[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 110 (Monday, July 7, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6347-S6348]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I just spent a week at home listening to 
Oregonians describe their concerns, virtually all of which include the 
word ``bill.'' As we have heard today on the Senate floor, it is sure 
to be ``gasoline bill.'' But it might also be ``medical bill'' or 
``food bill'' or ``credit card bill'' or ``tuition bill'' or ``tax 
bill'' or ``housing bill.'' Taken together, it is obvious these bills 
are hitting millions of our people like a wrecking ball.
  In addition, millions more Americans see themselves walking an 
economic tightrope. For example, many of our

[[Page S6348]]

people try each month to pay off the interest on their maxed-out credit 
card while still paying those huge and skyrocketing gasoline bills. Our 
people are deeply worried that the cost of paying for essentials is 
just going to keep soaring and they are going to fall off the economic 
tightrope I have described into a no-man's land where they cannot 
support themselves or their families.
  On Independence Day, I was in Canyonville, OR, to speak at a 
wonderful supper honoring veterans that was organized by the Cow Creek 
Band of the Umpqua Tribe of Indians. In my talk, I reflected on how 
important it is for Americans to be independent of foreign oil, 
independent of those crushing and escalating medical bills, and 
independent of the economic insecurity that has kept so many unemployed 
for months and months.
  After my talk, a veteran stopped me and said: Just do what is right 
for the country. Forget the politics. Country first. That, of course, 
is what our veterans have always done: country first. Do what is right. 
Never forget. That is what makes America so special.
  I do not have enough time to outline a prescription for all of the 
economic challenges our country faces that involve solutions built on 
that veteran's prescription of country first. I do want to report that 
we have heard what that veteran has said with respect to health care 
and fixing health care in the Senate.
  Sixteen of us in the Senate--eight Democrats and eight Republicans--
have now come together behind legislation to rein in health care costs 
while providing quality care to all our people. With Senator Bennett 
from the other side of the aisle in the lead for Republicans, we hold 
down health care costs by ensuring all our people are part of a large 
pool so they have more bargaining power in the marketplace.
  We institute insurance reforms so it is not possible to discriminate 
against someone who has been ill. We lower the administrative costs of 
covering health services. We reform the Tax Code to take away the tax 
breaks for the Cadillac health care plans and use those dollars for 
middle and lower middle income folks who are hurting. We have written 
into our proposal the opportunity for employers who want to keep 
offering health coverage and for workers who want to take that coverage 
to always be able to do so. But we also offer to both employers and 
employees more choices, more alternatives to hold down costs because 
today, for too many employers and too many workers, there are no 
alternatives to these 15-, 20-, and 25-percent rate hikes we are seeing 
again and again across this country.
  What our bipartisan group of 16 Senators does is, we modernize our 
health care system because in many respects some of the key features of 
our health care system in 2008 are not very different than those of 
1948. Back in 1948, when there were wage and price controls, people 
would go to work somewhere for 30 years or so until you gave them a big 
steak retirement dinner and a gold watch. Today, the typical worker 
changes their job seven times by the time they are 35, and employers 
are having difficulty competing in global markets. That was one of the 
considerations in the Boeing-Airbus competition, that Boeing paid a lot 
more for health care than did Airbus.
  Our group of 16 Senators has been able to get a favorable review of 
our proposal by the Congressional Budget Office, the agency that keeps 
track of the financial underpinnings of major proposals. They have 
found that our proposal is revenue neutral in the short term, so it 
will not take big tax hikes on middle-income people to fix health care. 
They found in the third year, as a result of what we do to change the 
incentives, change behavior, we actually start holding down the rate of 
growth in health care, and we start generating a surplus for the 
Federal Government.
  Now, we understand as part of this legislation that both political 
parties have had valuable contributions to make with respect to the 
cause of fixing health care. Democrats have been right on the coverage 
issue because unless you cover everyone, those who are uninsured shift 
their bills to the insured and costs continue to soar. But those on the 
other side of the aisle have made a great contribution in terms of 
saying we must not discourage innovation; we must not discourage the 
availability of choices. There needs to be a role for the private 
sector.
  So what our group of 16 Senators has said--and I note the presence of 
Senator Specter on the Senate floor. He has been an extraordinary 
advocate of improved health care services, and he and I have had many 
discussions on this topic and will have many more in the days ahead.
  I close simply by saying, what our group of 16 Senators--this is the 
first time in the history of the Senate, going back 60 years to Harry 
Truman, where there has been a significant bipartisan group of Senators 
in favor of universal coverage--what our guiding principle has been in 
this effort, on a topic this big and this complicated--and it surely 
will go through a host of modifications and changes. In my committee, I 
intend to work very closely with Chairman Baucus and Senator Grassley, 
two great leaders who work in a bipartisan fashion. We are going to 
have to work in a bipartisan fashion to fix American health care.
  But given that litany of concerns I have described, with six or seven 
top issues being ones where the second word is ``bill,'' starting with 
``gasoline bill''--we have to come together on a bipartisan basis to 
deal with those concerns. That is what Senator Bennett and I have 
sought to do as part of our health care legislation. That is what we 
are going to have to do to tackle the premier economic issues of our 
time.
  As that veteran said to me just a couple of nights ago in 
Canyonville, OR, putting country first is what public service and 
public service in the Senate is all about.
  Mr. President, with that, I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I may be 
permitted to speak for up to 20 minutes in morning business.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I have come to the floor to seek 
recognition on the issue of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, 
which will be the order of the business of the Senate later this week, 
and I have an amendment pending there. But before proceeding to that 
important subject, I would like to make a comment or two about what has 
occurred on the Senate floor already.
  At the outset, I compliment my distinguished colleague from Oregon, 
who has played such an important leadership role in the Senate 
generally since coming over from the House, working with him on many 
items, and taking a very close look at an innovative approach to health 
care coverage for all Americans. There is no doubt about the need to 
have that coverage. The question is how we do it, maintaining the 
essentials of the free enterprise system to avoid the bureaucracy of 
the so-called Clinton plan from 1993, which put a great bureaucracy 
between the doctor and the patient.
  What Senator Wyden has proposed, along with Senator Bennett, on a 
bipartisan basis, is very carefully considered--with a significant 
number of sponsors on both sides--is a good way to proceed, and my 
staff and I are taking a very close look at that important proposal.
  Just on a personal note, while Senator Wyden is a westerner, and some 
might say I am an easterner, we were both born in Wichita, KS, which 
may not be a mark of great distinction but worth a 20-second notation 
on the floor of the Senate. Somebody listening in Wichita this 
afternoon--my Aunt Rose--watches fastidiously, so I want to give a 
little salute to the hometown.

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