[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 30 (Thursday, March 4, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1125-S1126]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, the American people are asking us to 
start over on health care. They are asking us to scrap the massive 
bills Democrats have been trying to force on them. They want us to 
focus on cost instead. That has been their clear message now for over a 
year. But yesterday Democrats in Washington said they know better. The 
President and his allies in Congress made up their minds to turn aside 
any pretense of bipartisanship and plow ahead on a partisan bill--a 
partisan bill, by the way, that Americans don't want. In a last-ditch 
effort to get their way, they have staked themselves to a flawed vision 
of reform over the wishes of the public. What is that vision? It is a 
vision of health care whereby the Federal Government would become more 
involved in the health care decisions of every man, woman, and child in 
America; where small businesses get hit with new job-killing taxes; 
where Medicare is slashed for millions of seniors, insurance premiums 
go up, and Federal taxpayers are required, for the first time ever, to 
cover the cost of abortions.
  The administration and its allies in Congress have tried repeatedly 
to jam this vision of health care through Congress without success. Now 
they are doubling down. They have one more tool in their arsenal, and 
they are deploying it. Meanwhile, the American people are watching all 
this in utter disbelief. Americans do want reform, but they don't want 
this. They are fed up because the longer Democrats cling to their 
flawed vision of reform, the longer Americans have to wait for the 
reforms they really want, the longer they will have to wait for us to 
focus on jobs and the economy.
  The President did a very good job of laying out the problem 
yesterday. But the heart of the problem, as he himself described it, is 
the high cost of care, and the simple fact is, the bill he wants 
doesn't lower cost. On the contrary, the administration's own experts 
say the Democratic plan increases cost. This alone should be reason 
enough to start all over and put together a list of commonsense, step-
by-step reforms that will actually lower cost.
  The good news is we already have the list. At last week's health care 
summit at the White House, both parties acknowledged a handful of 
reforms on which all of us could agree. That is where we should start, 
on the things on which we agree.
  Unfortunately, even before the summit began, Democrats were already 
intent on pushing the same old version they were pushing before the 
summit by any means possible. They couldn't get the old version over 
the finish line, even with all the backroom deals, the kickbacks, and 
the buy-offs, so sometime after the Massachusetts election,

[[Page S1126]]

they hatched a plan to win over wavering Democrats in the House by 
promising to use some legislative sleight of hand that will only 
require a slim partisan majority in the Senate. This is outrageous on 
two counts--first, because the method they are proposing has never been 
used on such a sweeping piece of legislation; second, because Americans 
have already told us, loudly and clearly, they don't want this partisan 
approach. What about public opinion do our friends in the majority not 
understand? The American people are saying loudly and clearly they 
don't want us to do this.
  What is worse, many of the same Democrats who are now pushing this 
party-line vote are on record as being foursquare against it for major 
legislation such as this. Here is what one senior Democratic Senator 
had to say about party-line votes on major legislation only a few years 
ago:

       I've never passed a single bill worth talking about that 
     didn't have as a lead co-sponsor a Republican. And I don't 
     know of a single piece of legislation that has ever been 
     adopted here that didn't have a Republican and a Democrat in 
     the lead. That's because we need to sit down and work with 
     each other. The rules of this institution have required 
     that--that's why we exist.

  I couldn't agree more. Americans expect big bills to command big 
majorities. That is why this is not a fight between Democrats and 
Republicans; it is a fight between Democrats inside the beltway and 
their constituents beyond it.
  There is a better way. There is a better path to reform that none of 
us will regret. It is time to listen to the American people. It is time 
to work together on the kinds of step-by-step reforms they are asking 
for. Americans aren't stupid. They know the option they are being 
presented with--the option of some massive bill or nothing. That is a 
false choice.
  So let's drop the partisan plan. Let's drop this unsalvageable bill, 
and let's start over.
  I yield the floor.

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