medicare reimbursement, that list goes on. the president mentions tort reform will bring interested parties together with knowledge and judgment on the subject to make recommendations to the caucus. what the president suggested by the way that he would do in a regulatory way, we already have in the energy and commerce bill. again, this was a president bush initiative it originally. -- initiative originally.
4:57 pm
market calendars, at 9:00 in the morning, we'll have a steering policy hearing on many of the hearings i just mentioned. we have experts coming and for outside views on the subject, delegation in many cases of our bill, suggestions on how we can do better. that will have the full participation of our members. sometimes we have experts come in and speak to the caucus and say i wish the rest of the company could hear this. similar to the one we had with the recovery package in january. george miller is one of the cochairs of that committee. again, we will be having a regular caucus meeting. that's more on the subject than you want to know, but it is very important. issues like the cannot be deprived of health care, health insurance because of a pre- existing medical condition.
4:58 pm
if you lose your job, you do not lose your health insurance. if you change jobs or start a business, you will still have it. there is a cap on what you pay in in premiums, there is no cap on what you receive back. that's important to the disability community. no cap annually or lifetime. the president mentioned that last night. it is a comprehensive, there is a great deal of detail, that's why it is a great bill. the overriding issue that permeates everything because it is all decisions about priorities is cost. loring cost. if everybody in america was perfectly satisfied with the health insurance they have and health care they receive, we would still have to go forward with an initiative to lower the rapid increased in cost and --
4:59 pm
cost in health care. individuals, businesses, the economy, the budget -- health- care reform is entitlement reform it comes to medicare and medicaid. taking down the cost and demonstrated -- the president said he would not sign a bill that adds to the deficit. one more point i want to make -- i mentioned well less. -- i mentioned well less. i mentioned well less. we were talking about less and personal responsibility. -- [inaudible] the president said he wants the bill to be paid for through medicare and cuts. is it going to be possible to
172 Views
IN COLLECTIONS
CSPAN Television Archive Television Archive News Search ServiceUploaded by TV Archive on