sorry bachmann. you've been so much a voice for conservative voices -- conservative values and i'm so grateful we've got the a-team out here as we come down to the finish line, that is, the bill will be finished, i appreciate you giving us a northern perspective as well as or our -- our other perspectives as well. mrs. bachmann: thank you. congressman akin you were involved with the deck lauation -- declaration of health care independence, every member here was involved. i was with louie gohmert and one of his constituents walked up to me and got 1,000 signatures to sign for that

declaration of health care independence. one voice that hasn't been heard loud in this health care debate is that of the american people. she gave me not only a thousand signatures but also took comments from the people. i wanted, if i could, to read one page as my contribution tonight because i think it's important here in the most important democratic body in the history of the world, the united states house of representatives, the american people should have their voice heard tonight because they haven't had it. with your permission, let me read a few of those comments. mr. akin spak that sounds like it would be -- mr. akin: thank you that sounds like it would be very interesting. we had 2,200 people come to a town hall meeting today we should have had our declaration of health care independence there, you would have had another 2,200 signatures. thank you for sharing this. .rthat. it shows where the people are coming from.

this is from sherry hamilton. she said stop trying to destroy this country. it can be fixed without a takeover. listen to the american people. stop this socialist agenda. >> another, duane anderson, my wish for signing this petition, it adds more fuel to fight the government takeover of health care. my despair is that the government so far has not listened to my views or the views of others who share the same view points. kathleen summers, i do not want the current health care reform bill. it will put this country into debt and obama needs to work with republicans. hubert rudolph. i'm sick and tired of the federal government interfering in my personal life. carrie ferguson. it is time our president and his

congressional bullies respect the will of the american people. please keep up the good fight for intelligent health care reform. mike tarb rench t, stop these idiots and have them change their meds. i do not want the inefficiency of the d.m.v. and compassion of the i.r.s. to be part of my health care. less government and more freedom to choose. another, let the state handle this, let the states handle this. >> cherry wall, i expect the congress will vote what we want and vote in favor of their constituents. nancy york, here, here. and this goes for a a thousand different comments from people across the country. i heard that a lot of the blue dogs, the so-called

conservatives in congress are starting to weaken and we know this is going to break the bank, this bill and it's these dear sweet people from across america who have been bging and fighting their own government to get the government to listen to what they want. and no less than cnn has reported that three out of four americans don't want this current health care bill. "time" magazine reported that the spending with the obama administration is laying the foundation that within 10 years, we will have to pay double taxes before this health care bill passes. the american people have been desperately trying to get into this debate and been trying to get the american congress to hear them and the president. i think it's important tonight, mr. akin, that the american people know that we've tried tonight to let their voices be

heard here in the house. we're hearing them and we are trying to speak back to the american people. we are hearing you. we're fighting. we aren't giving up. i still believe it's not inevitable, if the people call and go to their members' offices, we can still deet this. i appreciate you doing this. mr. akin: i appreciate you, congresswoman. when we were at this last summer, the president said i want a vote before summer break and you were leading the charge saying, no, we're going to hold the line. even though we are 80 votes short, we are going to take this battle to the american public and win the war of ideas. and what we've seen is we got past the summer and got into the fall. and after we got through the fall, it looked like my goodness if we could get into 2010, it's election year, maybe people will listen them.

and christmas time, we saw the situation where the 60 democrats got together and they passed. looked like we were really in trouble. and what struck me was that you and -- those of you on the floor tonight and my friends and comrades, a band of brothers and sisters have been discovering in our hearts what our minds knew for a long time. and that is that when a group of people stand and do everything in their power to do what's right, they can call on the power of god to help them just as our forefathers did and expect to see unusual results. in massachusetts, a republican senator, i had to start laughing. i thought, boy, does god have a sense of humor. and we saw, while we didn't have any power at all, all we could

tell the american people, you're not the only one out there. you're not the only one to see that government's not the answer, government's the problem. and the american public is making their voice heard and will make it heard in the elections coming up. congressman thompson. mr. thompson: mr. akin, i want to come back to the chart that you have there. it is a perfect capture of bureaucracy. and bureaucracy, one of the things we talk about, we're all committed to lowering the health care costs for every single american. that's a principle we should all be doing the right thing towards. there are solutions that we have introduced, putting patients first act is one of them that would bring the cost of health care down. i want to talk about the consequences of that chart, this senate bill that is being shoved like a freight train through congress and the american

people. over 100 different mandates, well over 100 different bureaucracies are being created in health care. one was created and the impact of that under president clinton, health insurance portability -- hipaa. everyone wants privacy when it comes to health care. that's why we don't want the government or bureaucrat involved. and the portability part, i have to say, if that were to work in the 1990's, we would be better off if we could take our insurance with us. but it put a layer of bureaucracy in our health care system that has piled tons and tons of layers and money, money that is required to be spent to implement and to execute that bureaucracy. and you know where that money comes from? it comes from direct care. it's money that goes into -- when they talk about waste in health care, government mandates

are a tremendous waste. that's how i got involved in public policy, out of frustration, because i saw what the medicare regulations, many of those were doing, to add costs and decrease cost to effective health care. mr. akin: what you're talking about isn't exactly a surprise to us. you've been there. and what you're saying is, health care is just what you would expect, when the government does it, it's inefficient and it's a tremendous waste. and so to try to say that now we've got medicare and medicaid that have gone bankrupt, so give us the rest of health care to take over, there is a problem with that line of reasoning somehow. mr. thompson: and what we're talking about today goes well beyond that. i thought they were complex. this new proposal, senate bill that is being pushed at us, hipaa, the impact of costs from hipaa were significant.

you multiply that times hundred mandates and the number is 150 different new bureaucracies within the health care system, the ultimate cost of what this will cost our country, our citizens and our health it's just devastating. mr. akin: i'm going to yield to my good friend, congressman broun, but i can't help but think we need someone who is a songwriter. you remember there was a guy in boston that won a political race by writing that song "charlie, the m.t.a.," and it's a sad song about poor old charlie because he is bound to ride forever because he doesn't have the last nickel for the fare. you know, we could have poor charlie trying to get through this mess, lost for forever trying to get his cold medicine.

he could get lost. congressman broun from down in georgia. mr. broun: mr. akin, you made an observation a moment ago and congressman thompson was talking about something that i want to come back to, back to your comments that government is the problem. in the practice of medicine, i have seen the cost of health care go up because of government, because of government regulations and i want to tell you about a couple of things. one is hipaa that congressman thompson was talking about. hipaa was totally unneeded and unwarranted. it's a law passed by congress. a regulatory burden placed on the health care system that has cost billions of dollars and not paid for one aspirin. another bill that was passed, henry waxman, ted kennedy and

pete stark passed clia. i practiced medicine in a small rural community, prior to hipaa had a fully automated in my lab, quality control so i knew the results i got out of my lab were correct so i could give quality care to my patients. congress passed clia that shut my lab and every doctor's lab. if they came in with a red sore throat, i would do a complete blood count to see if they had an infection that needs anti-buy on thics to treat it -- antibiotics to treat it. i could do that test in five minutes and it cost 12 bucks. that's what i charged, $12.

hipaa shut me down. and i had to send patients over to the hospital to get the same test or ash temporarily give them antibiotics so they had huge costs to buy them. but if they are at the hospital, it took two to three hours, went up to $75 for one test, for one regulatory burden. you can multiply that over the whole course of the health care system in the united states and you will see that it drove up markedly the cost of everybody's insurance in this country. government is the problem. again, the regulatory burden off of the health care system, getting the tax burden off of small businesses, we can lower the cost of health care and make it affordable for those that don't have the ability to buy today. so government is the problem and adding more government to it is going to drive the cost up. mr. akin: a lot of americans

have come to the same conclusion. government is the problem and they want less of it from it down here. congressman gohmert. mr. gohmert: thomas jefferson said the natural course of things is for government to gain . a great point this morning in talking this morning when he said people know in america that if you add 30 million people to the same health care coverage, you're not going to save money. if you were to save money by adding 30 million people to our health insurance or medicare, then as he said, then we might as well say, you know what? we'll insure everybody in china and that will get us out of the deficit. it's not true. it doesn't work. we have to be practical and stop government from taking over where liberty is yielding.

mr. akin: i have a question. do you think the guy that came up with the idea that if we add people who are uninsured to the health care situation it's going to save money, maybe was the same guy that said the economy will get better if you spend more money. i thought maybe they were twins or something like that. dr. fleming, i have a minute. mr. fleming: i just want to touch on the process. we have heard about the corn husker kickback, louisiana purchase, gator aid carveout for the medicare advantage, all special deals and today we find out that yesterday or the day before, our speaker, splore pelosi made this comment and said we have to pass this bill in order to find out what's in it. now, you know, we're talking about 1/6 of the entire economy here and the speaker has the audacity to say we have to pass

this bill just to find out what's in it. mr. akin: that is an amazing quote, isn't it? we have to pass the 3,000-page bill just to find out what's in it. mr. fleming: with the stimulus bill, you didn't have to read it to pass it. so that correlates with that. mr. akin: it seems like it is close to insane almost. but we have a minute or so left. and michelle, i wanted to give you the last minute or two. . mrs. bachmann: i want to go back to a sign that louie gohmert held up in a joint speech that said, what plan. remember the president had a 12-page proposal. there was no legislative plan, no words on paper. we didn't know how much it cost. we're still -- we republicans are still in the dark. i don't know if the american people know that. there's still no bill out there that we've been table see.

all these backroom deal misgood friend john fleming is talking about, they're being cut on a bill not one of us has ever had a chance to read. nobody has read the bill these deals are being cut on. every bit of this, every word in this bill is all behind closed doors and these backroom deals. no one is going to know what all these deals are until it goes through. but just to give the american people a chance, let me read a couple more, judith, to force unwanted, unconstitutional health care laws on the united states is not only a blow to capitalism but a dismembering of our way of life and our rule of law. it's criminal to push so hard for something as unhelpful, unpopular and uneconomical as the current administration's want list. there are better ways to achieve a desirable outcome for the changes that might be necessary. mr. akin: i'd elect her to congress, that's a good idea. i think we're about out of time here.

i want to thank the a-team for coming out tonight, just a great discussion and thank you very much, madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2009, the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. olson, for 60 minutes.

mr. olson: madam speaker, tonight my colleagues and i would like to share with you, the american people, our deep concern with the effects of the president's budget on nasa. by overwhelming -- my overwhelming concern with the decision to cancel the constellation program, there are several reasons why this is bad for america which my colleagues and i will go into more detail over the next hour. madam speaker, constellation was and is the right path forward to maintain america's leadership in space. just this past week, the constellation program successfully completed its preliminary design review. this is a milestone toward future development. this is a major milestone that should be noted and applauded by all of us.

in addition to the successful test launch of the aries 1x rocket back in september. mr. speaker, i'm going to talk about a couple of issues tonight. national priority. national security. and how important nasa and human space flight is for that. inspiration for our youth and our educational purposes, particularly in disciplines of stem, science, technology, engineering, math, and the technological benefits that every american, every person in the world has gotten from nasa and human space flight. madam speaker, america's global dominance in space exploration has always been for so much more than a race to be first. it is -- it has signaled a commitment from our nation to forge paths previously unimaginable, scientific and technological discoveries are born both from necessity and from risk-taking. they're born of unexpected consequences.

it has been said many times before, it's not just a destination, but the journey. the journey that our space exploration program has taken the united states has given rise to our global leadership on many, many fronts. our nation's global dominance in human space flight has coincided with our status as the world's only superpower. that is not by accident. the national -- the commitment to be best in space exploration goes hand in hand. that's why there are such strong bipartisan support for nasa and human space flight. abandoning the enterprise of space exploration is a striking decision because it violates smag that makes us human, the desire to know new things through personal experience. our heritage as americans is about exploration. our nature is to seek out the

unknown and to explore. the administration's decision to kill the constellation is an affront to that heritage. america cannot escape the irrefutable fact that to fly regularly into space is the most difficult, the most difficult technological challenge we know. it is possible under complicated and expensive scenarios and even when done successfully it is difficult and dangerous. in the half century we've been putting human beings in space, we've lost three brave crews. the support required requires an overarching vision that requires political courage. president kennedy had it when he made the commitment to go to the moon by the end of the decade, as he stood on a football field at my alma mater, rice university. a person either believes in expanding the range of human

action is a noble undertaking, worthy of the cost or risk, or they do not. i fundamentally believe that this goal represents the heart of american entrepreneurialism. it's what sets our nation apart from the rest of the world. and it is why russia, china, and india are making the investments necessary to catch up or even surpass us. is human exploration worth the cost? if americans question this, then we should ask, why other nations are ramping up their human space exploration. what do china, india, japan know? russia? that we don't know. they clearly know what america has known for years, that the direct investment alone with worth the cost and the indirect benefits have provided economic drivers and scientific discoveries that far exceeded expectations. think about what human space flight has done for america.

the hubble space telescope, one of the greatest pieces of technological advance in our society. unfortunately, when it was launched, it was launched in a flawed vehicle. it had a flawed refracting mirror on it. basically a $2 billion piece of junk we put into orbit. but because we had human space flight capability we had men and women willing to take the risk to go to space they went up, rethared telescope four times, brout it back and made it one of the most incredible pieces of technology in our society, images from across the solar system and the universe that wouldn't have happened without it, wouldn't have happened without human space flight. and we are losing this with the president's budget. the president's decision in nasa's role in human space flight is not only a step back for america but it's a calculated decision that says,

we're not up to the challenge. yes, our nation is in a fiscal situation. that should force us to examine our spending priorities. we may disagree on what our limited resources should be spent on, but there are fundamental national priorities that are worth the investment. abandoning human space exploration isn't the tough decision that america needs. we need leadership that clear lie -- clearly states we will not cede our leadership in human space flight to any other nation on earth. we should not hand over space to the russians, the chinese, or india. if we stay on the path the president's budget lays out, the united states faces the very real and very humiliating prospect of paying billions of dollars to russia for years to hitch rides to the international space station that's been largely built by american taxpayer funds. we used to pay the russians just over $20 million to take one of our astronauts to the

spaceation -- space station. they learned capitalism very. we. this year it's going to cost $50 million. over double the price it was last year. that contract only extends through 2013. so in all likelihood, we're going to have to renew another contract with them in the future. they've got a monopoly. they're going to charge us whatever they want and we're going to have to pay it if we want access to the space station that again the american taxpayers funded. this is unacceptable and we need to stay the course with the constellation to make sure we minimize that gap and get our astronauts delivering our people to the space station and beyond, to the moon and beyond. even more insulting, if we ever have the ability to get there again, the chinese may already be there. the chinese goal is to get to the moon by 2023. the united states goal -- question mark. we don't know when we're going

to get back to the moon. americans have been the global leader in human space exploration and we'll be in for a huge shock when reality sets in that we no longer hold that title. without human space flight, where is the incentive for future scientists and engineers to take up these careers. human space flight is so much more than the basis for an inspirational movie. it's the heart of american ingenuity and our pioneering natures as americans has placed our nation at the forefront of technology and science. madam speaker, we must make the commitment that america will always stay number one. i urge my colleagues here to look closely at what our nation has achieved through our leadership on human space exploration and to think about what's at stake if we walk away. i have some of my colleagues here tonight i'd like to

recognize, one of my good colleagues from louisiana, congressman cao, thanks for coming tonight, i look forward to your comments. mr. cao: thank you very much, pete. i know that the nasa program is extremely important to your district and i know that it's very integral in providing good jobs to your people in your district. and it's also the same with mine. i have nasa facility plants in the northeast inmy jude and -- in michaud and earlier this year, the president releesd his 2011 budget and to my surprise and to the surprise of many other members, i'm pretty sure you included, the president recommended canceling nasa's constellation human space flight program.

during the time when our space shuttle program is phasing out, i'm concerned this decision will leave our nation with no means of transporting our astronauts to and from the international space station and could set the space program back decades. nearly 50 years ago, president john f. kennedy showed remarkable vision when he directed nasa to launch the apollo program to the moon. america remains the only country in the world to have landed a person on the moon and to bring him back to earth safely. so we have achieved what people once thought to be impossible because we push ourselves and challenge our understanding of science and the univse