[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 104 (Tuesday, August 2, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 2, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                        WRITING THE HEALTH BILL

  (Mr. COX asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. COX. Mr. Speaker, some years ago in a notorious political murder 
case, the accused relied on the so-called Twinkie defense. He said that 
he had binged on so much junk food in the days before the murder that 
he was not responsible for his own actions, that he could not tell the 
difference between right and wrong.
  Get ready for the 1994 version of the Twinkie defense. In today's 
Washington Post we read how the health care bill is being drafted and 
who is doing it. Members of Congress have yet to see the bill. I read 
in the New York Times on Saturday that the gentleman from Missouri, 
Congressman Gephardt, had dropped his bill. But I called the gentleman 
from Missouri, Congressman Gephardt's office this morning and there 
still is no bill. There still is no bill. We are going to vote on it 
next week. And who is writing it? Not Members of Congress. There will 
be no hearings on this bill.
  Rather, according to today's Washington Post, a handful of Capitol 
Hill staffers who are, to quote the Post, ``frantically drafting this 
bill in a matter of days.''
  They are, according to the Post, bringing on fast food and getting by 
on 3 or 4 hours sleep a night. How do they do it? Answered one staffer, 
``adrenalin and stupidity.''

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