[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 134 (Thursday, September 22, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 22, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                         THE HEALTH CARE DEBATE

  Mr. HARKIN. Madam President, we have spent the better part of a year 
and three-quarters working together to try to find a solution to the 
health care crisis that we have in America. For the better part of that 
year and three-quarters, we have been intensely involved in trying to 
figure out and to work with one another to reach some kind of a 
consensus and compromise on this issue.
  Certainly, not anyone in this country can say that they have not been 
involved in this debate. Mrs. Clinton opened the doors over a year ago. 
She opened the doors to let in everyone, whether it was insurance 
companies, providers, doctors, hospitals, no matter. Everyone had their 
input in this process. No one can say that they were left out.
  Out of this process, the President and the administration fashioned a 
bill and sent it down to the Congress, as is their prerogative. It was 
a broad, comprehensive bill--very broad and very comprehensive. I 
supported that bill. I did not probably support every little bit of it. 
I would have supported some amendments to it to fashion it differently. 
But on the general concepts I supported it. After several months it 
looked as though that bill was not going to go anywhere.
  Then our leader, Senator Mitchell, introduced his bill, again after 
having worked with many people over long weeks and months of time on a 
scaled-down version, if you will, of the Clinton proposal. That bill 
was offered here on the Senate floor. We began debate on it in early 
August, before we recessed in August. It became clear that our friends 
on the other side of the aisle, the Republicans, decided that they were 
going to stretch this thing out, that we were not going to have any 
meaningful votes on Senator Mitchell's health care bill. That was the 
situation we found when we went up to the August recess.
  Majority Leader Mitchell said he was going to keep us here until we 
had some action, until we got something done on health care. Well, it 
was obvious that after chewing up about 7 or 10 days of the August 
break that the Republicans simply were just going to talk it to death. 
They were going to offer amendments, talk on and on, and drag the whole 
process out and never reach any real, meaningful votes on Senator 
Mitchell's bill.
  After the August break--we came back almost 2 weeks ago now--there 
was an effort by a group of Democrats and Republicans to put together a 
bill they fashioned as the mainstream or rump group, or whatever you 
want to call it. And now it appears that that, too, cannot fly. Again, 
perhaps it is a little bit too big and it covers too many things that 
are a little too contentious here.
  So we now find ourselves, at this point in time, having started with 
the broad concept, the broad Clinton approach to health care reform, 
and that was not acceptable. Then we had the scaled-down majority 
leader's bill, and that was not acceptable. We now have a scaled-down 
version of the mainstream group, and that is not acceptable either. 
Recent reports indicate that we are about to pull the plug on health 
care reform for this year.
  It is interesting what some Members on the other side are saying. I 
do not know precisely what some of those words are. I can only report 
them as were reported in the newspapers. The Senator from Oregon, 
Senator Packwood is reported as saying, ``Now that we have killed 
health care reform, we just cannot leave our fingerprints on it.'' I am 
only repeating what I read in the newspaper as a direct quote. The 
newspaper went on to say that when Mr. Packwood was asked about that 
later on, he said he did not remember what he said. He said, ``I cannot 
remember from one day to the next what I said on it.'' That is just 
what I am reporting was said in the newspaper.
  The leader of the Republican Campaign Committee, Senator Gramm, has 
said, ``Do not blame us, blame them''--meaning the Democrats--``for 
killing health care reform.'' Now he is playing the blame game and 
saying, ``Well, the Democrats are to blame, and Clinton is to blame 
because we do not have health care reform.'' That is a most 
disingenuous argument, if I have ever heard one in my life, when the 
facts are entirely the opposite.
  So we find ourselves coming to the close of this Congress, having 
spent a great deal of time and effort trying to get some health care 
reform through. I believe the American people are confused. There have 
been at least $140 million spent by special interests to confuse the 
American people. So while they do not understand what the broad 
concepts, perhaps, of a broad bill might be, the American people still 
want us to do something about health care. The bills are still too 
high. People still lack coverage. People lose their jobs and they lose 
their health care.
  I had an individual in Iowa last weekend hand me a summary of their 
health care bills for her husband who had heart problems. The bill, for 
8 days, was $54,000--for 8 days, not including $9,000 more in doctor 
bills. She handed me all of the receipts. If you walk through those, 
you begin to see why our health care bills are so high--three aspirins 
for $3.70, and things like that on the bill.
  So the problems that were out there before are still there. The 
people that lacked coverage still lack coverage. But most important of 
all, Madam President, the most vulnerable in our society, who really 
needed this health care reform bill, who need something to give them 
coverage, and they have no voice, they have no vote, they have no money 
with which to try to influence campaigns, and we have forgotten about 
them, I am speaking about our children in America.
  One-fourth of the Americans who do not have health care  coverage are 
children. They are the most vulnerable in our society. They are the 
ones most apt--if they have an illness, or a disease, or injury--to 
have permanent disabilities, permanent repercussions from such 
illnesses or diseases, illnesses or diseases that may affect them for 
the remainder of their natural lives. Yet, we know that covering 
children is the cheapest thing we can do. We know it from an insurance 
standpoint. Insurance policies for children are cheaper than for 
adults. And whatever money is spent on insuring kids--and especially 
giving them preventive health care--is going to pay us back tenfold or 
one-hundredfold in the future. We know these things.

  That is why about a month and a half ago, I joined with other 
Senators in trying to devise yet another scaled-down package for health 
care reform this year. Forget about purchasing cooperatives. Forget 
about all of the so-called reforms. Forget about all of the things that 
are very contentious. Strip it down and let us cover our kids. We 
provided three things. We wanted to do three things for three of the 
most vulnerable in our society in terms of health care--first, cover 
kids; and, second, provide a capped, home and community-based, long-
term care for the elderly and disabled; third, to provide 100 percent 
deductibility for the self-employed so they can buy health insurance 
and deduct it just like the big businesses can do.
  That is not asking very much. It is very small, very scaled down, and 
it is the cheapest plan of all. It comes in at about $130 billion less 
than the so-called mainstream proposal. Yet, now I am told that we 
cannot even bring this out, that there would not be any support for 
that because the Republicans would filibuster that, they would hold 
that up, and that Mr. Gingrich has said they are going to stop any 
health care bill coming through.
  So while I have refrained from thus far getting involved in the blame 
game and who is to blame, because I have always remained optimistic and 
hopeful that we can get something through--maybe not as much as we 
wanted, but at least something that would be a downpayment on health 
care reform--I thought surely when you talked about just covering kids 
and about providing deductibility for the self-employed, and a small 
home and community-based long-term care program, that surely no one 
could object to this. It would be done through the private sector, so 
the insurance companies would not object. They would just have to come 
up with a separate kids' policy. That is no problem. Certainly the 
business sector could not object to 100 percent deductibility for the 
self-employed. We do not have employer mandates or anything like that 
in there. And certainly those who might be opposed in any way to 
opening up new entitlements could not be opposed to a capped program of 
long-term care for the elderly and sick. So we wanted to bring this 
out.
  I have worked with a number of Senators, including Senator Wofford 
from Pennsylvania, who has worked very hard on this, and Senator 
Rockefeller, Senator Levin, and others. We have spent a lot of time on 
this.
  I am hopeful that at least we can get a vote on covering our kids. 
But now I am told the Republicans would not even let us vote on that. 
That is what we are now up against. We are up against the leader of the 
Republican Senate Campaign Committee, and Mr. Gramm of Texas who is 
saying, ``Blame them, not us,'' After all they have done to slow down, 
stop, and stymie our efforts in health care reform, I ask could we have 
a meeting of the minds and we can all agree on one thing--let us cover 
our kids. If they will not even do that, then I think it is clear to 
the American people who has the keys to gridlock here in Washington; it 
is the Republicans who hold the keys to gridlock.
  That lock is firmly on that door and behind that door is health care 
coverage for the children of America. Behind that locked door is 100 
percent deductibility for self-employed. Behind that locked door is 
some long-term care for our elderly and disabled.
  My friends on the other side of the aisle have the key to that 
padlock. They can choose to keep the lock on the door. And as I 
understand it, that is what they have chosen to do although I would 
wish and would hope with all of my heart that they would unlock that 
lock, that they would take that key and unlock it and open the door.
  But they will not even do that. So now we go out of this Congress 
with no health care reform at all, without anything to help working 
Americans. And that is exactly what our bill is designed to do, to help 
working Americans. Obviously with Medicaid, if you are poor your kids 
are covered because you have Medicaid coverage. And obviously if you 
are well to do, or if you have a good job and you have a policy that 
your employer has for you, then your kids are probably covered. But if 
you are anywhere in between, if you are just above the poverty line, if 
you are working at a job that is just above the minimum wage, you are a 
single parent with a couple of children, you are trying to break out of 
welfare, you are trying to make it, you do not have any health care 
coverage for your kids.
  Somewhere between 9 million and 11 million kids in this country do 
not have any health care coverage, and they are not children in 
poverty, they have Medicaid; they are not the children of Senators and 
Congressmen, we have full health care coverage.
  It is the children of the working poor, people who are out there 
struggling day after day to make ends meet, they are the ones who do 
not have health care coverage for their kids. And that is who we are 
attempting to get covered, and the Republicans say no, we will not do 
that. We will not take the keys that we hold to gridlock and unlock 
that padlock and open the door and let these kids have some health care 
coverage.
  I think it will become clear to the American people, to the hard-
working people of America, just who it is that is keeping that door 
locked. Not us, we want to bring it out. Those on the other side of the 
aisle who have decided for whatever reason, and I question no one's 
motives, but for whatever reason they may have, will not even let us 
cover the kids of America.
  Madam President, I have served in the Congress now for 20 years. I 
have seen a lot of fights in the House and in the Senate, some pretty 
tough ones; I have seen some pretty tough debates and pretty tough 
issues. I have been involved in a few myself. I have seen heated 
debates with tempers flaring and you would swear that the two 
antagonists or protagonists would never speak again, and then the next 
day you find you are just as friendly as you were before.
  But in my 20 years in this Congress I have never seen anything like 
exists today. This attitude of gridlock, of stopping everything, the 
cynicism, the attitude that nothing can get through here because it 
might make President Clinton look good, that we have to stop things 
because perhaps the only way to take over is to tear it down. As Mr. 
Gingrich said some 15 years ago, the only way we are going to take over 
is to tear it down. I see a tearing down, a tearing down of the 
structure of Congress.
  No, I have never seen anything like this in 20 years; the sort of the 
mean spiritedness, the antagonisms, the inability to give either side 
their proper due and to let legislation move. There is nothing wrong 
with people to want to amend and change, everyone should have their 
viewpoint and they should be heard. When it gets to the point where 
people just adamantly block everything, then surely this Senate and 
this Congress has become something that our forefathers never 
envisioned.
  I do not mean to get off on this, but something has to be done about 
these filibuster rules. If something is not done, then I am afraid this 
body, the Senate, of which I have been a Member now for 10 years, will 
just simply become irrelevant, will be a debating society. We get up 
and give fiery speeches like I am talking here, but nothing ever gets 
done. It might make us feel good and vent our frustrations perhaps. I 
am venting a few right now myself on a Friday afternoon with nobody 
else in the Chamber.
  But this is not what our forefathers envisioned. They envisioned a 
legislative body that, yes, would debate and discuss and amend, but 
would do something and get something through. We now have a situation 
where the minority side will not permit that to happen.
  So Madam President, I digressed a little bit, but the main point of 
what I wanted to say here today was that as this Congress draws to a 
close--we have 2 more weeks as I understand it--let us do something 
good. Let us do something that will permit all of us to hold our heads 
high, whether Republicans or Democrats, liberals or conservatives or 
whatever.
  Let us bring up a measure that will at least insure the children of 
America and give them the health care that they need. If we cannot even 
do that, then God help us all. I am still hopeful that in the next 2 
weeks those of good will around here will still work to try to at least 
get that through, make a down payment on future health care reform, but 
at least cover the kids of America.
  If we do not, it will not be those of us who tried to do something. 
We tried to get a bigger package through, not acceptable. We tried to 
get a slimmed down package through, not acceptable. Now we are down to 
kids. If that is not even acceptable to the Republicans, then I think 
it is clear to the American people that it is the Republicans who will 
not let us have any measure of health care reform in this country.
  Madam President, I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be dispensed with.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Ford). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  The Senator from Massachusetts is recognized.

                          ____________________