[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 110 (Tuesday, July 21, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H8441]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     BLUE DOGS NEED TO ENFORCE BILL

  (Mr. SHIMKUS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, the pending health care legislation does 
one thing: It does bend the cost curve, but it bends it up. That's not 
according to me or my colleagues. That's according to the Congressional 
Budget Office that says private insurance rates will go up and the 
public option insurance will go up. What does that result in? 4.7 
million jobs could be lost as a result of increased taxes, particularly 
hard-hit small businesses.
  Where are the jobs?
  My Blue Dog colleagues are down at the House negotiating some face-
saving measure in this bill, and I'm going to include this list of 
their proposals, but I want to make sure that they comply with their 
July 9 letter which says it must be deficit neutral, it must protect 
rural health care, it must ensure bipartisanship, and finally, any 
health care reform legislation that comes to the floor must be 
available to all Members and the public for a sufficient amount of time 
before we are asked to vote on it.
  This is government. This is transparency. The Blue Dogs need to 
enforce it.

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