[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 38 (Tuesday, March 16, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1565-S1566]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, the President recently noted that 
everything there is to say about health care has already been said. 
When it comes to the substance of the legislation, this may be true. I 
suspect that is why an overwhelming majority of Americans oppose it. 
Americans know exactly what is in this bill, and they have rejected it. 
They do not want this bill to pass.
  But there is still a lot to be said about the process Democrats are 
using to force this bill through. That won't change whether they get 
their votes this week or not. The fact is, the die has already been 
cast on this Congress. Democratic leaders have been imploring Members 
to make history--make history, they say--by voting for this bill. But 
this Congress is already guaranteed to go down in history--not for any 
piece of legislation but for the arrogant way it has dictated to the 
American people what is best for them and for the ugly way in which it 
has gone about getting around the will of the American people. 
Democratic leaders have made it perfectly clear that they view their 
constituents as an obstacle, particularly on the issue of health care. 
At every turn, they have

[[Page S1566]]

met fierce public opposition, and every time they have tried to come up 
with a way to get around that fierce public opposition. It has become a 
vicious cycle: the harder Democrats try to get around the public, the 
more repellent their proposals become and the more egregious their 
efforts become to get them through anyway.
  We watched last summer as they forced their partisan health care bill 
through the committees. We watched as they tried to sell it to the 
public as something other than what it was. We watched as they wrote 
the final bill behind closed doors, then wheeled and dealed to get the 
last few votes they needed to squeeze it through both Chambers on a 
party-line vote. We saw the ``Cornhusker kickback,'' the ``Louisiana 
purchase,'' ``Gator Aid,'' and all the rest. But as ugly as all this 
was, as distasteful as all these deals have been, they were child's 
play--child's play--compared to the scheme they have been cooking up 
over in the House just this week.
  The plan Speaker Pelosi has hatched for getting this bill through is 
to try to pull the wool over the eyes of the public, and it is jaw-
dropping--it is jaw-dropping--in its audacity. Here is their plan: 
Speaker Pelosi can't get enough of her Democratic majority to vote for 
the Senate version of the bill, so she and her allies have concocted a 
way to pass it without actually casting a vote on it. They are 
concocting a way to pass it without actually casting a vote on it--the 
so-called Slaughter solution in which the Senate bill is ``deemed'' to 
have passed. This way, they will claim they never voted for it, even 
though they will vote to send it to the President for his signature.
  This ``scheme and deem'' approach has never been tried on a bill of 
this scope, according to today's Washington Post. This is how they will 
try to keep their fingerprints off a bill that forces taxpayers to 
cover the cost of abortions, cuts Medicare by $\1/2\ trillion, raises 
taxes by $\1/2\ trillion, raises insurance premiums, creates a brand 
new government entitlement program at a time when the entitlement 
programs we already have are on the verge of bankruptcy, and vastly 
expands the cost and reach of the Federal Government in Washington at a 
time when most Americans think government is already entirely too big.

  As Speaker Pelosi put it, ``Nobody wants to vote for the Senate 
bill.'' But anyone who believes they can send this bill to the 
President without being tarred by it is absolutely delusional. Anybody 
who thinks this is a good strategy isn't thinking clearly. They are too 
close to the situation. They don't realize this strategy is the only 
thing for which they or this Congress will be remembered. Anyone who 
endorses this strategy will be forever remembered for trying to claim 
they didn't vote for something they did. They will be forever 
remembered by claiming they didn't vote for something they did vote 
for. It will go down as one of the most extraordinary legislative 
sleights of hand in history. Make no mistake, this will be a career-
defining and a Congress-defining vote. Make no mistake, this will be a 
career-defining and a Congress-defining vote.
  Most of the time, the verdict of history is hard to predict. In this 
case, it is not. Anyone who endorses this strategy will be remembered 
for it. On the other hand, anyone who decides in a moment of clarity 
that they shouldn't, that they should resist this strategy, will be 
remembered for standing up to party leadership that lost its way.
  Democratic leaders continue to advance the false argument that this 
effort is somehow akin to certain legislative efforts of the past. 
There is no comparison. First of all, the good programs they are 
referring to were far more modest. They enjoyed broad support from both 
parties in Congress. Most importantly, they enjoyed broad support of 
the American people.
  By contrast, there is no bipartisan consensus about this bill in 
Congress. It aims to reshape no less than one-sixth of our entire 
economy at a moment when our economy is already suffering and our 
existing debts threaten to drown us in a sea of red ink. Most 
importantly, Americans overwhelmingly oppose it. If you need any 
evidence of that, look no further than today's Washington Post, which 
calls this process unseemly, or the Cincinnati Enquirer, which calls it 
disgusting. Look no further than the President's own pollster, who is 
telling the White House that the chicanery the Democrats have used to 
advance this measure is a serious problem.
  This entire effort has been a travesty, but the latest solution to 
give House Members a way out by telling them they can pretend they 
didn't vote for something they will, in fact, be voting for has sealed 
its fate. The latest solution to give House Members a way out by 
telling them they can pretend they didn't vote for something they will, 
in fact, vote for has sealed the fate of this legislation with the 
American public.
  It is time for rank-and-file Democrats to pull the fire alarm--pull 
the fire alarm--and save the American people from this latest scheme 
and this unpopular bill. The process has been tainted. It is time to 
end the vicious cycle, start over, cleanse the process, and work on the 
step-by-step reforms the American people really want. It is time to 
recognize that constituents are not obstacles--constituents are not 
obstacles--to overcome with schemes and sweetheart deals. Fortunately, 
it is not too late.
  I yield the floor.

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