[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]

 
          AMERICANS WANT CONGRESS TO WORK ON SOLVING PROBLEMS

  (Mr. DURBIN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. Speaker, I would like to address two issues that have 
come up this morning. The first is whether the Congress is prepared to 
really debate health care. Any Member of Congress who has been around 
for the last 2 years has been focusing on health care to the exclusion 
of many other issues, because it is the No. 1 issue in the minds of 
Americans. Virtually every Member of Congress, Republican, Democrat, 
and Independent, is conversant with the terms and the challenges of the 
health care debate.
  Mr. Speaker, for my colleagues on the Republican side to stand up 
here at the last minute and say, ``We cannot go forward with this 
debate,'' really smacks and brings back echoes of the gridlock which 
stopped Congress in the previous administrations. The American people 
do not want that. They want Congress to move forward to work to solve 
problems.
  Mr. Speaker, I think what we have to do is to address the biggest 
challenge facing America: To keep what is good in our health care 
system and to remove those elements that are bad.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, let me say this. the uninsured Americans out 
there are often misunderstood. People who come to this well often leave 
the impression that Americans who do not have health care insurance are 
not employed. In fact, in my district 85 percent of the uninsured 
people are employed. They need basic health care protection.

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