[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 2 (Tuesday, January 12, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H17-H22]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
WHERE IS THE TRANSPARENCY?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 6, 2009, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey) is recognized
for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank our leader for allowing
me to spend this time this evening in talking to our colleagues about
some very important matters dealing with health care reform and the
pledge of transparency. That will be the focus of the hour. I have a
number of colleagues that will be joining me who are part of an
organization within the House of Representatives called the GOP Doctors
Caucus. We have about 13 members of the GOP Doctors Caucus, most of
whom are medical doctors. We have an optometrist, we have a clinical
psychologist Ph.D., and a couple of dental doctors in the caucus.
And for the last year literally in the entire year 2009, I think my
colleagues on both sides of the aisle know that this GOP Doctors Caucus
has been working diligently, working diligently to try to have some
input in regard to health care reform, making some suggestions, writing
and cosponsoring comprehensive legislation such as H.R. 3400, an
alternative approach.
Members of this caucus, Mr. Speaker, introduced individual bills on
certain subject matter that the President has pledged that would be in
the health care bill. And yet as we stand here today, at the 11th hour
literally of merging these two versions from the House and the Senate,
there is nothing about health care reform of the medical liability
system which the President pledged to do.
The President, of course, made that pledge in Chicago at the annual
meeting of the American Medical Association, an association that
represents maybe a fifth, 20 percent, of the doctors across this
country, that has literally given their endorsement to the President's
bill, but asks in return for some relief of the reimbursement under
Medicare to the physicians, elimination of this flawed formula that
year after year after year forces the doctors to take these deep cuts
so they literally can't afford to continue to see Medicare patients.
And of course the request, Mr. Speaker, at that particular meeting
back in Chicago, probably last May or June of 2009, that there be some
meaningful medical liability tort reform. The CBO in fact estimated
that would save $54 billion. Just that one issue would save $54 billion
the CBO says over the next 10 years, and I respectfully suggest that is
a most conservative estimate on their part. I think there would be a
$54 billion savings each and every year over the next 10 years.
In any regard, I am blessed tonight to be joined by a number of the
members of the GOP Doctors Caucus, and we are going to talk about the
main theme of tonight and that is the issue of transparency. I want to
get into that in just a second because nothing could be more important,
particularly at this point, this 11th hour, when a bill is about to be
presented. I say ``presented,'' really I mean, Mr. Speaker, forced upon
the 435 Members of this body and the 100 in the other body, when the
American people don't want it; but more about that later.
Moment of Silence Recognizing Cobb County Tragedy
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I would like with your approval
to take just a moment because a tragedy occurred, and I was just
notified by email just a few minutes before I started, that in my
district, the 11th Congressional District of Georgia, Cobb County in
one of its townships, Kennesaw, part of my nine-county district of
northwest Georgia, there was a tragic, tragic shooting in my district,
in the city of Kennesaw today, where two people lost their lives and
three people are in critical condition.
I would like to ask my colleagues on the floor tonight to join me for
just a moment of silence to remember the families of the deceased and
the victims that are in critical condition and their families as well.
We will take just a moment of silence before we continue.
Mr. Speaker, I thank you for allowing us to do that, and I thank my
colleagues for joining me in their prayers for those of my district who
have been killed and injured.
Well, we want to talk a little bit about the issue of transparency
because that is what is in the news right now--this is a huge concern--
or I should say the lack of transparency in regard to the health reform
bill. We are going to give you a second opinion today about that. And,
indeed, we are going to roll the tape on health care doublespeak as we
look at these slides.
Mr. Speaker, let me just start off by saying and calling the
attention of my colleagues to this first slide: Where is the
transparency?
Our President, then candidate, Senator Obama, in January 2008 on the
campaign trail, and we all know what a great communicator President
Obama and then-Senator, candidate Obama was, the best speaker, the best
communicator, I think, that this country has possibly seen since the
Great Communicator himself, Ronald Reagan. Here is what candidate Obama
said in January of 2008, talking about health care: ``I would put my
plan forward and I would welcome input, but these negotiations would be
on C-SPAN so the public will be part of the conversation and will see
the choices that are being made.'' Presidential candidate Obama made
that remark to the San Francisco Chronicle in January of 2008, almost 2
years ago.
Continuing on the campaign trail, candidate Barack Obama said about 8
months later in August of 2008 as the primaries were getting hot and
heavy: ``We will have the health care negotiations televised on C-SPAN
so we can see who are making arguments on behalf of their constituents
and who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the
insurance companies.'' That was at an Obama town hall meeting in August
of 2008. Once again candidate Obama, now President Obama, saying it's
time for the American people to see what's going on, see it with their
own eyes, hear it with their own ears, use their own common sense to
figure out, to connect the dots, to see why one group or another group
might be supporting something that on the surface seems almost
incredulous that they would. Almost incredulous that they would.
So I would say to President Obama today, as I said to him, or at
least through the television set I said to him, right on, Mr.
Candidate, you are absolutely right. The American people need to know.
They need to have this opportunity of transparency.
Where is the transparency? Where is it?
President Obama, and he went on and we all know now ran a great,
great campaign and beat a tough opponent in the primary and a war hero
in the general election, certainly a well-deserved victory for
President Obama. And then shortly after inauguration, January 21, 2009,
about a year ago, President Barack Obama said this:
{time} 2015
``My administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level
of
[[Page H18]]
openness in government. We will work together to ensure a system of
transparency, public participation and collaboration. Openness will
strengthen our democracy. And it will promote efficiency and
effectiveness in government.'' Amen, brother. I agree with you, Mr.
President. Unfortunately, we are not seeing it. We are not seeing it.
Such a disappointment for the American people.
Well, here we are, colleagues on both sides of the aisle, here we
are. We don't know exactly what is going on. Certainly we members on
the Republican side, even leadership in the House and Senate on the
Republican side, ranking members on the committees of jurisdiction on
the Republican side, they are not meeting with anybody. They may be
symbolically named as conferees at some point, if indeed we have a
conference. My colleagues can talk about that. Maybe we won't have a
conference.
But it is one thing to shut Members of Congress out and not allow
them to represent their people. Almost 50 percent of the people are
shut out by virtue of not including the minority party in any
deliberations henceforth and to this point and to the final
deliberations. And there are some serious issues, Mr. Speaker, that
need to be resolved, that need to be resolved. The American people want
to see this. They want to know. They want to have the opportunity.
I am sure, Mr. Speaker, that my wife is not the only spouse in this
United States House of Representatives who loves to watch C-SPAN at all
hours of the day and night, because they are so unbiased, and they cut
to the chase, and they treat people fairly, and they take questions
from Democrats, and Republicans, and independents. And it is no
nonsense. It is just the facts, ma'am, sir. C-SPAN televises many of
the things that we do in this Chamber and in the other Chamber and the
committees process. Brian Lamb, who has been with C-SPAN, I guess he is
president and CEO, probably been there 20 years, an icon, really, wrote
a letter just recently to the President of the United States.
And, Mr. Speaker, here is the letter from C-SPAN to the House and
Senate leadership. ``C-SPAN requests that you open all important
negotiations, including any conference committee meetings, to
electronic media coverage,'' so the American people can see, can
connect the dots, can understand about the Louisiana Purchase, can
understand about the Nebraska Compromise, or is it the Cornhusker
Compromise, in which it seems to I think a lot of people out there on
Main Street that maybe Nebraska got the corn and everybody else got the
husks.
That is why we need openness and sunshine. And that is why Brian Lamb
and C-SPAN are making this request. And that is what we are here to
talk about tonight. And as I say, I am pleased, Mr. Speaker, to have
some of my colleagues in the GOP Doctors Caucus with us. I don't know
in what order they arrived on the floor. But I want to yield to each of
them as much time as they desire to let's have a little colloquy and
talk about this issue, because this is so important. And indeed, we are
at the eleventh hour.
Let me first recognize my good friend from Texas, my classmate, a
fellow OB/GYN physician. I think between us we have probably delivered
about 8,000 babies. And I know I have 26 years at it, and I know he has
17 years at it, so I will call on the gentleman from Texas, OB/GYN
doctor and great member of this body, Dr. Michael Burgess.
Mr. BURGESS. Well, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank
him for bringing this hour to the floor of the House tonight. I think
it is important to talk about this issue. It is important to talk about
opening the doors, opening the windows on this Congress, on this health
care legislation.
We have seen this bill now take several forms over the past 12 months
since the President was inaugurated. And certainly the bill that we had
in committee, and Dr. Gingrey and I serve on the Committee on Energy
and Commerce, and we had this bill for several days in what is called a
markup in committee. That was covered on C-SPAN. People got to see us
argue, and Republican members attempt to amend the bill. Not many of
those amendments were accepted, unfortunately. But nevertheless, it was
an open process. And Henry Waxman, the chairman of that committee, to
his credit, did allow a relatively lengthy discussion on that
legislation.
However, when we left for August and went through the very famous
August recess and August town halls, we came back to Congress, I
thought we would hit the pause button, I thought we would hit the
resets button, I thought we would hit the rewind button on this
legislation, but no such luck. The President came and talked to us here
on the floor of the House and said this was going forward, it was going
forward rapidly, there was no time to lose, no time to stop and study
what we had done. We were simply going to push ahead.
So between that date, which was the middle of September, and the very
first part of November, another bill was written. It was a different
bill from what we had in the committee. It was a different bill than
what Dr. Gingrey and I attempted to work on in committee. It was a bill
that was essentially written in secret. It was written in the Speaker's
suite of offices, heavy, heavy input from the White House.
But none of us saw the bill. And I mean to say none of us, none of us
Republicans, nor in fact no Democrats who weren't in leadership, who
weren't part of this process, this secret process in the Speaker's
suite, none of them knew what was in this bill. So as a consequence, we
had a bill come forward, we had a very tumultuous week here in early
November, and it culminated in the House bill passing on the floor of
the House by a very slim margin, late in the night, late on a Saturday
night in early November.
Then it goes over to the Senate, and the same thing. We had the
Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee mark up the
bill in June. Then it went to the Senate Finance Committee. They never
had a bill. They debated talking points, but then they did a bill.
And then the final product was written in secret, in secret in Majority
Leader Reid's office with a heavy input, a heavy hand from the White
House, and then came to the Senate floor, and famously was laid out for
the Senators right before they left for Christmas Eve.
So it has been a process that has been draped and cloaked in secrecy
really since it left the committee process July 31. The American people
haven't had a chance to see it, rank and file Democrats haven't had a
chance to see it, rank and file Republicans have had no chance to see
it. None of us who are the so-called back benchers on both sides of the
aisle, none of us had any part in drafting this legislation, or
carrying this, or modifying this legislation after it left the
committee. And that is important to remember.
The Rules Committee met here in the House late into the night. One
amendment, one amendment was accepted, famously the one by Bart Stupak
from Michigan, a Democrat, that dealt with the issue of abortion,
funding of abortion in the bill. But one amendment out of the many
hundreds that were offered during the course of that time it was in the
Rules Committee, one amendment was made in order.
Many, many amendments we could talk about that had merit, that should
have had an airing here on the floor of the House were never even
considered. So we have a process that has been cloaked in secrecy. And
so when it came out that, well, there is going to be some sort of
reconciliation process, whether it is a formal conference or whether it
is what is famously referred to now as a ping-pong match between the
House and the Senate, there is going to be some coming together of
these two very different pieces of legislation. And it is important.
So why not, at least at this point, open it up and open it up to the
cameras, the C-SPAN cameras. They are not there with commentary. They
are not there with an editorial agenda. They are simply there with
their cameras to show the give and take. And the President, when he was
running for office, thought this was so important he wanted to show the
American people which representatives, which Members of Congress stood
with the American people and which stood with the special interests. In
fact, I would like to know that very thing myself, but we are prevented
from knowing that.
[[Page H19]]
Now, early in this process, in May or June of this past year, there
were several of those special interests that met down at the White
House. There were headlines that were made on those days, there were
photographs taken, hands that were shaken, agreements that were made.
$2 trillion in excess has been wrung from our health care system by the
insurance companies, the pharmaceutical companies, my AMA, the American
Hospital Association, AdvaMed, the medical device manufacturers, and
the Service Employees International Union, all of those six groups got
together at the White House and gave up, they came to the White House
to give up something to get this bill the momentum it would need. But
none of that information has then subsequently been made available to
us.
And thus you had situations occur, such as in the Senate Finance
Committee, when a Senator asked legitimately, ``Well, I thought we
could tax this on the hospitals, but the hospitals say that wasn't part
of the deal that they struck at the White House.'' Well, what is that
deal that they struck at the White House? We are the legislators. We
should be privy to that very information so that when we write the
legislation we can do so with the full knowledge.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. If the gentleman would yield.
Mr. BURGESS. Yes.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. I thank the gentleman. Certainly carrying
along that same theme is an example, the Big Pharma, a willingness to
contribute $80 billion toward the success of this program to reduce the
cost of the doughnut hole for those who have Part D prescription drug
part and they get in that donut hole. The question needs to be asked
and the American people need to understand, well, what does Big Pharma
get in return for that? The gentleman from Texas said the same thing in
regard to the American Medical Association and the 250,000 members of
that organization. What in effect do they get by endorsing this
program? And the American Health Insurance Plans and the American
Hospital Association and on and on and on.
AARP, the American Association of Retired Persons, that represents 40
million people in this country, you would think that when you have got
a health program, Mr. Speaker, in both the House version and the Senate
version that is cutting $500 billion out of the Medicare program, which
already has an unfunded liability over the next 75 years of $35
trillion, why in the world would an organization who is supporting
seniors who depend so much on Medicare support a program that is going
to cut that program to the bone 10 percent per year, Mr. Speaker, over
the next 10 years and 17 percent per year on the Medicare Advantage
program? Why would that organization?
So again, these are rhetorical questions. And as the gentleman from
Texas is saying, the American people and C-SPAN says indeed, let's put
some sunshine on this and let people connect the dots and figure out,
well, oh, yeah, now I see, now I understand. Make some sense out of it.
Mr. BURGESS. Well, and the good news is that this is information that
we need as legislators, the American people need to see to make up
their minds as to whether or not this is good legislation or not. We
have a tool at our disposal. The tool is called a resolution of
inquiry. And a resolution of inquiry can be filed at the committee
level. And a resolution of inquiry has to be, after it is filed, has to
be dealt with in 14 legislative days.
I filed a resolution of inquiry for these documents down at the White
House, that were arrived at down at the White House in May and June. I
filed a resolution of inquiry right as we left December 17. The
resolution is H. Res. 983 for anyone who might want to look that up on
Thomas. And our Committee on Energy and Commerce will have 14
legislative days to deal with this.
{time} 2030
Now, my expectation is that the committee will simply quash it. That
may be, but at the same time I feel it is our obligation, as dutiful
members of the minority, to bring to the American people some of these
discrepancies.
Now, part of the good news there is when I filed this, an article
that was written in The Hill the day that we left town in December
talked about this Resolution of Inquiry and had some interesting quotes
from our chairman, Henry Waxman, on the resolution. And quoting from an
article by Molly Hooper in The Hill on December 17, Mr. Waxman said,
``If there are such documents, Burgess should get them. I don't know if
there are such documents. I think some of the things he wants are not
written down, and different people have different ideas of what was
agreed,'' Waxman told The Hill on Wednesday before Congress adjourned.
I don't know either whether anything was written down, but the
Resolution of Inquiry is there for a reason. I have been informed by
House legislative counsel that they cannot recall having done a
Resolution of Inquiry on a health care subcommittee, but this is
important. This is important stuff.
So this is one more tool at our disposal. The committee has to act on
it. Probably it will mature sometime in early February. We are working
so few days in January, the 15 legislative days likely will take us
into February. It will either be forwarded from the committee to the
floor of the House or it will be quashed in committee, which is what I
expect will happen. But nevertheless, it is one of those things that we
should be talking about because it is our obligation to bring some of
these things to the floor on this discussion.
Before anyone criticizes me by saying, ``Well, why didn't you speak
up when George Bush had a meeting with energy executives?'' for one
thing, I wasn't here when then-President Bush convened that meeting.
But I don't recall President Bush in his campaign saying, ``Energy is
so important that I will bring all the leaders in energy into the White
House and I will open it up to C-SPAN.'' I don't recall him saying
that. He never promised to open it up to C-SPAN.
Now, President Obama, when he was running, had referenced the Clinton
administration and some of the missteps when they attempted to take
over health care and the 500 people who were locked in a room to
produce a bill. He thought that was wrong. He thought that was a
problem that the bill had because it was conceived in secret, and it
should have been conceived in the full openness of sunlight in the
legislative process. I agree with that. I, for one, am looking forward
to the day that we elect a President who has the courage to stand up
and say to the American people that he is going to put 500 doctors in a
room and make them come up with a way to pay lawyers and he's not going
to let them out until they come up with something. I would like to see
that happen.
I do thank the gentleman for bringing this issue up. It's an
important issue, and I know there are other people who wish to speak on
it.
I yield back to the gentleman from Georgia.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. I thank the gentleman.
Mr. Speaker, at this point, I would like to yield time to a fellow
member of the GOP Doctors Caucus and actually a member of the Georgia
Caucus, a fellow physician who has a practice, a doctor who actually
makes house calls, the gentleman from Athens and Augusta, Georgia, Dr.
Paul Broun.
Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Thank you, Dr. Gingrey, for yielding.
I have a 19-year-old son. His name is Paul Collins Broun III. We
affectionately call him ``Bear.'' Collins and his friends have a
peculiar type of language. They talk about something being ``bad.''
Well, to me, if it's bad, it's bad, but when they say something's bad,
they really mean that it's good. Well, we've developed a similar kind
of language here in the leadership of this House, in the leadership of
the Senate, as well as the leadership down Pennsylvania Avenue at the
White House. When they say something is transparent, they mean opaque.
When they say that there is a new era of openness, that means secrecy.
That is exactly what we're seeing. It's unfair to the American public.
It's unfair to their representatives, both Democrat and Republican
alike.
We have a newspeak here in Washington. It's a newspeak where
transparency actually means opaque and obscure, where the American
people are being kept in the dark, where major policies are being
proposed that are going to radically change how health
[[Page H20]]
care--as well as every aspect of life in America--is going to be done,
and it's not fair. The American people need to stand up and say no.
They need to say no to this newspeak. They need to say, Mr. President,
Nancy Pelosi, Madam Speaker, Harry Reid, Mr. Majority Leader, we want
openness. We want transparency. We want a new era of open government so
that the American people can understand what's going on up here in
Washington.
It's absolutely critical that the American people stand up and speak
to the leadership and demand something different, that the American
people demand that nothing is passed, particularly on health care, that
is going to radically change the economic future of our country, that
is going to radically change the way people live because anything and
everything can be brought under the aegis of health care. I think
probably we are going to see way beyond the things that are going on
today where government is trying to control what we eat, how we live,
what kind of car we drive.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. If the gentleman will yield.
Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Certainly.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, even so, we're talking about
one-sixth of the whole economy of this great country of ours, and it's
going to expand.
I yield back to the gentleman.
Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Well, this is not about health care. It's about
the government. It's about government control. It's about government
telling people how to live, government making decisions for us. It's
taking away our liberty. And we see right now New York City is trying
to control the amount of salt in everybody's food.
This health care plan can tell us what kind of car to drive, whether
we can own guns or not to protect ourselves and our home, whether we
can teach our children the way that we, as parents, believe that our
children ought to be taught.
This is the largest takeover of liberty and freedom this country has
ever seen. The American people need to stand up and say no to this
obscure, opaque, secret process that this leadership of this House and
the Senate across the other side of the Capitol and the administration,
the Obama administration, and the leadership are doing, because it is
totally, totally against everything that this country stands for.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. If the gentleman will yield, Mr. Speaker,
just for a second.
The American people--and I think that my colleagues would agree with
me--the American people have spoken, haven't they?
Mr. BROUN of Georgia. They really have.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. Over 60 percent of them are vehemently
opposed to this government takeover that Dr. Broun is talking about.
I will make one other comment before yielding back to my friend, and
that is that the Speaker herself--Mr. Speaker, you're in her stead in
the chair this evening, but the Speaker, back in 2006 on the campaign
trail when your party did indeed take over the majority, Mr. Speaker,
Madam Speaker--minority leader at the time--said to the American
people, You give us an opportunity to take back over control of the
leadership of this Congress, this House of Representatives, and you
will see the most open process you have ever seen. It will be a breath
of fresh air. That sun will be shining in. The American people will
come up and the children will sit around as I'm sworn in and they will
be right there at my knee and I will be patting them on the head, Mr.
Speaker, she said. And it will be wonderful. Happy days are here again.
Well, when you say something like that--and I think my colleagues agree
with me, Mr. Speaker--you need to deliver.
Now, she could have said, back in 2006 on the campaign trail, These
rotten Republicans who have run this place for 12 years and they
haven't given us a fair shake. Man, you give us an opportunity, put us
back in, when we get there, we are going to roll them at every
opportunity. Well, she would have been speaking the truth, Mr. Speaker.
Madam Speaker would have been speaking the truth. That's what she
should have done because that's what she did. We have no openness here.
It's kind of like our current President said, you know, a change you
can believe in.
Mr. Speaker, I don't think this is the change the American people
were expecting, and they certainly don't believe in it.
I yield back to my colleague.
Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Well, Dr. Gingrey, thanks for yielding back.
And you are exactly right, the American people were promised many
things by this Speaker: transparency, openness, the new era of a clean
government with a prosecution of corruption. Nothing could be further
from the truth. This Speaker has not fulfilled those promises to the
American people.
The American people need to stand up and understand that they are
really in control. The Constitution of the United States, which I
believe in as it was originally intended, starts off with three very
powerful words. In fact, I have a copy in my pocket. I carry a copy all
the time. It starts off with three powerful words, ``We the people.''
This is the government that is supposed to be for the people, by the
people, as President Lincoln said.
The people have the power. They have the power to demand openness.
They have the power to demand transparency and stop this secrecy and
stop the veil that's going on up here. In fact, I challenge any
Democrat in this House or in the Senate to show me anywhere in this
document that we have the authority, constitutionally, to take over the
health care system. It's not here. I challenge any Democrat to show me
in the Constitution where we have the authority to pass this health
care bill that they're taking. They won't find it. It's not there.
The American people can demand from their elected representatives
within the House or the Senate something different than we have today.
Former U.S. Senator Everett Dirksen once said when he feels the heat,
he sees the light. What he means by that is when the people who elect
him, or reelect him, contact him and say, You're headed in the wrong
direction. You need to head in a different direction, when enough
people contact him, that's putting heat upon the elected
representative. The elected representative, if he wants to be
reelected, will start paying attention to enough of those phone calls,
emails, faxes, and visits and will start seeing the light.
We need to shine the light of day. The American people can control
the light in their hand right now today by getting on the telephone,
getting on their computer, by calling their Representatives, by calling
their Senators, their district offices or their offices up here, and
saying no to this government takeover of health care, saying no to this
obscure, secretive process that Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barack
Obama are undertaking, and saying yes to the openness and transparency
we have been promised by Ms. Pelosi as well as Mr. Obama.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. Reclaiming my time, and I thank the
gentleman, I want to continue in just a second and introduce our next
speaker, the gentleman from Tennessee and a fellow OB/GYN physician,
Dr. Phil Roe. But the gentleman from Athens, Georgia, is absolutely
right. And as he pulled out his pocket Constitution--and I'm so proud
of him for keeping it with him at all times because there are things in
this bill that we think, Mr. Speaker, and I think the American people
feel are unconstitutional, that are unconstitutional. I hope Dr. Roe
will speak of that. These issues are so important at this 11th hour to
not let the American people see the process for Madam Speaker and the
Democratic leadership and the President. I showed you all the quotes at
the outset of the hour, Mr. Speaker and my colleagues, and you know he
said it, she said it. It's time to deliver.
I yield to my good friend from Tennessee.
Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Thank you, Dr. Gingrey.
A little over a year ago, I stood on this House floor and was sworn
in for the first time in the 111th Congress, one of the proudest days
of my life. It goes up there with my marriage, the birth of my
grandchildren and children. It was a very proud day to be here.
I came from a background of local government, and in Tennessee, where
we're from, I was the mayor of Johnson City, Tennessee, and was a city
commissioner and local official. In that
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State, we have a sunshine law. Everything that is discussed is
discussed in the open. It cannot be discussed in our local city
government. We have five officials. We cannot discuss anything between
ourselves unless we are in the open. That means an open, scheduled
meeting that has been published or with a TV camera on.
Let me tell you what happens, Mr. Speaker. When that happens, you get
a better government and you get a better product when the sun shines on
it.
{time} 2045
I will tell you that one of the great disappointments I have had is
when I woke up near Christmas Eve and found that one of the Senators
had voted for a health care bill to exempt a State that other States
are going to have to obey on. I was absolutely nauseated with that. It
is the most unbelievable thing. It made me ashamed to be a Member of
this great body, and I shouldn't be. I should be proud. Every Member
should be proud and honored to belong here. We lecture Hamid Karzai in
Afghanistan about corruption. Let him turn around and look at our
government and say, Wait a minute. For enough money, you can get your
vote bought off to do something. If that health care bill had had legs,
it should have stood on its own. Let me explain to you what that means
for other States, and let me explain to the American people what that
means for the State of Tennessee.
Right now, we have 50 fewer State troopers than we had in 1977, and
we have 2 million more people. For the safety of our State, we can't
afford Medicaid, which this bill in the Senate does. If it is accepted
without going back to the Senate and goes straight to the President, we
will have 15 million more people who will have Medicaid. With that
comes an obligation from the State to pay for that. We don't have any
money to pay for it in Tennessee. Right now, our colleges do not have
one capital improvement project on a single college campus--the
University of Tennessee and all of the 26 board of regents colleges--
not one dormitory, not a library, not a chemistry department, not
anything. Right now, we can't add any more people to our local Medicaid
and Medicare plans.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. If the gentleman will yield----
Mr. ROE of Tennessee. I will.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia.--Mr. Speaker, I wouldn't be a bit surprised
if some of the teachers in the great State, the volunteer State, are
having to take furloughs and leaves of absences and are having to work
short days and that kind of thing.
I yield back.
Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Where do we go? Do we cut K through 12? We're
already in the 40s in education.
Here is another unfunded mandate that comes to the State of Nebraska,
and the people in Nebraska don't have to pay for that. The people of
Texas do. The people of Ohio do. The people of California do. The
people of Maine do. This is something that should not be there. When
the sun shines on this, this will not happen. That is why it is
extremely important for the sun to shine on this process.
You mentioned a moment ago, when you peel this onion back and when
you begin to read this bill--and I've read every page of the House
bill. I have not read the 2,700 pages of the Senate bill--we look at
the AARP. When you sell, there will be an insurance exchange, and on
this insurance exchange, if a company trades on there--and this is a
private company--their CEO will be limited to a $500,000 salary, which
is tax deductible. That's fine. That company ought to be able to decide
what it pays its CEO. If you pay more than that, you have to pay
corporate taxes of 35 percent plus ordinary income taxes of 39 percent.
So, for anything over $500,000, the government will get three-fourths
of it--except if you are the CEO of AARP. If you are the CEO of AARP,
you make $1.55 million a year. The average Social Security recipient
receives about $12,000 a year. That's their business, but they are
exempted from this bill. They are not included in this bill. So guess
what happened? AARP endorsed this bill. I can go on and on.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. If the gentleman will yield----
Mr. ROE of Tennessee. I will yield.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia.--I want him to go on and on because he has
got a lot of facts to present.
The point, Mr. Speaker, is about AARP and other organizations and
about wanting the people to have the opportunity to see for themselves
with their eyes and to listen to the debate with their ears and to
figure it out with common sense and to connect the dots. I mean, AARP,
you know, do they make some money off the deal?
I do want to make one point, before yielding back to the gentleman
from Tennessee, recognizing the good people of Nebraska--the Corn
Husker State--and coach Tom Osborne, who is a former Member of this
body, a great colleague, a friend of ours who is now the athletic
director at the University of Nebraska. It's a great, great State. To
their great credit, the Governor said, We don't want it. We don't want
this sweetheart deal. This is not right.
I commend him, and I commend the State of Nebraska for understanding,
Mr. Speaker, the inequity, the realization that the sweetheart deal for
them means crumbs and bacon bits for everybody else. They understand
that. Of course, now the Senator who was able to effect this sweetheart
deal is saying, No, let's not rescind the deal. Let's just give the
deal to everybody. Then what's going to be the true cost? Instead of
$1.2 trillion, it will be $2 trillion; but anyway, I digress a bit.
Let me yield back to the gentleman from Tennessee.
Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Thank you, Dr. Gingrey. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As you go through this bill, the people who do get it are our
seniors. I saw a lot of senior patients, as did you, and as I went home
and spent these last couple of weeks over the break meeting with
hundreds, if not thousands, of people during that time and talking to
them one on one, let me tell you what they do get:
They do get the fact that you're going to take in the next 10 years
almost $500 billion out of a Medicare plan that does not pay its
premiums in 2017. Seven short years from now, it will not pay for the
obligation that we have now, and we are going to add 3 to 3.5 million
seniors beginning in 2011 when the baby boomers hit. So that's 30 to 35
million more people with $500 billion less money. Let me explain to you
three things that will happen.
One is you will decrease access. And when you decrease access, you
will decrease quality. Third, you are going to increase the cost for
our seniors. They get it. They do understand that, and they understand
they're going to pay more for needed care that they may not be able to
get. That's the other reason. As people begin to understand what is in
this bill, they push back.
Just today, Dr. Gingrey, as I was leaving home--and this has been
consistent throughout my district--a poll was published in the local
newspaper that showed in our district, the First District of Tennessee,
that 79 percent of the people did not want this current bill, this
current legislation. This is 8 out of 10. We'd better start listening
to the people of this Nation. They have been screaming as loudly as
they can. They want to be heard. I am afraid, right now, we are not
listening to them. They want meaningful health care reform; 435 Members
of this body want meaningful health care reform. We don't want to
interfere with the doctor-patient relationship, and we can do that. We
should be able to discuss that openly, and the cameras and the lights
should shine upon those decisions.
I yield back, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. I thank the gentleman.
I wanted to also mention a couple of responses from the White House
in regard to the present CEO of C-SPAN requesting that the
negotiations, whatever they are--whether there is a ping-pong back and
forth between the House and the Senate or a mini conference or a full
conference, whatever the deal is, for goodness sakes, let the American
people see it. Even if they shut us Republicans out, let the American
people have the opportunity. C-SPAN said, Look, we will provide all of
the equipment--the digital--just as they do in this Chamber.
On the Sunday Morning show, Mr. Speaker--and I'm sure most of us
watch it. I watch it every Sunday--here is what the press secretary,
the Honorable Robert Gibbs, said on January 5, 2010. The reporter
asked: Did the President regret making that earlier
[[Page H22]]
promise to broadcast meetings on C-SPAN? Robert Gibbs' response: The
President's number one priority is getting a bill through the House and
the Senate.
Yes, Mr. Speaker, we get that.
Let's get ourselves out of this hole that we've dug at any cost, with
any sweetheart deal, whatever we have to do to get 60 votes. Let's pass
this darned thing so that I can stand up here at the State of Union and
declare victory. We can all pound our chests and do the high fives and
the knuckle to knuckle, or however you do that these days, and declare
victory and, for goodness sakes, move on to something else because this
is killing us.
Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, if and when that happens, it is going to
kill the American people. I have great concerns, and my colleagues do
as well.
I yield back to the gentleman from Athens, Georgia.
Mr. BROUN of Georgia. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
As you and our colleague from Tennessee, Dr. Roe, were talking about
the Senate bill and as you went on, it just occurred to me that I spoke
just earlier about the Newspeak in the leadership in Washington--in the
House and the Senate as well as in the Presidency--and about how
``transparency'' now means being obscure and opaque and how
``openness'' means being in secret.
As to the deals that are being struck, from everything we understand
in my language, when people are threatened with harm if they don't go
in a certain direction, that's called ``extortion.'' If somebody is
offered a perk or money or something for going in a particular
direction, that's called a ``bribe'' if one accepts it.
Mr. Speaker, we're having a lot of extortion and a lot of bribery
going on in this process. I will repeat that. There is a lot of
extortion and bribery going on in this process, and the American people
deserve better. The American people deserve more. They need to stand up
and reject this process of secrecy, of obscurity, of opaqueness, of
broken promises, and of everything that we see going on in this House.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. If the gentleman will yield back to me, I
want to point out to my colleagues, Mr. Speaker, that I realize our
time is limited.
As we conclude our hour, the gentleman didn't mince any words. We
know that, my colleagues, and I love him for that. He speaks plainly;
he is blunt; and you can understand him unlike the typical politician,
but what he is talking about are things like--and we mentioned it--the
Corn Husker kickback. We're having fun with these names.
One-hundred million dollars for Nebraska's support of Obama health
care. I credit the Governor of Nebraska who says, No, we don't want it.
God bless him. The Louisiana purchase: $300 million to purchase the
Louisiana vote. That's about 12 million more dollars than it cost to
purchase the whole Louisiana Territory in current dollars. UCONN: $100
million for Connecticut's support. I guess that's Mr. Chris Dodd of the
Obama health reform. Gatorade: 800,000 seniors in Florida get to keep
their Medicare Advantage.
What about the other 10.2 million seniors in the rest of the country?
What about the 175,000 in my great district, the 11th District of
Georgia? What happens to them? Mr. Speaker, they get pushed under the
bus. That's what's happening to them. It's not right.
Well, here is what the American people think. Here is what they
think. I know the President knows this, and I know the Democratic
majority knows this, and I know that's why they want to pass this thing
in the dark of night. They don't want C-SPAN looking in. They don't
want Republicans looking in. They don't want the American people
looking in. They want to get out of that hole and get out of town.
That's what their plan is.
Obama's health care marks hit a new low as 54 percent disapprove of
Obama's handling of health care and only 36 approve. Look at his
overall approval rating going back to February of 2009, Mr. Speaker,
when it was 61 percent. Let's just fast-forward here over on this slide
to January of 2010, and we are talking about 46 percent. Scary times
for the majority party. Scary times for this President. But scarier
times for the American people.
We hear this expression all the time. Mr. President said it himself:
It is time to press the reset button in dealing with Vladimir Putin,
the Russian President. It is time to reach out with an unclenched fist
to Ahmadinejad, this dictator over in Iran, who is trying to develop a
nuclear weapon despite all of our pleadings and reaching out with an
open hand. It is time to push the reset button with Kim Jong Il in
North Korea.
{time} 2100
Well, Mr. Speaker, I suggest this time to push the reset button with
the American people, and give them a fair shake and be honest with them
and tell them what is in this bill, these 2,500 pages that they can't
understand. They could if they had time or if they had an opportunity,
and C-SPAN is trying to give them that opportunity to shine the light
of day on this process.
That is what it is all about. That is what Madam Speaker promised.
That is what this President promised. It is time for them to deliver.
Mr. Speaker, I want to yield a few more minutes, whatever time
remains, to my good friend from Tennessee, Dr. Roe.
Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Very quickly, Mr. Speaker, I think what the
American people want for us to trust is transparency. The people have
to trust us for us to govern, and they can't trust us if they don't
know what is going on.
I know, Mr. Speaker, you went home, I went home for the holidays; and
they said, What is going on with the health care bill? And I told them,
You know as much as I do. Because we are in the dark just as you are.
And that is not the way it ought to be.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. I thank the gentleman from Tennessee. I thank
the gentleman from Texas. I thank the gentleman from the great State of
Georgia.
Mr. Speaker, we thank all for the opportunity for the members of the
GOP Doctors Caucus to spend some time tonight to explain to our
colleagues on both sides of the aisle what our concerns are. I think we
did it in a very fair way. We did it in a way that is not a personal
attack on any individual, any Member of this body, any member of the
administration. We are just asking to give the American people a fair
shake.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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