[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 24 (Wednesday, February 24, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S717-S718]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           HEALTH CARE SUMMIT

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, earlier this week, the White House 
unveiled its latest iteration of the Democrat plan for health care 
reform, and, to put it quite simply, it was a major disappointment.
  It was our hope that when the administration called for a health care 
summit at the White House, it would be an opportunity for both sides to 
come together and start over. Now it is perfectly clear the 
administration had something else in mind entirely.
  The plan we saw Monday is hardly a starting off point for a 
bipartisan discussion on commonsense reforms. It is really just more of 
the same: a massive government scheme with all the flaws of the 
previous proposals that the American people have already seen and 
rejected. Changing the name and increasing the cost is not what 
Americans have been asking for, and it is certainly not reform.
  To make matters worse, even as lawmakers head down to the White House 
for this health care summit tomorrow, Democrats on Capitol Hill are 
working behind the scenes on a plan aimed at jamming this massive 
health spending bill through Congress against the clear wishes of an 
unsuspecting public. What they have in mind is a last ditch legislative 
sleight of hand called reconciliation that would enable them to impose 
government-run health care for all on the American people, whether 
Americans want it or not. And we know that Americans do not, in fact, 
want it.
  Americans have seen these proposals before. They do not want them. So 
this is the height of legislative arrogance. If you did not like the 
Cornhusker Kickback, get ready. This is the Cornhusker Kickback on 
steroids.
  In light of all these behind the scenes efforts to get around the 
will of the people, it is hard to imagine what the purpose of 
Thursday's summit is. If the White House wants real bipartisanship,

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then it needs to drop the proposal it posted Monday, which is no 
different in its essentials than anything we have seen before, and 
start over. And they need to take this last-ditch reconciliation effort 
off the table once and for all.
  Then we can work on the kind of reform Americans really want, step by 
step proposals that will actually get at the problem, which is cost. 
That is what the American people have been asking us to do for a year. 
If ever there were a time for the administration to show it is 
listening, it is now. Reform is too important. We cannot let this 
opportunity pass.

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