[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 38 (Tuesday, March 16, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H1467]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

  (Mr. ROYCE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. ROYCE. Madam Speaker, when we picked up the headlines of The 
Washington Post today, it says, ``Pelosi may try to pass health bill 
without vote.'' And through nothing more than budgetary gimmicks, like 
counting half a trillion dollars reserved for Medicare twice, the 
Speaker claims it's going to pencil out.
  I think the American people know better. They understand that you 
cannot create a massive new entitlement program behind closed doors and 
expect our dire financial situation, our dire fiscal predicament in 
this country to do anything except compound.
  Instead of addressing the actual drivers of rising health care costs, 
like escalating legal liability cost, and structural flaws in the way 
insurance is regulated, this bill compounds the problem and shifts the 
cost curve up, not down.
  Faced with trillion-dollar deficits as far as the eye can see, now is 
the time to take a step back and look for incremental reforms that can 
increase affordability for millions of Americans without saddling 
future generations with this unpayable tab.
  The American people know that when so-called health care reform 
includes tax hikes, less freedom and more government control, it's a 
government takeover of health care.

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