[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 37 (Monday, March 15, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1489-S1490]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, the debate over health care continues, 
and this week all eyes are on the House. All we hear about is the arm-
twisting and the horse-trading going on over there behind the scenes--
the mad dash ahead of the big vote--and once again Americans just can't 
believe what they are hearing.
  Behind all of these stories is a simple truth: Democratic leaders are 
doing everything they can to convince a handful of lawmakers that they 
should vote for a bill they don't really like and which their 
constituents overwhelmingly oppose. They are scrambling to get these 
wavering House Members to vote for a bill which claims to be reform but 
which promises to lead to

[[Page S1490]]

higher health care costs, higher insurance premiums, and a vast 
expansion of government's role in our daily lives. They are pulling out 
all the stops. They are doing everything they can to jam this bill 
through, and they don't even seem to care anymore about how ugly it all 
looks.
  What we are seeing is nothing more than a replay of the same 
revolting process Democrats used to pass this bill in the Senate, a 
process that completely outraged the public. The same deals they used 
to get this bill through the Senate are back. As if voting on these 
deals the first time wasn't bad enough, Democrats in the House are now 
getting ready to vote for them again. Every one of the deals that were 
so revolting to the American people will still be in the bill House 
Members are expected to vote on later this week. That means that 
anybody who votes for this bill will be voting in favor of the special 
deals that were put there for no other reason than to sway votes.
  A handful of Democrats have stood up in opposition to these deals and 
this entire process. One longtime Democratic Congressman said last week 
that he won't be voting for the bill as a result of the deals. Here is 
what he had to say. This Democratic Congressman said:

       I reject unequivocally the unsavory deal making that took 
     place in the Senate where Nebraska, Florida, and Louisiana 
     obtained special benefits that do not apply to the other 
     States and those special benefits provided to those States at 
     the expense of the residents of all other States. I simply 
     cannot support legislation that contains those unwarranted 
     giveaways to a select few States at the expense of others.

  That was a Democratic Member of the House of Representatives.
  But others are keeping quiet. They are still on the fence. That is 
why this week's vote promises to be even uglier than the last one, 
because this bill goes beyond things such as the ``Cornhusker 
kickback'' and the ``Louisiana purchase'' and the ``Gator aid.''
  I was disappointed to see the White House reverse itself over the 
weekend and endorse many of these sweetheart deals after the President 
said he would try to have them removed. Apparently, they determined 
that removing the deals might jeopardize efforts to pass the bill. So 
now the White House says it won't object to all of the special deals, 
just some of them. The White House says it won't object to all the 
special deals, just some of them. What that means, of course, is that 
some Senators and House Members are getting special deals on top of 
special deals.
  But that is not all the White House is willing to do to jam this bill 
through. According to press reports, it is also promising to raise 
campaign cash for House Members who vote for the House bill. We read in 
one of the papers today that the White House is openly signaling that 
those lawmakers will go to the top of the list for fundraisers and 
Presidential visits ahead of the November elections. So if press 
accounts are accurate, lawmakers who support the bill are being told 
they get repaid with Presidential visits and big-money fundraisers from 
the President or the Vice President--vote for the bill and you get a 
special visit for your reelection campaign.

  We also read this morning in the Politico Pulse that the drug 
lobbyists were here in the Capitol over the weekend huddling with 
Democratic staffers to make sure their interests would be protected in 
the final bill.
  This is precisely the kind of thing Americans rebelled against after 
the last vote on this bill. This debate should be about the substance 
of a bill that would restructure one-sixth of our economy and the 
direction Americans want to go in as a country, not how much money 
such-and-such Senator or Congressman needs in order to vote for it.
  It is especially disappointing that this particular White House is 
supporting all this. After the ``Cornhusker kickback'' and the other 
special deals, the administration had an opportunity to distance itself 
from this process, to hit the reset button, and to work toward a bill 
Americans could be proud of. Unfortunately, in its desperation to force 
this bill through, the White House is reverting to the anything-goes 
approach, and the result is predictable: Americans won't like this bill 
any more than they liked the last one. They have issued their verdict 
about this bill and this process. They don't like either one. And once 
again, the only people who don't seem to get it are the Democrats here 
in Washington.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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