[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 153 (Wednesday, October 21, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10588-S10589]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     HEALTH CARE WEEK XIV, DAY III

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, over the last several months, lawmakers 
in Washington have been engaged in a serious and wide-ranging debate 
about the fate of our Nation's health care system. It is a debate that 
grew out of a recognition that while America may have the best health 
care in the world, the cost of care is too high and too many lack 
insurance. This much was never in dispute.
  There is not a single Member of Congress from either party who does 
not want to solve these problems. That is why the disagreements we have 
had have arisen not over the ends but over the means of achieving these 
common goals. That is why, over the past few months, two very different 
approaches to reform have come into view.
  For most Democrats, reform seems to come in a single form: a vast 
expansion of government, detailed in complicated, 1,000-page bills, 
costing trillions. The only thing that is clear about the Democratic 
plans are the basics: They cost about $1 trillion, they increase 
premiums, raise taxes, and slash Medicare.
  In short, they include a lot of things Americans did not ask for and 
do not want, and they include very few of the things Americans thought 
they were going to get.
  What was supposed to be an exercise in smart, bipartisan, commonsense 
reforms that cut costs and increased access somehow became an exercise 
in government expansion that promises to raise costs, raise premiums, 
and slash Medicare for seniors. For Democrats in Congress, the original 
purpose of reform seems to have been blurred.
  Republicans have taken a different approach. We agreed at the outset 
that reform was needed. But in our view, those reforms would not 
necessarily cost a lot of money, would not add to the debt, and would 
not expand the government.
  Instead of a massive government-driven experiment, Republicans have 
offered commonsense, step-by-step solutions to the problems of cost and 
access--things such as medical liability reform, which would save tens 
of billions of dollars and increase access to care; needed insurance 
reforms that would increase access and lower costs; and prevention and 
wellness programs, such as the ones that have been so successful in 
bending the cost curve in the right direction--which is downward--at 
major businesses such as Safeway.
  Here were the two approaches to reform. Well, the American people 
looked at these two approaches and they made their choice. All summer 
long, we watched as ordinary Americans reacted to the administration's 
plan to put government between individuals and their health care and to 
pay for it with higher premiums, higher taxes, and Medicare cuts in the 
middle of a recession.
  Americans rejected the idea of a vast, new experiment to reorder 
their health care and nearly one-fifth of the economy in a single, 
stunning move. They know the stakes are too high. Last Friday, the 
Treasury Department announced the government ran a deficit, in the 
fiscal year that just ended, of more than three times the previous 
record.
  The national debt is nearly $12 trillion. It is expected to grow by 
another $9 trillion over the next 10 years. Medicare and Medicaid cost 
the Federal Government nearly $700 billion a year--a cost that is 
expected to double in 10 years. These numbers are like nothing we have 
ever seen. Yet in the midst of all this, the administration is 
proposing that we conduct a $1 trillion experiment in health care that 
would expand government spending even more. Now Democrats in Congress 
are proposing that we put another $1/4 trillion on the government 
charge card in order to prevent a cut in the reimbursement rate to 
doctors who treat Medicare patients.

  All of us want to keep this cut from happening, but the American 
people don't want us to borrow another cent to pay for it, and they 
don't want Democrats in Congress to pretend that this $\1/4\ trillion 
isn't part of the cost of health care reform because it is. It is also 
a clear violation of the President's pledge that health care reform 
wouldn't add a single dime to the deficit over the next decade. In 
fact, if Democrats have their way, this bill would add nearly 2.5 
trillion dimes to the national debt. Well, the American people have a 
message for Democrats in Congress: The time to get our fiscal house in 
order is not tomorrow, it is not next year, it is now--right now.
  Last week, 10 Democratic Senators sent a letter to the majority 
leader outlining some of the problems that can be expected to result 
from our record deficit and debts. They pointed out that each 
American's share of today's debt is more than $38,000, that long-term 
deficits will lead to higher interest rates and inflation, and all this 
debt threatens to weaken not only our basic standard of living but also 
our national security. Then they make an urgent plea. They called on 
their party to do something to deal with these urgent fiscal realities.
  Well, they shouldn't hold their breath because instead of addressing 
these urgent issues, a handful of top Democrats are pressing forward 
behind closed doors with a health care plan that, once fully 
implemented, and including the physician reimbursement issue, would 
cost more than $2 trillion.
  It is hard to imagine, but if the history of government entitlement 
programs is any guide, then these estimates are almost certainly on the 
conservative side. History shows these kinds of programs almost never 
come in under cost. Consider just a few examples: At the time that 
Medicare Part A was created, it was estimated that costs for hospital 
services and related administration for the year 1990 would run about 
$9 billion. The actual cost was seven times that amount. Medicare Part 
B, a program that covers physician services, was expected to run on 
$500 million a year from general tax revenues, along with a $3 monthly 
premium. Last year, the program was funded through nearly $150 billion 
in Federal revenue.
  As I say, these are just a few examples, but they illustrate a larger 
point that can't be ignored. The nature of government entitlements is 
such that they only get bigger with time. The estimates we are getting 
have to be viewed in light of past experience, and past experience 
isn't encouraging.

[[Page S10589]]

  Several months into this debate, it is easy to forget that at the 
outset everyone seemed to agree--at the outset of this debate on health 
care everyone seemed to agree--on two things: that health care reforms 
were needed and any reform would have to lower overall health care 
costs. We all agreed on that. Yet the evidence suggests that the bill 
Senate Democrats and White House officials are carving up in private 
would do just the opposite. It would actually increase costs, it would 
increase premiums, raise taxes, and slash Medicare. That is not reform.
  Americans are concerned about the direction in which we are headed: 
record debts, record deficits, endless borrowing, and yet every day we 
hear of more plans to borrow and spend, borrow and spend. Americans 
don't want the same kind of denial, delay, and rationing of care they 
have seen in countries that have followed the path of government-driven 
health care for all. They are perplexed that in the midst of a terrible 
recession, near 10 percent unemployment, massive Federal debt, and a 
deficit that rivals the deficits of the last 4 years combined, the 
White House would move ahead with a massive expansion of government 
health care. They are telling us that common sense, step-by-step 
reforms are the better, wiser, and more fiscally responsible way to go.
  This is the message I have delivered nearly every day on the Senate 
floor since the first week of June because, in my view, it is the 
message the American people have been sending us.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Arizona.

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