[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 132 (Tuesday, September 20, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 20, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                    SPECIAL TASK FORCE DEVELOPMENTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Oklahoma [Mr. Istook] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ISTOOK. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to make this body and our guests 
aware of some of the new developments arising out of the special task 
force that the President of the United States organized last year, 
placing the First Lady in charge of it and involving in excess of 1,000 
people ultimately in that effort.
  Most people have become aware that the super secret documents which 
the administration fought tooth and toenail to keep secret have now at 
least in part been made available to the public through 264 boxes 
containing approximately one-half million or more pieces of paper, made 
available through the National Archives.
  With the assistance of the Council for Government Reform and the 
Seniors Coalition, my staff has been going through those records and we 
intend to go through each and every one of them.
  This is the world's largest jigsaw puzzle. And so far we have only 
had a first look at about a third of the pieces, about 90 of the boxes. 
They are terribly disorganized. And we are not sure that all the pieces 
are there. But answers to some key questions are beginning to come out.
  Some of them are going to take a little bit of time to try to find 
out how much did this effort for a corrupt process and a failed health 
care bill for national control of health care, how much did it cost the 
taxpayers.
  In testimony to the Appropriations Subcommittee of which I am a 
member, the White House told us $325,000. Well, Mr. Speaker, we have 
already documented that through 24 of the members of those working 
groups alone, just through 24 of them, about $700,000 was spent. And 
there were 1,000 people involved. We are projecting that probably that 
this cost the taxpayers at least $20 million. And yet the White House 
tried to deceive us in Congress about the cost just as they have tried 
to keep the record secret.
  Now, through going through these boxes, we have now found evidence 
that in addition to what the court was previously advised that existed 
in the working groups, there was an extra one formed for a so-called 
single-payer system where the Government takes over all of the health 
care of the country, socializes all of the medicine.

                              {time}  1730

  No wonder the White House wanted to keep it secret. The head of that 
effort was a professor who was a socialist Marxist in charge of trying 
to convince the President and the First Lady that we should have a 
national single-payer socialized medical system.
  I refer to his own writings where this gentleman, Professor Vincente 
Navarra, has written, and I quote from him:

       The superiority of socialism can be demonstrated, and I aim 
     at developing a Marxist theory of the State.
       Further, contrary to what is widely claimed today, the 
     socialist experience in both its Leninist and its social 
     democratic traditions has been more frequently than not more 
     efficient in responding to human needs than the capitalist 
     experience.

  This gentleman signed in and out of the White House 12 times during 
the meetings of the task force as he was promoting to the President and 
the First Lady a socialist single-payer plan for medicine. No wonder 
they did not want us to know who was working and what they were doing.
  Mr. Speaker, in addition, for example, we have uncovered that there 
was a congressional proposal that the United States help pay for health 
care in Mexico, creating a treaty that would put Americans and Mexicans 
under the same health care system in areas along the border. Mr. 
Speaker, I do not think that is a proper use of American tax dollars.
  Also, Mr. Speaker, we hear now different Members proposing, ``Let us 
just have a kids first program where at least the government guarantees 
health care for children.'' That is not new. That was the fall-back 
position we have found for the Clinton task force. In their documents 
we find that they wrote if they are unsuccessful in getting the 
Clinton-style, universal style health care, that they should take a 
kids first approach which would be used as the first step to phase in 
the full Clinton-style health care plan.
  Those who claim right now, Mr. Speaker, that they say, ``Let us just 
have a kids first approach,'' what they are saying is, ``Let us take 
the first step down the road of the Clinton health care plan, because 
this will enable us to pass it all.''
  Mr. Speaker, we are still going through this stack of records. We are 
still putting together this jigsaw puzzle. It is going to take a while, 
but we are finding out what was being withheld from the American 
people. I will be reporting on it periodically as we continue this 
effort. I would just advise you, Mr. Speaker, and everyone else, to 
stay tuned.

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