[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 112 (Thursday, July 23, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H8588]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        INACCURATE STATEMENTS BY PRESIDENT REGARDING HEALTH CARE

  (Mr. BOEHNER asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. BOEHNER. Madam Speaker, my colleagues, last night the President 
addressed our Nation about the issue of health care, and there were 
some statements made by the President last night that aren't quite 
accurate.
  One, he said that we will keep government out of health care 
decisions. Now, if that's the case, I wonder why there was $200 million 
set aside in the stimulus bill earlier this year so that the government 
could do a comparative analysis to determine which treatment was most 
effective in terms of a potential cure for a disease. This is clearly 
going to give the government information that they believe is the best 
treatment when the doctors and their patients may not agree.
  And secondly, I'd point out that if you look at an amendment that was 
offered in the Energy and Commerce Committee the other night, the 
amendment said real simple that no government bureaucrat will make any 
decisions or interfere with any decision between a doctor and their 
patient. And I would add that that amendment was rejected on a party-
line vote.
  Secondly, the President said if you like your current plan we will 
give you the option to keep it. I wish that were true. But as I noted 
the other day on the floor, under the ERISA provision, I believe that 
thousands of companies will drop their company health care plan because 
after 5 years it's going to have to be approved by the Department of 
Labor and the health care choices czar to ensure that the company plan 
meets certain Federal standards. I've got to tell you this is going to 
drive a lot of companies out of offering the insurance that people have 
today. They will have no option but to go to the government plan.
  And thirdly, he said no plan will add to our deficit. Well, the 
Congressional Budget Office last Friday came out and said the plan that 
was being considered will add $239 billion to our deficit over the next 
10 years. And if you look further at this plan, you will see that while 
the cost of the plan is $1.6 trillion, the tax increases don't go into 
effect until 2011, but the real cost of the plan doesn't begin to add 
up for about 5 years. And so when you get into the out years, beyond 10 
years, you see these exploding deficits, because it's going to cost 
$200 to $300 billion a year more, over and above the tax increases 
already in this bill. At a time when we've got record deficits and 
record spending here in Washington, we don't need to be adding to the 
deficit.
  And lastly, the President said Republicans want to kill health care 
reform and have not offered better ideas. I've got to tell you, earlier 
this year when I handed Speaker Pelosi the gavel, I said that when 
Republicans had to oppose our new President or our colleagues across 
the aisle, it was our obligation to say how we would do it better.
  We had a better solution on the stimulus bill. We had a better 
solution on the budget. We believe that we had a better solution on the 
energy bill that was here last month. We have offered our better 
solution on health care. We outlined those in a letter to the President 
back in May when we asked for a meeting and got a nice, polite letter 
back from the President that said, Well, thank you for your ideas, but 
we'll see you at the end of the process.
  Republicans have a better solution that won't put the government in 
charge of people's health care, that will make sure that we bring down 
the cost of health care for all Americans and ensure affordable access 
for all Americans.

                          ____________________