[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 100 (Wednesday, July 27, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: July 27, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                              HEALTH CARE

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, daily, as one turns on the television or 
reads the newspapers one is barraged with the propaganda of the warring 
forces on one of the most important and far-reaching proposals ever 
scheduled to come before this body--health care.
  We have heard that health care will be scheduled, and I have every 
reason to believe that it will be.
  Rarely has an issue been scheduled for debate that will potentially 
so impact the lives of each and every man, woman, and child in this 
Nation.
  Paradoxically, rarely has an issue been so politicized or so noisily 
trashed or trumpeted by competing forces than this same issue--health 
care. Properly legislated health care reform could be of enormous 
benefit to millions of our citizens. It could provide the health 
security to which our people are entitled and of which so many are in 
need. Properly legislated health care reform could keep the deficit on 
its downward track and save billions of dollars. It could bolster our 
competitive posture in the world and provide needed fairness and 
equality in health care matters.
  Improperly legislated health care could cost billions of dollars, 
lead to rationed medical treatment, exacerbate our deficit growth, and 
damage small business interests.
  We are experiencing pressures from certain special interests urging 
Members of the Congress to vote for the bill. We see advertisements by 
other special interests on television, urging Members of Congress to 
vote against the bill. It is, then, critically important that we turn 
down the noise and cool off the rhetoric on this far-reaching issue.
  Let us all remember that we have not even seen a bill yet in this 
Chamber. We have no final CBO estimates and no idea of how ambitious a 
proposal we are going to consider. Yes, it is true that we have 
multitudes of studies and estimates on the many draft proposals which 
have been offered. Indeed, one might go blind reading the studies and 
counter studies and the analyses of the costs of this proposal or that 
proposal. But at this moment we have nothing at all on the legislation 
which we will be asked to actually consider and debate on this Senate 
floor. At the moment, it is a pig in the poke that we are being asked 
to vote for or to vote against.

  Yet, the interest groups are swarming and the pulling and tugging on 
each Senator is enough to sever arms and legs from the corporal whole--
and all of this before we have even seen a bill which we will be voting 
on.
  Once again we are seeing the oversimplification and gross 
politicization of what is colorfully termed a ``hot issue.'' I do not 
think the American people are ever well-served by these chaotic orgies 
that occur whenever there is a lot at stake in Washington. I lament the 
lack of a climate for cool, reasoned study and debate which is as rare 
in this town as any of the rarest of the endangered species. How can 
anyone fail to be influenced by the cacophony of noise and shrill 
rhetoric on this issue? One would have to take up residence in a cave 
like Timor of Athens, and then wear ear plugs to avoid the din. It may 
be well for us to remember Mark Twain's admonition.

       Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an 
     egg cackles as if she had laid an asteroid.

  Let me say to my colleagues, this is no sense-of-the-Senate 
resolution that we will be fooling around with. Nothing less than the 
health, financial security, and the very lives of millions of people 
are being dealt with when we start to consider radical changes in the 
health care system of this Nation. In my home State of West Virginia 
15.6 percent of the population has no health care coverage whatever. 
Many of our people have seriously inadequate coverage. It is clear that 
something needs to be done. However, with about 14 percent of our gross 
domestic product--I have heard it as much as 15 percent--there are 
varying figures--potentially impacted by changes in our health care 
system, we had better do whatever we are going to do with great care. A 
botched job of reform could be disastrous.
  So I urge everyone on all sides of this debate to pipe down a little 
bit, slow down a little bit, pause and get very serious about the 
monumental task which lies ahead of us. This is no time--this is no 
place--for sloppy legislating. And certainly on this subject it could 
be disastrous.
  This Senate is being looked to for wisdom and leadership by the 
Nation on a matter about which the people care very deeply. And, of 
course, the people of America naturally must feel that there is a bill 
that we all know about, that we have all read, that we are going to 
debate and amend and vote on.
  I say there is no bill before the Senate. There is no bill that I 
have seen that purports to be the bill that is going to be debated in 
this Senate. There will be no political advantage for anybody if we 
fail to keep faith with the people in this matter. They will watch and 
judge and rightfully hold us accountable for whatever we enact in the 
way of health care reform. There is no ducking this one. There is no 
finessing it. This health care legislation will have ramifications for 
years in every facet of our national life. Too timid a proposal could 
be hurtful to our people, while too broad a proposal could devastate 
our economy. Now is the time for thoughtful analysis and calm, reasoned 
thinking. It is my hope that in the coming days Senators will buy those 
ear plugs and locate that cave--perhaps in the Allegheny mountains--
until we see the legislation, until we have an opportunity to study and 
debate it. The Devil is in the details. So I hope that we will stop, 
look, and listen until we have the CBO estimates and begin a thorough, 
considered debate about where we are going on this most important and 
sensitive of measures.
  Marcus Manilius, an early first century A.D. poet, once wrote:

       (Human reason) freed men's minds from wondering at portents 
     by wresting from Jupiter his bolts and power of thunder, and 
     ascribing to the winds the noise and to the clouds the flame.

  Let us inform the American people clearly through our debate and 
study of just what we are doing to their health care system, and not 
leave them or us to wonder at portents.
  Mr. President, following the battle of Shrewsbury, in which the son 
of the Earl of Northumberland was killed, the son being Henry 
``Hotspur'' Percy, the rebels gathered to assess the situation, and to 
determine whether or not and when and where and how they should go 
about continuing the rebellion against the English King Henry, IV.
  We find in Shakespeare, part II of King Henry, IV, that the 
Archbishop of York, whose name was Scroop, and three of the Lords--Lord 
Hastings, Lord Mowbray, and Lord Bardolph--had gathered in the 
Archbishop's palace to review the situation, following the disaster in 
which young Hotspur had been killed. And it was Lord Bardolph, who 
uttered these cautionary words:

     When we mean to build,
     We first survey the plot, then draw the model,
     And when we see the figure of the house,
     Then we must rate the cost of the erection;
     Which if we find outweighs ability,
     What do we then but draw anew the model
     In fewer offices, or at least desist
     To build at all?

  Mr. President, those words of caution might very well be applicable 
in this health care situation.
  Before we begin this journey into the unknown waters of health care 
reform--and I am not saying we should not move out into those waters, 
but before we begin that journey--let us have a clear and cogent 
understanding of the bill. Let us first see the bill. Let us have a 
clear understanding of just how far we are going to go, of how many 
other existing programs are going to be loaded onto the boat, and the 
cost of carrying that extra cargo. The American people and this Senate 
must have a firm understanding of how the canvas of our poor 
beleaguered budget is going to be stretched so that our boat will sail 
and not simply founder on the shoals of overcommitment and the rocks of 
too many good intentions.
  Unless we do this, Mr. President, we may be confronted with the 
apparition of Banquo's ghost, which would sit at the head of an empty 
table for years or even decades to come.
  I yield the floor.

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