[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 144 (Thursday, October 6, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: October 6, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                             GOOD RIDDANCE

                                 ______


                           HON. DOUG BEREUTER

                              of nebraska

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 6, 1994

  Mr. BEREUTER. Mr. Speaker, this Member commends to his colleagues an 
editorial which appeared in the Norfolk Daily News on October 6, 1994. 
This is an excellent and perceptive common sense editorial with which 
this Member agrees. This represents not only an editorial point of 
view, but it also reflects the sentiment that has been conveyed to this 
Member time and again in constituent letters and during town hall 
meetings in the last 12 months since President Clinton unveiled his 
health care reform proposal. This editorial illustrates that in 
America's heartland, there is a strong belief that bigger government 
will not solve our Nation's health care problems.

              [From the Norfolk Daily News, Oct. 6, 1994]

                             Good Riddance

       Changes in providing and financing of health care in 
     America are needed; ``reform'' of the sort outlined in 
     President Clinton's complex, 1,342-page plan is not.
       So the lengthy debate produced one satisfactory result, 
     though Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell and Hillary 
     Rodham Clinton, among others, are lamenting the outcome. It 
     indicated what people do not want.
       Consequently, a lot of costly mistakes are being avoided 
     because there was no consensus and there will be no further 
     action this session on health care.
       Prospects for important legislation seemed good at the 
     outset. The President controlled both houses of Congress. He 
     had given health care legislation his No. 1 priority. Polls 
     initially indicated 60 percent of the American people 
     supporting him on the subject. Media support for the Clinton 
     plan or variations of it were significant.
       President Clinton worked hard in behalf of the plan, and 
     even agreed to abandon much of it in order to seek 
     compromises that might be acceptable. The problem was that 
     neither Americans generally nor a sufficient majority of 
     members of Congress were willing to concede that, when it 
     comes to health care, Washington is capable of devising an 
     all-inclusive plan which would solve the complex problems 
     involving the way it is provided, where and by whom it is 
     provided and how costs are to be met.
       A ``national plan'' for health care was attempted, in much 
     the same way that one for Social Security was set forth in 
     the 1930s. It proved to be a much more difficult task, and 
     less readily accepted by the public because the federal 
     government has proven much better at making promises of 
     benefits than of controlling costs and keeping taxes 
     affordable.
       Big Government lost the health care battle this year. It 
     should continue to lose. Americans will be much better served 
     by a simpler, cost-effective system based on free choice, on 
     private insurance, on recognition in the tax code that people 
     ought to be able to establish their own medical savings 
     accounts.
       Mr. Clinton raised voters expectations when he campaigned 
     against more intrusive government and emphasized Washington's 
     limits. His health plan was a contradiction, and its defeat 
     should therefore not be a surprise but testimony to how 
     important it is for a politician to work harder at keeping 
     his word than finding excuses for exceptions. His 
     predecessor, Mr. Bush, and his experience with taxes, should 
     have provided a sufficient lesson.

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