and let me first of all associate myself with the remarks made by mr. lynch, and mr.elative to the services of va medical facilities. i have to in my district. one hinds va in hines illinois closely affiliated with loyola university medical center what they provide both combined some of the best medical care in the world. or any person certainly the veterans that we serve. i also have the pleasure of having the jesse brown va medical center, which is named for the former secretary who had a very distinguished career in both military and as secretary of veterans affairs, and his service to the country. so we certainly want to extol the virtues of those facilities and what they do. i think it is most unfortunate that this kind of hearing is necessary. mr. griffin, let me ask you, the ig report highlights inappropriate and unauthorized use of government purchase cards to spend more than $200,000 at the 2011 conference. basically when conference planners want to spend money on the conferences, they just charged it to the government credit cards, even when they went over t

with that, the patient gentleman from massachusetts, mr. lynch, is recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to thank the members of the panel for coming forward and their willingness to help the committee with its work. i do want to say this at the outset, that my experience in massachusetts with the massachusetts health care, the so-called romney care, that was a precursor to this in many ways, i'm speaking of the affordable care act, also rolled out very, very, very slowly. that's my experience, being on the ground in massachusetts, when that plan went forward. so it was very slow in ramping up. of course, it didn't have the -- you know, the urgency of this program. it was sort of planned that way. and i also remember the medicare part "d" act which was a republican initiative also rolled out extremely slowly. and i know a lot of my seniors, i had to do 16 town halls around my district to try to tamp down the backlash because of the slowness of how that was ramped up. so this is not -- this experience is not out of line with those other two programs. and so i just wanted

keating: i'd like to yield to the gentleman from south boston, mr. lynch. mr. lynch: thank you very much. thank you, mr. speaker. and i want to thank my friend, mr. capuano, for reserving this time on our behalf to recognize our great friend, mr. speaker. barry sullivan has been here a long time. i know that the title cloakroom manager has a rather antiquated sound to it. as a matter of fact, there was the rumor around here that barry sullivan actually was the manager of the cloakroom back when they still wore cloaks. i'm not sure he's been here that long. but i do know the beginning of his service started with marching in the st. patrick's day parade in south boston with joe mockley, our dear departed friend. and now, after 33 years, our friend has decided to retire from his position and it is a truly bittersweet moment i think for a lot of us. barry has been an extension of our staffs. i will miss the daily contact i've had with barry because most of the time he's reminding me to vote and make sure i make all the votes but he's also an extension of our familie

mr. jim. we have my brother here, kenny lynch. have dominique. >> you have a show tonight at the howard and tomorrow night as well. what time does it start? >> it starts at 7:30 p.m. we'll be doing all the hits, slow down, hanking on a string, you can't stop the rain. >> you can't stop the rain, another one of my favorites. fantastic. are you going to be traveling around the united states? where is your tour from here? >> after we finish here in d.c., we are going to be in new york. >> what's your impression of the howard theatre since it was redone it's stunning. what is it like to perform there? >> loverly acoustics. it sounds -- lovely acoustics. it sounds amazing. it's closest to being on the record. >> what are you sing something. >> you can't stop the rain. >> thank you so much for coming n. we cannot wait to see. they'll play us to break. ladies and gentlemen, loose ends. ♪ ♪ seems to me you live in a fancy ♪ -- in a fantasy ♪ we take some time ♪ ♪ ♪ you can't stop the rain ♪ you can't stop the rain ♪ there's no one else to

mr. speaker, that's what the affordable care act is doing to linda. thank god. there but for the grace of god go i that i don't have lynch syndrome. she does. she worries every day about going to a doctor, being told she has cancer. and what the president's affordable care act told her, you can't go to the doctors you're used to going through, who guided you through those cancers, who have saved your life. we're throwing you into a whole new plan, medicaid, and you can't go see your doctors anymore. that's heartless. that's just heartless. she goes on to say, mhp saved my life and i've had excellent insurance and care for seven years. mr. speaker, linda liked her plan and mr. speaker, she doesn't get to keep it. she doesn't get to keep her doctors. she gets to wake up every morning worrying about her cancer and whether she'll find a doctor who will take care of her, because she had those doctors, but she opportunity have them now. she had doctors close by, yes, she had to cross state line bus her health insurance covered it. her new health insurance dun cover it. mr. speaker, that's what this plan is doing. this plan affects each and every