[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 117 (Thursday, July 30, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H9062]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   THE SEVEN DIRTY WORDS WE CAN'T USE

  (Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California asked and was given permission 
to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, this year, we lost 
a comedian of some note named George Carlin. One of the marks of his 
career was when he challenged the FCC with the seven dirty words. We're 
now engaged in a debate on health care, and we've been told that there 
are a number of phrases that we can't use because we're attempting to 
speak truth to power, power being the Democratic leadership here in the 
House.
  What are these dirty words or phrases we can't use to describe the 
leading Democratic health care proposal?
  We can't call it ``government-run'' even though that's what it's 
going to be inevitably. We can't call it ``single-payer'' even though 
that's where they're going. We can't call it ``socialized medicine.'' I 
don't know why not, but we can't. We can't call it ``ObamaCare.'' We 
can't call it ``rationed care'' even though rationing is an absolutely 
essential element to their plan. We can't call it the ``government 
mandate care'' even though it's full of mandates. The word ``shall'' 
appears, I believe, 100 times in the bill. ``Shall'' means ``must,'' 
which means a mandate. You can't call it ``keep your change care'' 
because, frankly, there won't be any change for you to keep.
  The seven dirty words we can't use.

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