[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 41 (Friday, March 19, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H1721]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Broun) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, America is at a pivotal point in 
its history. We hear a lot of claims on both sides that are 
contradicting. And I want to just talk for a few minutes about some of 
those claims and just give you some simple truths. We heard all day 
long today that doctors support this government takeover of the health 
care plan. I brought one of several charts that we are putting together 
in my office. Nearly 500,000 doctors, represented by a number of 
organizations, including the Medical Association of Georgia, my own 
medical society, are against this bill.
  In fact, this chart, small letters, this is just the beginning of the 
A's. The simple truth is that doctors don't support this bill, if they 
are practicing physicians, overwhelmingly.
  Now, I am a family practice doctor. My own society, the American 
Academy of Family Physicians, has supported the bill. They have cut a 
sweetheart deal where the reimbursement rate for primary care docs, 
family doctors like me, will be upped a little bit. But what they 
haven't looked at is all the ramifications of this, which are going to 
be disastrous for their own practices.
  The AMA cut a sweetheart deal. It is my understanding that they 
wanted tort reform, an SGR fix, and 100 percent coverage. They haven't 
done very well with that because none of those three are going to be 
accomplished in the Senate bill that we will be voting on this weekend.
  We have heard claims about CBO says it is going to reduce the 
deficit. Well, the simple truth is they have used zombie economics to 
get these numbers. Because one would have to be walking around in a 
dead person to believe the economic parameters that were forced upon 
the CBO. A good example is the CBO was forced to score, or tell us how 
much it would cost when we pay out only 6 years' worth of benefits but 
we have 10 years' worth of increased taxes.
  The Internal Revenue Service is going to be markedly increased in 
size and given more authority to snoop into our personal lives. In 
fact, they are going to hire 16,000 new agents to look at our bank 
accounts, look at our health records, look at whether we have 
acceptable health insurance as is deemed by a board here in Washington, 
D.C.
  We hear our colleagues on the Democratic side, the far left, talk 
about people cannot get health insurance or health care. Well, they use 
health care and health insurance as being synonymous. I have treated 
many patients during my almost four decades of practicing medicine 
where I have treated them for free. Doctors all over this country are 
doing so. And some of the societies look at a government takeover of 
health care, maybe they will be paid for these patients that they are 
treating for free, and so maybe it is a better deal for them. But they 
are sadly mistaken.
  Mr. Speaker, the simple truth is we are at a pivotal point in our 
history. We are going to go down a direction that is going to lead us 
towards total government control of our lives. And that is exactly what 
this so-called health care bill that we are going to be voting on, the 
Senate bill, with all of its special sweetheart deals, the taxpayer-
funded abortion, the Cornhusker kickback, the Florida gator aid, the 
Louisiana purchase, all those special sweetheart deals, we are going to 
vote on that by voting for a rule. And it is going to deem that bill to 
be passed.
  Deem and Pass is what they say. That sounds like an old western, 
doesn't it. Deem and Pass. The only people who are going to be ambushed 
are the American people. Because the only people who are really going 
to be benefiting from that bill are the government bureaucrats and the 
politicians here in Washington that are supporting this bill.
  We are at a pivotal point. The American people have to decide. Are we 
going to decide between freedom on one hand or socialism on the other? 
Are we going to look at entrepreneurial market solutions to lower the 
cost of health care, to cover people who are uninsurable? And we have 
those answers. The Republican Party is the Party of K-n-o-w. The 
American people can stop this by saying ``no'' and contacting their 
Democratic Congressman and tell them to vote ``no'' and we can stop 
this leap towards socialism and vote for freedom.

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