first, the public option and now schip. dare we ask what's next? at least things appear to be going much better in the house where most of the blue dog democrats on the energy and commerce committee say they've reached an agreement with the leadership and the white house. the deal leaves intact almost everything that both sides wanted. but in the senate, democrats like jay rockefeller say they're unhappy about the concessions democrats are making to keep a few republicans onboard. senator rockefeller told "the new york times" that schip could be on the table. the president's campaign to reform health care in this country is taking a hit on his poll numbers. more americans now disapprove than approve of how the president's handling health care reform. according to the latest nbc/"wall street journal" poll. once people are given more details about the kinds of things that president obama wants this plan to do, a clear majority are in favor of it. at a supermarket in virginia the president tried to clear up more of the confusion that's been created by

so we saw that with schip. when i first came up here in the last congress, we had numerous debates about schip. and fights over giving state child health insurance programs to illegal aliens. and our democratic colleagues absolutely fought and won the fight on this issue. they do -- people who come, they are going to be asking a question, are you an illegal alien? when they say no, i'm not an illegal alien, then they are not going to do anything to check the legality or truth in that statement. so it's a self-determination by an applicant whether they are legal or not. if they say they are not illegal, then they are going to be given free health insurance under this government plan. the other thing i think is extremely important for the american people to understand is that this plan is going to cost american workers a tremendous salary decrease plus it's going to put a lot of american workers out of work. in fact it's been projected that over 100 million people are going to be forced off their private insuranc

why do we allow the kids to opt out of medicaid in schip?and what are we telling the kids that don't opt out? it is a two-tier system because we put more money into schip them we do medicare, right? we did, so we are allowing them to opt out but if your at 150% as soon as you go lot of that you are forced overmedicate and you may end up with a system that is much worse in terms of kids according to the senator or a system that has a higher deductible because there 20 go to a subsidy program. the one thing that does not end here, the one mandate that did not end here that should be is that the matter when insurance program you have, screening exams come with no detectable in no co-pay. that is what needs to be there. . prevention section. i was going to add that one of the reasons the outcomes are so bad is because these are low wage people, they work, they're low wage, they don't have insurance, then they get out of a job and go on to medicaid. before that, they're not quite eligible. they have terrible outcomes. i hope the finance committee

it's called medicare, medicaid, schip, veterans health care, military retiree health care, you add those national health care programs to social security, that consumes 40 cents out of every tax dollar today. if we do nothing to control and contain the cost of health care because health care is growing at twice the rate of inflation, has been for many years now if we do not contain the cost, we do not get health care growing at the rate of inflation, that 40 cents out of every dollar to fund those national health care programs plus social security that i'm talking about that will reach 100% of our revenue by 2040, which means we'll no longer have a department of defense or army or navy or air force or marines or coast guard. as a nation we cannot afford to let that happen. >> you're talking about the problem with the long-term costs. what do you think should be done about it? mr. elmendorf, one thing he mentioned yesterday was currently the health benefits receive through the your employer are not taxed. a lot of economists thought if you did remove that exclusion to that tax, that would

you could use of existing state and a stretch of that exists for the medicaid and the schip program of that is what distinguishes this they can set up a separate system and they wish to do back. seoul is a toupees imminent or three page amendment. the state high-risk pool has to offer assistance for low-income individuals, it has to offer a variety of covered options, it must be funded with a stable funding source, it has to cover all of the existing conditions, and is pretty straightforward and so i would hope that you might look and favor upon it to manage the gentleman yield back the bonds of this time to read mr. pallone command thank you, mr. chairman. i don't want to -- i am opposed to mr. burton's amendment but i do want to point out that he has been a champion who for individuals harmed by abusive practices of like the rescission practices that have been looked into quite a bit by the oversight and investigations committee, but i think that mr. barton that you kind of, i don't want to say don't understand, but don't believe it into what is so great about what we have done with

glenn: the whole idea was let's tax people for smoking so they do not smoke anymore, but now, with schiphing else, we are paying for all of these programs with a smoking. the government is pretty soon going to have to start running advertisements to get children addicted to cigarettes so they can get the tax money. >> exactly. because of the tremendous cost overruns, you know, massachusetts has the most expensive health care in the country, and they still have 2.6% of the population in massachusetts that is uninsured, and that is with an inshore and employer mandate, -- and that is with an insurerç and the emplor mandate. if 20 percent of them are having a hard time getting a doctor. -- 20% of them are having a hard time getting a doctor. 23% are still turning up at emergency rooms. they have not cut that cost. that is expensive care. people, when they cannot find a doctor, they turn up at an emergency room, so in massachusetts, it is expensive. glenn: it has got to be better care, because the wait time -- >> actually, it is getting worse. what sally said is correct. the waiting times t

take away schip from our kids. they're not going to do that because they know that these programs work. are they perfect? of course they're not perfect. do we have to continue to make them better? yes, we do. but we need to come together on this. we need to find that, that sweet spot that we look for in legislation. and i want to again thank those republicans who are meeting with the democrats. you know, be courageous. stake with it. don't play politics. don't try to bring down this young president. try to work with him. don't threaten this is going to be a waterloo. don't talk about government-run systems when that's not in the bill. don't frighten people. because at the end of the day, this is our moment if we work together. i certainly reach out my hand and compliment those who are willing to work across party lines, because we cannot sustain the health care system as it is. we can make it better. we can make it affordable. we can keep choice in there. we can turn to prevention. and that's what i hope we will do

why do we allow the kids to opt out of medicaid into schip? and what are we telling the kids that don't opt out? it aps two-tier system because we put more money into schip than we do medicaid, right? we do. so we're allowing them to opt out but if you're at 150%, as soon as you go over that, you're forced out of medicaid and you may end up with a system that's much worse in terms of kids. according to senator casey, or a system that has a higher deductible because they will go to a subsidy program. the one thing that isn't in here, the one mandate that isn't in here that should be is that no matter what insurance program you have, screenings, exams come with no deductible and no co-pay. that's what needs to be there. >> we do have that in our prevention section. i was going to add that one of the reasons the outcomes are so bad is because these are low wage people, they work, they're low wage, they don't have insurance, then they get out of a job and go on to medicaid. before that, they're not quite eligible. they have terrible outcomes. i ho

it means, 14 people who are eligible for public health insurance programs, like medicaid or schip, but for whatever reason don't participate. and among the 10 million non-citizens lacking health insurance in 2007, an estimated 7 million illegal immigrants. and that's estimated. and some 7 million uninsured individuals, most of them young adults, who earn at least $40,000 and who chose to skip health insurance because they thought they didn't need it, or they didn't want it. remember, the number 46 million refers to the number of people who say they've gone without health insurance at some point during that year. not the entire year. the figure, according to the congressional budget office, may be something like 20 million to 30 million. one industry study showed the number of long-term uninsure americans could be as low as 8 million. >>> we found some unlikely individuals in this debate. we'll be introducing them to you. we'll tell you about an unlikely alliance on capitol hill. lobbyists and the homeless. >>> there's disturbing new evidence tonight a massive cyber attack on the u.s. g

social security, medicare, medicaid and schip. you're at about a third of the total. $1.38 trillion. copping in next on the list, housing -- coming in next, housing and commerce. that includes a lot of bailout money. so that is why that number is so big this time around. national defense is $690 billion. and unemployment benefits, because so many people had to use those this year, $106 billion. a lot of things in there. bottom line, $3.997 trillion for this fiscal year. shepard: anybody willing to say no to anything? >> there's a man here on capitol hill who has earned himself the name dr. no. republican senator tom coburn, also a physician so it fits. i talked to him. he says i'm going to keep voting no. but here's what he had to say about why i thinks so many of his colleagues don't. >> there is a tension there because they see spending as an insurance policy for re-election. and my hope is that american people are getting very close and getting ready to reject that out of hand. >> shep, he thinks the american people should star

we look at how government abuses schip when in wisconsin 87% of those signed up for state children's health insurance program were adults. and in minnesota, the gentleman from minnesota, mr. ellison's state, 66% were adults. they were abusing the system. they were not using the system. and if you look at the numbers of people who are eligible for medicaid versus those who are actually signed up for medicaid, just slightly over half of those that are eligible for medicaid are actually signed up. so why would we think that we can fix this problem of the 4% of the population that's chronically uninsured even if we do bring a public plan and public option? why would we think they would sign up? i don't think they are going to sign up in any greater numbers than they do for schip or any greater numbers than they do for medicaid. one of the reasons is because a certain percentage of the population is just simply not responsible enough to step up to that responsibility. and there's supposed to be a reward in this country for people who do take the initiative, take care of themselves. but i'

and it's already in law where illegal immigrants can't be covered under schip, they can't be covered under medicare, they can't be cover under medicaid, and from the employer-based system that we already have, an employer's not allowed to hire an illegal immigrant. so how could you cover them under this plan if you're on an employer-based system with when an employer isn't allowed it to hire an undocumented worker? so let's put this aside and let's have this discussion. the american people want us to have a mature discussion here. small business owners want us to have a mature discussion. earlier it was mentioned that medicare, and i got a call today in my office, and i periodically pick up the phone and chat with my constituents who call, and the concern was about seniors on medicare being hurt by this plan. and it's important for our seniors to recognize and our friend said it's, you know, $9,200 a family, and i'm happy to pay my share because i remember when my grandparents were in their last months, weeks, years of their life, they had health care because of the medicare program.

when they did schip, for instance, people were not happy with the bill. here we are, several years later, and it's insuring 7 million kids. so you don't want, as the president says, the perfect to be the enemy of the good. it's not going to be a perfect bill, but if he puts some points on the board, if he gets something through, which i think is quite likely, there will be huge political benefits for him. >> jonathan, what happens if the legislation does get pushed back until after the august recess? >> well, it was always going to get pushed back until then, because september was always when there was going to be what they called the house/senate conference committee, where the house and the senate come together and try to reconcile the differences in the two bills. they'd hoped to get the first part of the process completed by august 8th, where the house passed their bill and the senate passed their bill. it now looks like that probably won't happen until the beginning of september. but the basic timetable of having about six week where is the house and

there's schip, the state health surancprogram.'s th lilly dbetter fair pay act for eal pay for eagle work. all of these things are really big legiative deals in grand historicalntext and there all already done. but there e even bigger deals coming up on the president's agen. there's the tter of the supremcourt nominee, sonia sotomayor. the'the climate change legislation, currently on the table, a version of ich has already passed the house. that means right now the fir time congress has ever dealt seriously with the issue of global warming. and there the great white whale of american legislation, that is health care refo. is al franken the golde ticket to g all of thes things ne? no. t, clearly, there are at least que a few people in washington who think that hisrrival as a u.s. sator is pretty exciting. joining us now is the senior senator from mnesota, amy klobucr. senatorklobuchar, thank you much for coming bck on the show tonight. >> it is great to be on again, rachel. thk you. >> so i'm measurin the excitement ithe senate vir

take away schip from our kids. they're not going to do that because they know that these programs work. are they perfect? of course they're not perfect. do we have to continue to make them better? yes, we do. but we need to come together on this. we need to find that, that sweet spot that we look for in legislation. and i want to again thank those republicans who are meeting with the democrats. you know, be courageous. stake with it. don't play politics. don't try to bring down this young president. try to work with him. don't threaten this is going to be a waterloo. don't talk about government-run systems when that's not in the bill. don't frighten people. because at the end of the day, this is our moment if we work together. i certainly reach out my hand and compliment those who are willing to work across party lines, because we cannot sustain the health care system as it is. we can make it better. we can make it affordable. we can keep choice in there. we can turn to prevention. and that's what i hope we will do

a group of illegal immigrants make up a big section, they could be covered by medicaid already or schip. we would incentive with subsidies those persons to purchase self-insurance giving them options of various plans to choose from which would best fit their needs. >> how much is that going to cost, senator? >> it's going to cost money. the way we pay for it is limiting the deductiblity of high-end health insurance premium plans. we pay for it, cover everyone and put in place a replacement of the reimbursement system so we reimburse doctors on the basis of quality and outcomes rather than on the basis of the number of procedures. the problem we have in this debate is that we've all sort of locked into our position here. it's unfortunate. the president's saying anybody disagrees with him is wrong. other people are saying anybody who disag agrees with the probl is wrong. if we listened to the cbo and proceeded on addressing the problem rather than addressing the politics. >> you say you believe that something -- that's your word -- something will pass this year. why do you believe that? >

right now in most states, medicaid, schip and insurance for state workers consumes a third of the state budget. health care is the number one item on state budgets. and because it goes up faster than tax receipts it's consuming more and more money from state budgets. initiatives governors would like to undertake and state legislators would like to undertake whether it is in education or environment or infrastructure, very hard. finally our patient advocates. the current system, is getting very difficult for many patients. if you have a disease, some of the drugs necessary are enormously expensive and copays and coinsurance are very high. i know that i as an oncologist begun talking to a lot of oncology groups and they are very concerned because many of their members, they know what the right treatment is but it's very difficult and the costs are high and they're also beginning to worry and begin to be clued into the issue, maybe they're not getting great quality for their illnesses. last, i would suggest, there's a very important group that has to recognize the link with health care. an

in common programs with social security, medicare, medicaid, schip, that is $1.83 trillion. housing and commerce contributes $750 billion, national defence, $690 million, and unemployment benefits at $106 million. there are many more categories, but just a bit of that $4 trillion. trace: there has to be some lawmakers standing up against this. >> you are correct, but there is a thought here that you have to spend money to get the country out of recession. >> this is a spending spree on like any other that i have seen in history. the government expanded 33% in one year. it is time for some adult supervision on capitol hill. someone needs to say no to this spending. >> we are going to speak to senator tom coburn in a little bit. he is one of the few that calls it like he sees it and refuses any more spending than would mortgage our grandchildren's future. trace: any word from congress on the health care bill? >> much of the negotiation is going on in a bipartisan way. max baucus and charles grassley will be meeting with a group of seven lawmakers, try to hammer out the details

individual states under medicaid and schip make decisions on how many people and the income, like you have. you have to be almost destitute in texas to qualify for medicaid. that is why this bill, we are talking about a national system. i asked chairman waxman and everyone else that we need a maximum -- national plan. we don't need something that leaves out states because they cannot afford board will not come up with the match. believe me, i have a district that is similar to your economics, a poor area in east harris county. we have a lot of people in the same position you are. we need to reform medicaid. but right now we are trying to cover the 43 million up to 50 million people in the country who don't have insurance. i could spend a lot of time with the on that, because it is a problem. host: we have the c-span 6 bus from philadelphia, joined by britain angel -- civis bus. what grade. in? caller: middle school, going to eighth grade. host of you have a question for congressman gene green from texas? article will this bill ever affect my grandmother's ability to get medicare? gues

but we do have 12 million people who have chosen not to go into medicare, medicaid or schip. that's their choice. then we have 9.1 million who are only temporarily uninsured. that means for maybe a month out of the year in between jobs or for other reasons, they might be uninsured, but they are not uninsured all the time. that is just for a brief period of time. that is another 9.1 million. . then there are 7.3 million who make over $70,000 a year. but most of them are young people who don't feel the need to do it. i talked to a lady on the phone tonight who used to own a small business and she said that it was all men and they were between the ages of 20 and 35. and she said, we had the lowest rates for insurance of anybody because those people don't get sick very often and don't need a lot of insurance and insurance obviously is calibrated on facts related to the age and the usage and so she said it was very low rates at that time. so a lot of people who are in that age range don't see the need to get insurance. so that's 7.3 million. that brings us down to 7 dollar 8 milli

you point out in doing that gradele to grave medicare, medicare for all, when you include medicaid, schipnt that either. we fear that this plan that they have with the government option is taking two steps to get to that point. that's what we fear so much. >> let's get straight to a caller. david cross, right here. >> david cross from blacksburg, virginia. they say they don't want to ruin the private sector. there must be something in these proposals that block employers from switch together public option. what are those blocks, fines, tax hikes, they must be doing something? >> congressman? >> david, thank you for that question. it's a good one. there is no question about it. i guess you are a small employer. you employ people. you would like to continue to offer your employees a health insurance plan if you can, if you can afford to do that. yet, if this bill passes in its present form, by the year 2013, you will no longer be able to do that. you will no longer be able to do that. they will have to end up going into the exchange and getting their plan from either the government plan or

since last october, this is what we've spent -- $700 billion for tarp, $70.3 for schip, $1.16 trillion, that includes interest for the stimulus bill, $625 billion, which includes interest for the omnibus bill, $125 billion for the war supplemental, and the american people are struggling right now because of the economy and we're spending like it's going out of style. and this -- and this bill we're talking about right now under this rule is going to have a $2.4 billion increase over last year. that's 12%. and if you compare that to fiscal year 2008, the budget that the programs thunder bill operated under until passage of the omnibus in february, it's $4.8 billion more or a 27% increase. then they've also added $7.9 billion of emergency designated spending during the current fiscal year. where in the world are we going to get this money? the american people are starting to realize there's going to be high inflation down the road because we can't pay for this stuff, so they're printing this money down at the treasury department. when you print more money, and it's chasing the same amoun

to 37 million, we have 12 million to 14 million who currently qualify for plans that are out there, schip or medicaid, but who are not on it. so we need to find out who these individuals are and make those assets available for them. about nine million people make over 75 -- over75,000 a year and choose not to buy health insurance. in my part of the world, in the first district of tennessee, that's a lot of money. i assume in a lot of places in georgia and around this country, that's a lot of money. we have about eight million people who make between $50,000 and $70,000 who are uninsured. for those, there are ways to make sure affordable health care is available to them. when i first heard, when i first came to d.c., i heard the argument of the president's plan and it turns out, i don't think the president had a plan, but the plan coming out of the house of representatives is that we're going to have private health insurance and then we're going to have a competitive government-sponsored plan. i said, what is that supposed to do? they told me, i said, 16 years ago we did this plan in tenne

some measures, because of the public plan and exchange, the improvement in medicare, medicaid and schip, the mandates for coverage, a robust benefits package, accountability care organizations and medical homes and the provisions already included to reduce health disparities, our nation will be a fairer and more just country, and we will not only save money but we will be a more productive and competitive nation as well. but we must not let the cost -- it's significant investment -- its significant investment in health care will reap the benefits in the not too distant future. we hope that appropriate health care is available and accessible to every person living in this country and the 50 states, the district of columbia and all of the offshore areas or territories. let's make sure that universal health care is universal health care. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. for what purpose does the gentleman from south carolina rise? mr. wilson: to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro te

to date, this congress has passed critical pieces of legislation, like expansion of the schip and we did so in a way that was paid for, showing our commitment to fiscal responsibility. earlier this year, we adopted a budget resolution that placed the full cost of war spending on the books for the first time. these are steps in the right direction. this bill continues these important steps in the direction of fiscal responsibility. this legislation will require that all new policies reducing revenues or expanding spending be offset over a five and 10 years and require any future extension of upper income tax cuts to be offset and force a serious examination of wasteful subsidies in the budget and tax loopholes that can be eliminated to offset more worth while programs. the statute would not be complete without an enforcement mechanism. the congressional budget office will continue to score legislation passed by congress. the office of management and budget keep a scorecard for revenue and spending during a year. it will trigger an automatic sequester of funds from the mandatory spendi

we have extended schip which means that more and more children have access to health care.assed the lilly ledbetter pay equity act bill. yesterday we passed a food safety bill. so we did all of this in spite of resistance and in spite of obstructionism by many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. but i think it's an indication that this is a congress that has accomplished a great deal. let me just say finally, mr. speaker, with regard to the underlying legislation, that if you like the status quo, if you want to embrace the same old same old when it comes to corporate misbehavior, then vote against the rule and vote against the bill. if you want things to change, if you want to ensure corporate responsibility, then please support the underlying bill championed by chairman frank. with that, mr. speaker, i urge a yes vote on the previous question and on the rule, and i yield back the balance of my time and i move the previous question on the rule. -- on the resolution. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. without objection, t

has shown when we don't exclude it is included and that is why it is statutory explosions like the schip program and until the senate acted on the federal employee health benefit package. so, this bill does ron on the current funding restrictions of the high amendment, so i would ask we support the pitts and mad -- >> reclaiming my time i yield to the gentleman of missouri, mr. blount. >> i thank the gentleman for yielding. i'm glad to join he and mr. stupak in the amendment and it clearly does the things that have already been well prescribed. it would prohibit services that have long been prohibited. there is nothing in this amendment would be a change of long established federal policy. it defines in specific and consistent way is what the essential benefits package could reflect and it's been well described it is one of two or three amendments coming up that simply continue the current policy in this area. it has the provisions in lines 11 through 16 that should provide the protections that have been provided for these services if they do occur, and i urge the adoption of the amendme

what do poor people do who are in this situation, are there programs, schip, medicaid and other optionsfor them? >> yes, could i respond? i like what dr. price says about this and that's the empowerment of the patient. this is not i don't think anybody up here used the word blame, but if you empower people to make the right decisions, i find they do that. now, i'll give you an example apart from being a family physician. i'm a generalist as well, but primary care just like the questioner there. one of the interesting things when we were debating in our own company where to go to health savings accounts, there was a lot of consternation. well, you know, this is going to be money out of our pocket. we said, well, we're going to put the money in your account first before you spend it. and i had one of our managers who said, well, you know, i'm using three, four inhalers a month. and i don't know that i can afford that out of my health savings account. well, let me suggest you stop smoking and you won't have to use inhalers. well, she took me up on that. as a result of that, her respiratory

senator mcconnell did vote against the stimulus, as did most republicans in the senate and voted against schipthe children's health insurance program. and that's what the ad is based on. but there are many other votes he's taken where he supports helping people, helping the unemployed, helping children for health care. so this one gets a barely true. it is sort of a deja vu. it's like we're back in the campaign again. >> and lastly, we want to check on a campaign promise. this is prt from president obama. talking about health care reform. he said he'd get everybody around a big table, doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, insurance and drug companies. he said he wanted people to see who is on the side of, you know, your everyday patient and who is on the side of some of the political interest. let's listen to what else he said. >> what we will do is we'll have the negotiations televised on c span. the people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents and who is making -- who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies. >> so this is

children's health insurance program, schip rammed through and this violates it in the first place and designed to bring about to close the gap so we end up with a mandatory national health care act. they passed out a bill that was passed at 400% over poverty. people making over $102,000 in iowa. 70,000 american families are paying the alternative minimum tax even though their children's health insurance is paid for because s chip is designed to pay health insurance on families who can't afford it. the rich man's alternative to minimum tax and they can't provide health insurance for their children. and we rushed the bill through and by the way in there, it opens up the door for medicaid to provide health care for illegals under medicaid. that rule has also changed that. and the data i put up proves to be the fact. lilly ledbetter act. she alleged she was discriminated against and statute of limitations on that bill and on the legislation that sought to sue her employers under, her statute of limitations had long past and they argued that even the supreme court upheld the statute that t

medicare, schip, medicaid, they're existing. private health plans, they're exist, but they get shoved into the qualified health plans, but they have to write a plan that qualifies. here are the departments, treasury, health and human service, veterans administration, labor department, here's congress, the president, institute of medicine exists, there's the national health service corps, they're there. states, all these programs, and this is -- the ones in white are existing, the ones in color are created new. all of those in color, that's thousands and thousands and thousands, mr. speaker, of new bureaucrats. new bureaucrats who will be handed this monopoly and they'll be in the business of not only taking customers in and writing their insurance plans and the pace they see fit, because they're government, after all, what government office stays open after 5:00 on any working day? what government office would think of coming in on a national holiday? what government office would take a look at how to retool their service so the

president obama has are the schip and are owed trillions of dollars, and so far, nearly $3 million have been -- 3 million jobs have been lost to the share. they said jobs would be created immediately. they said that unemployment would stay under 8%. yet months later, they are telling us now that they expect unemployment to climb of her -- climb over 10%. of simply put, this is now president obama's economy. the american people are beginning to question whether these policies are working. together, we can bring about -- about a strong recovery. we can create a government that empower small businesses. we must focus on job creation and restoring the if retirement insecurity loss of america. for the sake of our children and long-term fiscal viability, we must top spending money that we do not have. that is what every day our republican colleagues and i are fighting to enact policies that will stabilize our economy, create jobs. you and your family deserve no less. since january, we have offered alternatives to the of control of big government democrats. it has failed to create jobs. our pl

is what's driven up the cost for everybody, whether they're private insurers or public insurers on schip or medicaid. back a number of years ago, i was in private practice, had a one-man office with several employees and i had a fully automated lab in my office. patient would come in to see me with a red sore throat, running a fever, aching all over, coughing, runny nose, white patches on their throat. i would in my fully automated lab would do a c.b.c. a complete blood count. i could do it in five minutes, charged $12. congress passed a bill called the clinical laboratory improvement act, or clea. it -- or clia. it shut down every lab in the country, hospital labs had to get a waiver. mr. akin: let me get this right, laws passed here in congress shut down your lab? mr. broun: to do any testing. mr. akin: they shut it down? mr. broun: they shut it down. shut every lab in the country down. i would do a c.b.c. to see if they had a bacterial infection, if they needed antibiotics or if they had a viral infection. they look exactly the same. a viral infection is not treated the same as bacter

obviously, we passed medicare and medicaid and the schip program and other ideas that have contributed to a large extent to the health care system we have today, but, certainly, the overall reforms of the system to move from a sick care system to a truly health care system have defied resolution. so we're at it again to see if we cannot defy the odds and do that which no other congress and no other government has been able to do for more than 65 years and that is to come up with an answer that will give people primarily a sense of confidence, a sense of stability, to take away the uncertainty that many people feel about the present health care system. most of us, of course, in this country have health care insurance. a lot of those who are insured are underinsured. they have to pay a lot of out-of-pocket expenses with high deductibles so a lot of what they may face with health care crisis is paid for out of their pockets. the insurance coverage does not cover. others have no insurance at all and the numbers various but i think most agree that the number hovers somewhere around 45 milli

are -- we have come to the end of the a portion of the 111th congress and i'm proud we passed an schips bill that enrolled more children in health care. we increased the minimum wage. that we provided for parity for women in working, that their income or their salary is competitive with men. that as well we have begun to stand down in iraq and our defense appropriation bill speaks to helping move the defense of iraq to the iraqi national forces. i offer my deepest sadness and reflection on those lives that have been lost, our soldiers o the frontline, those that are now being lost in afplgt we will work hard to -- in afghanistan. we will work hard to stand down there to ensure the country of afghanistan can stand up. but we have been working hard to ensure that that happens. i have been working hard to help the people of pakistan. we passed a pakistan relief bill in essence out of foreign affairs so they can stand up. so that they can help with social programs. they can help economically. that we can help those who are in the camps because of the violence that was perpetrated. that we c

medicaid and medicare, schip and tricare. and some of the people who get those benefits, like our seniors, say medicare works just fine. unfortunately, doctors don't want to see them coming because medicare and medicaid don't cover the cost of even seeing the patient. and so many physicians are closing their practices to our seniors because they have government health insurance. government health care does not pay enough for the physician and the hospital to see the patient, so they shift the cost over to the private market. and the worth part of all of these government plans is they're trillions of dollars in debt, debt our children are going to have to pay back. these programs are broke. yet, they want to expand these programs. they want to take the part of health care that's not working and essentially force it on every american. they want every american to have a medicaid plan where doctors don't want to see us coming because w*er not paying enough of their costs. folks, as i look at this whole health care reform debate -

president bush vetoed in the schip bill twice which was health insurance for poor kids, within two weeksafter coming in this bill had been passed by the congress and signed by the presidents. 11 million children in this country or of low income children have health ventures to wouldn't have had as if that had not happened and for us to our governors for about health care issues usually important. equal pay for women. the league lead better pay at which had been a stream of congress and people for a long time i kept getting tripped up in court or congress has been passed, and now women are guaranteed by lawç equal pay fr equal work, it was way overdue but that has been done in his the rearview mirror and is a lot. [applause] here is one that i love that's hardly got any notice because there have been some of the issues. the president's program and a sorry tale with environmentalists and the auto industry to a dramatically increased the cafe standards for vehicles so they would beç lowr emission and use less oil going for it and that was one that got announced one day is celebrated for f