[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 101 (Thursday, July 28, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: July 28, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  1140
 
                 HEALTH CARE REFORM MUST BE BIPARTISAN

  (Mr. WALKER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. WALKER. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the President of the United States 
indicated once again how much he is in favor of going the bipartisan 
route on health care. We on the Republican side are a little concerned 
about these ongoing statements, that they mean little except that the 
President likes to use the words. The fact is that, when the President 
designed his original health care bill, and did so utilizing a health 
care task force, which is now under suspicion for having violated 
Federal ethics rules, when he put together that task force, Republicans 
were not invited to be a part of that process to formulate the original 
bill. Therefore, Mr. Speaker, we had every reason to believe this was 
being done on a partisan basis.
  The bill that was crafted by that task force has now been thrown out 
by the Democratic leadership. The Democratic leadership is now in the 
process of trying to design their own health care plan. Once again that 
is being done purely by Democrats. Republicans are not being included 
in that process.

  Mr. Speaker, we have a hard time understanding how the President sees 
that as bipartisan. On the other hand, there is a bipartisan process 
under way in which Democrats are meeting with Republicans in an attempt 
to craft a bill that will be an alternative to the Democratic 
leadership bill. That is the true bipartisan process under way on 
health care.
  Mr. Speaker, if the President of the United States wants to achieve a 
bipartisan consensus on health care, what he should do is come into 
that process and help us craft a bipartisan bill, abandon the 
Democratic leadership efforts which are aimed at producing a partisan 
product, come up with a bipartisan bill, and then we might have a real 
chance of passing health care reform that really meets the needs of 
middle class America sometime before the end of this session.

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