[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 94 (Tuesday, July 19, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: July 19, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
          DOES BIPARTISAN HEALTH CARE REFORM REQUIRE A TICKET?

  (Mr. KNOLLENBERG asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KNOLLENBERG. Mr. Speaker, I am sure by now you have heard about 
the administration's proposed health care reform bus extravaganza. This 
is an event designed to boost the anemic support for the President's 
plan from its present 32 percent.

  Materials distributed by the DNC state that anyone can sponsor a bus, 
or a leg of the journey, for a mere $5,000 to $20,000.
  Sponsors riding on the bus get a cap, t-shirt, and a photo taken of 
them with the bus, in front of the Capitol. But aside from the obvious 
monetary commitment that these sponsors make is the fact that the DNC 
is demanding that sponsors sign a pledge.
  By signing this pledge, sponsors agree to support whatever bill 
Congressman Gephardt and Senator Mitchell agree on, without seeing any 
of the legislative language.
  Health care reform should not be reduced to bus trips and pledge 
cards. This is one-seventh of our economy, and it deserves bipartisan 
consideration. If this consideration takes prolonged debate, 
compromise, or even incremental change, then it will be well worth it.
  The American people elected us with the expectation that we will work 
together here on Capitol Hill, not behind closed doors and certainly 
not on some bus.

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