[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 46 (Tuesday, April 25, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3435-S3437]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FOCUSING ON THE CHALLENGES FACING AMERICA
Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I welcome my colleagues back from the
Easter/Passover recess. It was a 2-week recess, where many had the
opportunity to spend time with our families and with our constituents
back at home. I hope everybody had a rejuvenating and productive period
of time because we have a lot to do.
We have before us a 5-week block of time, during which I intend to
keep the Senate focused on the big challenges facing America and on
delivering meaningful solutions to the problems Americans are seeing
out there every day, some of which are very apparent and some of which
are not very apparent in their everyday lives.
As we set out from the very start, the goal of this Republican-led
Senate is to make America safer, stronger, more productive, and
healthier. That applies across the board, from the war on terror
abroad--and we will have a lot of discussion on that on the
supplemental--to the family budget right here at home, and people are
feeling the pinch of gasoline prices and skyrocketing health care costs
every day.
Time is of the essence. We have serious issues to tackle in 5 short
weeks. That means working together, pulling the very best out of both
sides of the aisle, and recognizing that obstruction is not in order as
we proceed along this upward path of producing for the American people.
It is an election year. That always makes it challenging for
everything we do every step along the way. But the American people
expect us to legislate, to govern, and not to get mired down in
partisan obstruction and partisan politics. It is our obligation and
responsibility to deliver to them. We have the challenges out there. We
have to act and we need to act with solutions. That is what the
American people expect--challenge, action, solutions. That is what they
deserve.
We need to support our troops who are fighting in the field for our
freedom and safety. We need to address the skyrocketing health care
costs and make
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health care more affordable, more accessible to every American, no
matter where they live. We need to put judges on the bench who
interpret and not make the law. We need to keep our economy strong and
growing. We need to tackle that rising cost of gasoline. Right now it
is up, teetering at the $3 level. That is too much to be paying per
gallon.
Over the next 5 weeks, we are going to tackle each of these items. I
call upon my colleagues on both sides to work together to get this done
for the sake of our fellow citizens who have sent us here to work for
them, to represent them.
Unfortunately, before the Easter recess, obstruction from the other
side got in the way of comprehensive border security and immigration
reform. But as I have announced over the last couple of days, I intend
to bring this issue back and to continue driving forward on this
important issue to the American people. We need real border security.
That includes a fence along certain parts of the border, surveillance
along other parts of the border. But we have to get this border under
control. We took very positive steps last year in increasing the number
of border agents and the number of detention facilities, and both are
very important in this supplemental bill over the next several days. We
will once again address border security.
We also need employer enforcement in a system that addresses the fact
that we have 12 million to 20 million individuals who right now are
kept in the shadows. Building on last year's efforts, spearheaded by
the Senate, I will support an effort to put funds into the supplemental
bill to make our next downpayment on securing the border.
Hiring more Border Patrol agents and giving them the tools they need
to get the job done doesn't need to wait until we finish the overall
immigration bill. We can take important steps now and indeed we will.
It is part of the challenge, the action, and the solutions the American
people want; they want serious reform.
Keeping America strong also means keeping America healthy. Insurance
premiums have risen--health insurance premiums--73 percent over the
last 5 years. It hits small businesses and their employees in
particular. Of the 20 million Americans who are working and are
uninsured, don't have health insurance, 49 percent are self-employed or
work in firms with fewer than 25 employees. According to the Institutes
of Medicine, nearly 18,000 Americans die prematurely each year due to
lack of insurance. It is a fact. It has been proven again and again.
If you have health insurance--even if you do not have comprehensive
health insurance, but you have any health insurance, you do better in
terms of health outcomes. Last month, the HELP Committee reported out a
bill to allow small businesses to band together all over a community to
reach out and gain that purchasing clout which we know in the
marketplace can drive prices down. It can make those insurance policies
less expensive and thus more accessible.
The Enzi legislation, when fully phased in, would reduce employer
premiums by 12 percent and the number of uninsured workers by at least
a million. Voters are close to unanimous in their support for allowing
self-employed workers and small business employees to band together to
negotiate lower insurance costs as spelled out in that Enzi bill.
Again, challenge, action, solutions. It is time to get it done.
We have also known for some time that the medical malpractice system
is broken. It is driving up costs, driving my doctor colleagues out of
their professions, from practicing medicine and delivering care. Nearly
half of America's counties today lack an obstetrician/gynecologist, and
that is due in large part to excessive, skyrocketing medical
malpractice premiums. Three out of four neurosurgeons will no longer
operate on children. When you ask why, it is because of medical
liability. And 79 percent of doctors practice defensive medicine for
fear of getting sued. That means when somebody comes in and they have a
headache, you get a whole barrage of unnecessary tests to protect
yourself in the event there is a lawsuit. Health care costs have risen
between $70 billion and $126 billion in defensive medicine costs.
I was in Texas the other day. Texas is fascinating to me as a
physician. They recently adopted liability reform measures. The largest
malpractice insurer in the State immediately began lowering premiums,
and premiums in that State are now down by 22 percent. Indeed, there is
an influx of doctors from all over the country moving to Texas because
of this very effective, proven to be effective, malpractice reform. An
overwhelming majority of Americans support a Federal law to limit jury
awards to compensate for pain and suffering in medical malpractice
suits. Challenge, action, solutions. It is time to get this done.
Keeping America strong means keeping our economy thriving. That is
why we passed the Tax Relief Act of 2005. We know that tax cuts work.
We know they grow the economy and help create jobs. In 2001, we passed
$1.4 trillion in tax relief; 2 years later, another $350 billion. That
is $1.7 trillion that goes into the pockets of everyday, hard-working
Americans for them to save, to spend, to invest. We cut taxes on income
and marriage. We doubled the child tax credit and slashed taxes on
capital gains and dividends. Because we did, our economy has grown.
Right now, each month we are creating about 200,000 new jobs. Over
the last 32 months, we have created 5.1 million new jobs. Home
ownership is up. Minority home ownership is up at all-time highs.
Tax relief has led to 3 years of record economic growth. But we have
a lot more to do. In the next 5 weeks, I intend to bring legislation to
the floor to eliminate the death tax once and for all. The death tax is
unfair, it is inefficient, and it taxes people for dying. It is double
and triple taxation. The death tax drives hard-working people to spend
billions of dollars on complicated tax structures for the sole purpose
of avoiding death taxes on income that has already been taxed.
Because of Katrina, we could not move forward on repealing the death
tax last fall, but now is the time to bury that death tax once and for
all. Keeping America strong, protecting the democratic process means
protecting the separation of powers. We need judges who interpret the
law and who don't make law from the bench.
We have made substantial progress on judicial nominations. We put one
Chief Justice, one Associate Justice, six previously filibustered
circuit court nominees, 20 other circuit nominees, and 104 district
court nominees on the bench since 2003. But we cannot rest on that
progress.
Terry Boyle is one example of a nominee who deserves our
consideration. He was nominated for a circuit court judgeship back in
1991 and then again in 2001. He has been waiting 15 years for a fair
up-or-down vote.
Another is Brett Kavanaugh, first nominated in July 2003. He has been
waiting ever since that date. He, too, deserves a fair up-or-down vote.
We need to keep up the momentum and keep driving forward so that each
and every nominee gets a fair up-or-down vote on the floor of the
Senate.
The weather is warming up and we are approaching the summer driving
season, and American families are being squeezed tighter and tighter by
these skyrocketing gas prices. We need to help them find relief. We
know there is no single magic bullet. We know it is an issue of supply
and demand.
As a first step, Speaker Hastert and I have asked the President to
direct the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice to
investigate if price gouging or speculation in the oil markets is
contributing to the current high prices.
We need to get to the bottom of it, and if we do so, we may have
legislative action required on the floor of the Senate, or we may not,
but only an investigation, only an examination by the FTC and DOJ can
give us that answer.
We need to find short-term solutions. In the long term, however, the
answer is to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil. The fact that
we are 60-percent dependent today on foreign sources of oil is simply
inexcusable.
During our majority over the last 12 years, Democratic obstruction
and delay has stopped measures to enhance domestic production, and
domestic production must be a part of any long-term solution for our
energy supply.
The President laid out a number of initiatives in his State of the
Union
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Address, and I hope we can pursue them in committees and then bring
them to the floor quickly. Again, challenge, action, solutions.
Those are some of the things we need to be doing over the next 5
weeks. There is a lot to do in a very short period of time, but I am
convinced that with determination and focus and by leading on
principle, we can and we must govern with meaningful solutions on the
issues that matter, and they can be delivered to the American people.
We can make America stronger, we can make America safer, and we can
make it more secure. We must keep America moving forward.
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