[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 42 (Saturday, March 20, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H1810-H1816]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2009, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) is recognized 
for 60 minutes.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor any time to come speak, to 
have the privilege of speaking on the House floor. It's been a long 
day. It's been a long week. I fear there will be longer days, weeks, 
and years in the future if tomorrow this bill passes, because some of 
us have seen socialized medicine firsthand. As an exchange student in 
the Soviet Union, I have seen it back in 1973. I know where this all 
goes. I've seen where this plays out. And I know that my friends on the 
other side of the aisle believe their motivation is the highest and the 
best. I understand that. I understand our friends that are pushing for 
government control of health care honestly believe the country will be 
better off if they can only get all health care, health insurance under 
the control of the Federal Government, and everyone is better off.

                              {time}  2230

  I know they believe that, and I know they believe that they are 
acting in everyone's best interest in pushing for this, but that is not 
the basis for the founding of this country. And for anyone that has 
read ``The 5,000 Year Leap,'' I was a history major, I pride myself on 
being a bit of a historian, and that book gave me an interesting 
perspective because for nearly 5,000 years when settlers came to a new 
area and settled down there, they came with basically the same tools. 
They tried to grow crops and live off the land; and for 5,000 years, 
there wasn't a whole lot of change.
  And then came this incredible experiment brought by people who, like 
the Pilgrims, came from Holland to England and then to America, people 
who came to get away from persecution as Christians. And they came 
here, and after that first horrible winter when the Pilgrims decided to 
try a new idea and give everybody private property and I live off what 
you grow, and you can sell or trade what you have left, and this 
private property concept began to grow and flourish, and free 
enterprise took over; and in just a few short years, relatively 
speaking in history, this country advanced more than the whole human 
race did in 5,000, just in a couple of hundred years. And it was the 
entrepreneurial spirit was

[[Page H1811]]

given a chance to just grow and flourish.
  You see what happens when the government takes over health care. In 
those countries, they meant well. They thought this will be so much 
better, we will give government-type control choice, and it will be 
better for everybody. And then you come back to the statistics and we 
have been told so often that gee, Canada, Europe and England, their 
health care is so much better than ours. But you compare cancer rates, 
if you have cancer, you want to be in the United States because your 
odds of survival are so much better. Why? Because there is liberty and 
entrepreneurial spirit. There is more ability to take off and develop 
new things, more research and development right here in this country 
because of the basis on which we were founded.
  My dad was found to have prostate cancer back in the 1990s, and thank 
God he is still here. I lost my mother in 1991. But if you are found to 
have prostate cancer in America, you have a 92 percent chance of 
survival. If my dad had prostate cancer in England, he has a 50/50 
chance of living. I know where I would want my father to live.
  Now there have been some horror stories that make all of us mad. The 
example of the lady who was denied coverage when the insurance company 
knew they should have had coverage, knew they should have provided it 
and they even had their own internal doctor say, yes, she is covered 
and you should provide the coverage or she will lose her baby, and they 
refused to provide coverage and she lost her baby and it went to the 
Supreme Court. And they said no because the Federal Government passed 
something called ERISA, and under that law, which is where her policy 
is, you can't sue for denial of coverage.
  There is a provision in here, and I am wondering if that is part of 
the deal that talked insurance companies, some of them, into buying 
into this monstrosity. I wonder. But there are coverages that will be 
covered under ERISA that may not have been covered under ERISA 
otherwise. As a former judge, those are cases that they filed in State 
district court. Immediately, the insurance lawyer comes and files for 
removal, they go to Federal court, and then they get dismissed. You 
can't sue them under ERISA for denial of coverage. So maybe that was 
one of the bargaining points for the insurance companies to sign on.
  I have seen some of the things that got the pharmaceutical companies 
to sign on because they were going to force people to buy prescription 
drugs that they could otherwise buy over-the-counter generic. I have 
seen those deals.
  It has been an extraordinary day. My friend referred to perhaps 
20,000. If you look at the area that was filled with people today, and 
I have heard the park estimates that area, when it is full, is at least 
80,000, and that is what it appeared to me to be. It was an amazing 
day. People want their liberty. They don't want the government to 
control their health care records. They don't want the IRS to be the 
extension of the government of the health care that is going to tell 
them what they can and can't do.
  And of course the big news of the week was when we learned that CBO 
said it was going to cost around $10 billion to hire around 17,000 new 
IRS agents because those are the agents that are going to monitor 
everyone to make sure you are doing exactly what the government in this 
monstrous bill is telling them to do.
  I don't want this. When you look at the survival rates, whether it is 
cancer or heart disease, it is better here. You have a heart problem, 
you go have heart surgery, and they can't turn you down because you 
don't have insurance.
  I had a gentleman in east Texas from Canada tell me his father died 
because he lived in Canada and under the Canadian system, when he was 
found to need a bypass, they put him on a list where he stayed for 2 
years because the Canadian system they had bureaucrats, under their 
bill, about like this, that moved people in front of him on the list 
and he died waiting to get his bypass. You don't wait 2 years to get a 
bypass in the United States.
  But there have been abuses. We need to deal with those. We can fix 
those. I have a health care bill that I filed, and I have got this 
amended version. I have been trying to get my health care bill scored 
since last summer. I think so much of Newt Gingrich. He said, Man, you 
have got to get that scored. That ought to score well, and it could 
change the whole debate on health care reform because there are a lot 
of free market ideas that put insurance companies out from between us 
and our doctors. It tells seniors, you can have your Medicare and your 
Medicaid if you want them; or, and it is going to be cheaper for the 
government, we will give you $3,500 cash in your own debit card 
account, HSA account, health savings account, you control it with a 
debit card, and we will buy you private insurance to cover everything 
above that. There are all kinds of good ideas.
  I see friends on the floor here that have brought some fantastic 
ideas. No one has done more in working to reform health care than Dr. 
Michael Burgess over here, but those ideas have been shut out.
  I would like to recognize my friend from Georgia who was a member of 
the legislature in Georgia. He has dealt with these issues. He has been 
in the debate on these issues and heard hearings on these issues.
  I would like to yield to him.
  Mr. WESTMORELAND. I would like to thank my friend for taking this 
hour and for calling and asking me to come help with this hour because 
I, like the gentleman, have been out today talking to some of the 
people who have come up.
  One thing, Mr. Speaker, that the majority have said to me, Please 
help us. We don't want this.
  I had one lady who came to my office today that has a son that has a 
condition, and they don't have health insurance. It is her and her 
husband and her son. They get one unemployment check a month. Their son 
has $800,000 worth of insurance bills today, and she said, I do not 
want this bill. My son has never been denied health care, good care.
  Now there was some people, and the night is late, I had some people 
who drove for 12, 14, 16 hours. And I had one lady who said that they 
didn't decide to come up until about 2 o'clock yesterday from Georgia. 
They left their home at 4 and got here at 4:30 in the morning. It is 
for them that I think myself and my other colleagues are here tonight, 
to argue for them, because we are not going to change anybody's mind on 
the other side of the aisle because we don't have the power to change 
their mind.

                              {time}  2240

  I think what has been demonstrated is that if you have the control, 
if you have the gavel you can offer the deals, as my colleague from 
Georgia pointed out about the Cornhusker kickback, the Gator aid, the 
Louisiana purchase. But we have some Members here in the House that 
haven't been that expensive of a buy. I mean, we've had people fly on 
Air Force One that all of a sudden got this idea that they needed to 
switch their vote. I think they would have made a better decision 
driving around in Scott Brown's pickup truck, personally, than riding 
on Air Force One.
  We've got people that are changing from a ``no'' to a ``yes'' that 
may have a job at NASA. I mean, we don't know of all the deals and all 
the other things. But we do know that evidently that our Members are 
cheaper than what the Senators were. We do know that. But we don't 
understand.
  And you were talking, my friend from Texas was mentioning why are the 
insurance companies for this? He mentioned several reasons. Let me give 
my friend another one. Four hundred thirty-six billion dollars that the 
Federal Government is going to be paying these insurance companies in 
subsidies. That's the reason they're for this bill.
  I don't know if the gentleman heard our colleagues from the other 
side of the aisle that had an hour or so tonight talking about all the 
free things that this bill is going to give, and not realizing I guess 
that nothing the government ever does is free. And we need to get that 
straight. I mean, there's not anything free.
  I was noticing downstairs they were talking about the tax credit for 
homes. They said, come in and apply with us and you get a free 
calculator. I promise you that calculator was costing somebody 
something. In the free screenings, in the free preventive screenings, 
in the free medical supplies, those things aren't free.

[[Page H1812]]

  Those people that we were talking to today out on this lawn and out 
on the Mall and out on the steps are the ones that's going to be paying 
for this. The average American and his tax dollars is going to be 
paying for it. I've got a list here that I've already read once, and am 
willing to read it again, about all of the costs that's coming with 
this bill.
  Now, if you had listened to our colleagues on the other side of the 
aisle, you would think that they believe in Santa Claus and the Easter 
Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. And that if they pass this bill all the 
world's problems are going to be solved, that every problem in the 
world is going to be solved, and our whole problem is going to be 
solved.
  But if you talk to the medical professionals in this country, they'll 
tell you it's not going to be solved. They'll tell you that our 
problems are just beginning. They're going to tell you that they're 
going to leave their practice. I've got doctors that have told me if 
this thing passes and goes into effect, I will quit my practice.
  I want to thank my friend from Texas for taking this opportunity. 
This is the last special order there will be before we have the vote, 
the historic vote, on the government takeover of health care. So I 
think it is important that we understand that we're talking on behalf 
of the American people, we're talking on behalf of those individuals 
that took their time and their energy and spent their hard-earned money 
for transportation up here. We're up here fighting for them. Hopefully, 
hopefully, they will continue to fight with us.
  Because there's only 178 Republicans. And the only thing bipartisan 
about this 2,700-page bill that's going to pass is the opposition to 
it. That's going to be Republican and Democratic opposition. That's 
going to be the only thing bipartisan about this bill. Everything else 
is a ram-through by the majority that is going to be paid for by the 
American taxpayers not just in additional taxes, but by all the 
sweeteners that we don't even know what has gone on to buy these votes 
that is going to come about tomorrow night.
  I hope that people will continue not to give up on us, not to give up 
on their self, because we don't need to quit. The vote hasn't been 
taken yet. And to my friend from Texas, and I know you believe in this, 
but we need to make sure that everybody is in prayer tonight about the 
decisions that this body is going to make tomorrow.
  With that, I will yield back.
  Mr. GOHMERT. I thank my friend from Georgia so much. We have also 
been joined by another Member of Congress, he just has been doing an 
amazing job, really so powerful. He knows the President firsthand, 
having debated him back in Illinois in the legislature there. Has great 
insight himself.
  I would like to yield such time as the gentleman from Illinois may 
use.
  Mr. ROSKAM. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  I just want to reflect back for a minute and think about a couple of 
football seasons ago. Remember when the New England Patriots were 
having just an unbelievable season, just unbelievable, winning game 
after game after game after game. And it looked like there was just no 
end in sight. In fact, if you were going to be in the t-shirt business 
or the tchotchke business or the hat business no one would have thought 
you crazy if you would have said that the New England Patriots were 
going to be the Super Bowl champions that year. It was a year or 2 or 3 
ago. You know where I'm going.

  But there was one little thing that had to happen before the Patriots 
could get the Super Bowl ring that year. That was, they had to play a 
Super Bowl. And you remember that. There was a team, the New York 
Giants, that had a little bit different of a plan. The New York Giants 
came down and they played that game, and lo and behold the Giants won 
the Super Bowl.
  There is a lot going on inside this Capitol tonight. There is a lot 
going on inside this town tonight. There is a lot of churn and a lot of 
burn, and a lot of folks don't know which way they are going to go on 
this vote. We know one thing for sure: There's going to be 178 
Republicans that are going to stand up and vote against this bill. 
There is also going to be some number of clear-thinking Democrats on 
the other side of the aisle who either understand fundamentally what 
this will mean to the country or understand fundamentally that they 
will run roughshod over their constituents, or for whatever reason are 
going to come over and vote with us. We just don't know what number 
that is. So this thing is not done by a long shot.
  I was so incredibly encouraged to go out today and to see the folks 
that were coming out, respectful, solid, clear-thinking Americans. As 
the gentleman from Georgia said, these folks got up, they drove all 
night. I got a voice mail from a friend from Illinois. He and his wife 
were driving all night to get out here. Why? Because they knew that 
this was the place to be. They knew that this was the time to stand up 
for freedom.
  Ultimately, if you think about it, there is an account in the Bible 
that I want to take us all back to. We all remember Isaac, Abraham's 
son, who had two sons himself. One son was Esau, the oldest son, and 
the other was Jacob. Esau, as the older son in that culture and that 
time, basically when the old man were to die, Esau, the oldest son, was 
going to get the lion's share of his father's estate, probably a 90 
percent ownership share. Something like that. It was called the 
birthright.
  And as the Bible tells the story, Esau is out in the field and he is 
hungry. I mean he is really, really hungry. He comes back in, his 
younger brother Jacob is making a pot of stew. And Esau smells the stew 
and he says to his younger brother, ``Give me some stew.'' And Jacob, 
the younger brother, says to the older one, ``Give me your 
birthright.'' And Esau, like a fool, said ``Yes.'' Esau traded his 
birthright for what? For a pot of stew. For nothing.
  Now, there's a lot of Americans right now that are anxious. There's a 
lot of Americans that look out over this economy and this season that 
we are in and they say, wow, I've not seen this season. I've not seen 
unemployment like this. I've not seen Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac 
unravel like this. I've not seen the wheels come off the cart like 
this. I've not seen it where my children come out and graduate from 
college and can't get a good job because unemployment has peaked beyond 
8 percent even though the White House told me if we spent a trillion 
dollars that was all going to be fine and fantastic. I've not seen a 
season like this before.
  Ultimately, sometimes there are folks that are listening to that and 
are feeling that, and are anxious, and they're hungry, and they're 
fearful, and they're worried. And you know what, they have every right 
to be. But the temptation--and this is where this group that came in 
today, these folks that drove overnight, they understand the 
temptation. And what they are saying and what Republicans are saying in 
the House of Representatives today, what Republicans are saying in the 
other body, what they are all saying is, don't take the bait.

                              {time}  2250

  Don't give away your birthright as an American for what? For 
stability? From this town? From this place? Are you kidding? This 
institution can't balance a checkbook. They can't offer you stability. 
They can't offer you the hope for your children in the future. Don't 
take the bait.
  And what the American public is saying to political leadership is, 
Look. We've seen it. We understand it. Yeah. We're fearful. We're 
uncertain about the future, but we know it's not where that majority 
wants to take us. We know we don't want to go there. That doesn't end 
well. That ends in lost opportunity. That ends in calamitous debt that 
is foisted on our children and our grandchildren.
  You know, the gentleman mentioned a couple of minutes ago this IRS 
empowerment, essentially, that comes as a result of this bill. You 
think about that. Now, it would be fantastic if the bill really did 
create more slots, more opportunities for physicians like Dr. Burgess, 
for physicians like Dr. Price, for physicians like Dr. Gingrey and 
others. We've got more medical doctors in our conference, House 
Republicans who are physicians, than ever in history. It would be great 
if this bill created slots. It doesn't.
  You know what it does? It creates slots for IRS agents. Why? Because 
the Internal Revenue Service is going to be the group, going to be the 
institution that is empowered if this majority has their way. Think 
about that. What that

[[Page H1813]]

ultimately means is health care areas are going to be sending the 
functionality equivalent of a 1099 to the Internal Revenue Service 
telling them who's got the official coverage that Speaker Pelosi has 
said they need to have.
  You got the official coverage, okay. You get the 1099 that comes from 
the health carrier and it goes to the IRS. But if your name is not on 
that list and you're a taxpayer, you know what's going to happen? You 
better come up with some excuse, because if you don't come up with an 
excuse, do you know who's coming after you? 16,500 new IRS employees, a 
billion dollars a year, the CBO estimates, $10 billion over 10 years. 
For what? For what? For a crushing debt. For an organization to expand 
authority. And that is absolutely not the direction we need to go.
  There are so many reasons to say no, no, no, no, no. This is not what 
we need to do. And I am so encouraged by the folks who showed up today 
that said, You know what? We're going to speak out. We're going to 
speak out. The Republican leader, John Boehner, put it best--and then I 
will close and I will yield back. He said this. He said Democrats may 
run Washington but the Americans run the country, and that is true.
  This would have been done months and months and months ago, but what 
has happened? The American public has risen up every time. Every time. 
Every time. Google the phrase ``end game,'' ``Democrat's end game.'' 
Google that phrase and you will see that they were starting to trot 
this out at the end of July. Remember? This was all game, set, match, 
done. Go home. This is going to be done by the August recess. And then 
one group of people said, No. And that was the American people. The 
American people said, No. No. We listened, but thank you very much. We 
don't want this bill. We want you guys to go back to the drawing board 
and start over.
  So the fight is on. This is anything but done. This is anything but 
finished, and the American public knows it. That majority knows it, 
because if they had the votes, we would be voting tonight. We would be 
voting tonight if they had the votes. They don't have the votes yet, 
and there are still some clear thinkers on that side of the aisle, Mr. 
Speaker, who understand what is at stake.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Will the gentleman yield for a question?
  You know, the President has been promising Members on the other side, 
if you will just pass this bill--Speaker Pelosi has been promising 
people on the other side, if you will just pass this bill, then between 
now and November, there are going to be things in this bill that kick 
in that are going to make America love you and want to vote for you in 
November.
  And I was just curious if the gentleman knows what the biggest thing 
is that kicks in immediately in this bill between now and election 
time.
  Mr. ROSKAM. I have a lot of ideas, but my sense is you've got 
something on the top of your mind. What is that?
  Mr. GOHMERT. The first thing that kicks in are taxes. They kick in 
immediately. And I know you've dealt with the grass roots. You've been 
part of the local communities and business community, and the gentleman 
knows what it is to make a bottom line.
  Right now in this economy, can you envision what happens with 
additional taxes, say an additional 8 percent payroll tax on some of 
the people you've been hearing from and talking to?

  And I would yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. ROSKAM. It is a crushing thought, actually. Here is the 
misfortune of this; that there is, in this time in our country, really 
an understanding that health care does cost too much, and everybody who 
needs access doesn't have access, and preexisting conditions do jam 
people up. Those are the things that I am hearing from my district. 
They say, You know what? That is what we want you to be talking about. 
We don't want you to be talking about wild-eyed 2,700-page adventures. 
We don't want to be talking about trillion dollar boondoggles where 
States in different places across the country, based on political 
influence, could be manipulating things and cajoling things that you 
can hardly stand when you hear about them or talk about them with a 
straight face.
  But my district is saying--and I know the gentleman from Tyler, 
Texas's district is saying the same thing, and that is: Get about the 
business of fixing this economy. Get about the business of driving 
health care costs down and, therefore, by driving it down, making it 
more affordable, and then ultimately deal with preexisting conditions. 
We can do that. We have a good Republican plan to do that.
  But with all due respect to Speaker Pelosi, what she is asking this 
majority to do--and some of these Members that haven't made up their 
minds right now--she is asking them to do what you could only 
characterize as political bungee jumping. Just go right off the bridge. 
The Speaker hasn't measured the rope. She hasn't measured the rope, and 
she's saying, No, you all just lean forward. It will be great. Just 
lean forward just right off that bridge. Just lean forward.
  And yeah, I'm sure it looks really good. It looks like it's going to 
catch. She hasn't measured that rope, and she's asking her majority, 
unfortunately, to lean over and just, frankly, squander the trust that 
the American public has put them in.
  Mr. GOHMERT. I thank my friend from Illinois so very much.
  And, you know, I've been talking to people all over my district, and 
of course today with tens of thousands of people going through the 
crowds and hearing from people, talking to people, it has been 
staggering. But I had a conversation last night before I came to the 
floor with a gentleman in a small business. He has under 20 employees, 
but he was saying, In my 25 years in this business, I have never been 
so on the bubble as I am right now. I'm hanging on by my fingernails. 
You put a 2 percent tax on me, much less an 8 percent payroll tax on 
me, I'm done. I'm out of business, and everybody that works for me is 
out of business.
  And when the number one concern in America is the economy, jobs, and 
really not just jobs, but careers--we're destroying careers here. They 
said, Well, people want jobs. No. They need careers. We're destroying 
them right and left.
  Here's an article this week about Caterpillar. They wrote to the 
President. They said, Please, don't do this. This will cost us a 
hundred million dollars in the first year. How do you think a company 
that is in--you know, they're doing okay. They're the world's largest 
manufacturer of construction equipment, but they have said they're 
barely hanging on.
  The President went to Caterpillar and said they're barely hanging on; 
we're going to help them. How is helping them putting another hundred 
million dollar burden on them? That may drive Caterpillar overseas like 
we have done to so many businesses.
  But I'm telling you, my heart breaks for these businesspeople who 
love their employees that have been with them for a long time, and 
we're hearing, I don't want to lose my employees. I'm either going to 
have to close down, have my employees take dramatic pay cuts at a time 
they sure can't afford it, or I'm out of business. Those are the 
choices I got.

                              {time}  2300

  I appreciate my friend, Dr. Burgess, a medical doctor, being here 
with probably more experience in reviewing the alternatives in health 
care.
  I would like to yield him such time as he may use.
  Mr. BURGESS. I appreciate the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Roskam from Illinois talked about how the American people want us 
to fix the economy. And one of the ways we can help that is if we will 
conclude this discussion we've been having about taking over America's 
health care system, because I firmly believe that is one of the things 
that is holding back small businesses across the country that have been 
having to cut back over the last 18 months. They have been doing what 
every American family has been doing and say, We will have to make do 
with a little bit less, maybe we won't hire that extra employee. But 
they also don't know what we're going to do. Are we going to put an 8 
percent payroll tax on them? Are we going to put an $1,100-a-year 
energy tax on them? What are we going to do in financial regulation? 
They are scared to add employees right now in small businesses across 
the country. And maybe it's only one or two jobs in a location, but 
extrapolated across the

[[Page H1814]]

wider economy, it's thousands and thousands of jobs.
  That is the problem with us not dealing with the fundamental problem 
that is concerning the American people, which is jobs and the economy 
and being distracted by health care. That is the fundamental problem 
out there right now with the people. That is the basis for the anger 
that people are feeling when they see what Congress is doing late 
tonight and what we are fixin' to do tomorrow, as we like to say in 
Texas.
  Now one of the things that I have heard over and over again, and I 
have heard the President say it, it is so aggravating to hear, is that 
Republicans are obstructing this process, Republicans had no ideas to 
bring to the table, and Republicans could have fixed everything in the 
last 12 years but chose not to, so now they need to get out of the way.
  Let me briefly take each of those points, because it is important for 
Americans to hear, Mr. Speaker, what has been going on up here this 
past year. From the standpoint of Republicans obstructing this process, 
it just isn't so. There are, as the gentleman from Texas said, 178 
Republicans. In fact, a few months ago, there were only 177. The 
arithmetic of the House is if you have 218 votes, you get to do what 
you say. One hundred seventy-seven Republicans were not enough to stop 
anything in the House of Representatives unless some Democrats crossed 
the aisle and voted with us.
  And do you know what? That's what started happening. And as a 
consequence, it's not Republicans who are obstructing this process; 
it's Democrats. It's a problem they have within their own conference. 
Why is that? Well, they don't have the popular support of the American 
people. A poll out just today said 40 percent of the people think we 
are doing too much and we ought to go back to the drawing board and see 
if we can't do something more manageable, and 20 percent said we 
shouldn't be working on health care at all.
  Sixty percent, six out of 10 Americans think this is the wrong thing 
for us to be doing right here right now. So without the popular support 
of the American people, the Democratic leadership, the Speaker of the 
House, the President of the United States, the majority leader over in 
the other body cannot get done what they want to get done. And oh, my 
God, what is the reason? Those darn Republicans are obstructing us.
  Now from the standpoint of Republican ideas, as the gentleman from 
Texas has said, there have been Republican ideas that have been talked 
about literally all year long. Now, look, right after the President was 
sworn in, I was surprised that they didn't come forward with a big 
health care bill. I was surprised that health care wasn't the number 
one thing on the agenda because they talked about it. All during the 
campaign that's all you heard about was health care, health care, 
health care. I thought they had a bill ready to go. I thought they had 
a bill in the works. I thought it would come out of the Senate Finance 
Committee, the House would simply follow suit, and there we would be, 
we would have a health care bill.
  The fact is if we voted on this health care bill last year, it 
probably would have passed. The President was extremely popular at that 
time. Congressional Democrats were popular at that time. There likely 
would have been nothing that would have been standing in the way. But 
since they decided to do some other things first, stimulus, cap-and-
trade, taking over school loans, whatever else they had on the agenda, 
because they chose to do other things first, people had a chance to 
start looking at this bill. And we have heard this story several times 
tonight. We heard it in the previous hour.
  A year ago, I was feeling in my town halls an enormous amount of 
anxiety, an enormous amount of unease, an enormous amount of energy 
that was bubbling up to the surface. We want to do something. If you're 
voting against this stuff, we want to help you. What can we do? What 
can we do? And people began to figure it out for themselves. They could 
organize at home and, yes, they can come to Washington, D.C.
  So they did over Fourth of July this past year, they did September 
12, they sure did in November, and they came back again today. And I 
couldn't help but think every time I talked to just regular people that 
were out in the great weather today on the lawn on the west side of the 
Capitol to hear the speeches and listen to the stuff, they were just 
regular people from back home who had come up because they were 
concerned about what they saw happening in Washington. But if it had 
not been for them, Mr. Roskam is right, this bill would have passed in 
July.
  I don't know if people recall that. We had a cap-and-trade bill right 
at the end of June. After that was queued up and put over the finish 
line, we were then supposed to take up health care. The bill was dumped 
into our committee about the middle of July. We were supposed to mark 
it up over 1 day, 1 day, and then turn it back to the House floor, and 
we would vote on it and then we would go home for the August recess.

  Just take a step back for a minute. You have heard people talk about 
this all day long. We've been talking about this for a year. We don't 
need to talk about health care any more. We've been talking about it 
for a full year. In 1990 and 1991, when my committee, the Committee on 
Energy and Commerce, marked up a bill that dealt with clear air, the 
Clean Air Act, they held that markup for I think it was 8 months. My 
lands, the people in that committee hated each other at the end of that 
8 months. But do you know what? It was the right thing to do, because 
in the end, it had bipartisan support. In the end, it did get passed. 
And in the end, it functioned as advertised. But not because they 
slammed it through, because they did have big majorities back in 1990 
and 1991.
  It worked because they did it the right way, and even though it was a 
terribly painful process, and although, again, people on the committee 
hated each other at the end of those 8 months, still, it was a better 
way to go about doing major legislation that is going to affect the 
lives of every American not just today but for generations to come, 
much better way to do that.
  We chose not to do that this year. We chose to ram it through as fast 
as we could. My committee, which was supposed to do this in 1 or 2 
days' time, ended up stretching it out over 8 days. And the reason it 
stretched out over 8 days is because seven Democrats on my committee 
heard from people back home during the month of July and they said, 
Wait a minute, wait a minute. We're getting nervous here. We're hearing 
all kinds of stuff from back home that people don't like what we're 
doing. They don't like what we did with cap-and-trade. Now they are 
looking at what we are doing with health care, and they are saying, put 
the brakes on. This is going too fast.
  Now we didn't end up stopping it in committee. It ended up passing on 
July 31. But the story is, it passed on July 31. It did not come to the 
House floor before we went home for the August recess. And then what 
happened in the August recess? That energy that had been almost 
palpable in April really, really did bubble to the surface. And we had 
people in town halls like we have never had before. The little sleepy 
town of Denton, Texas, early on a hot August Saturday morning I had 
2,000 people show up. Later in the day, I went up the road to 
Gainesville, Texas, up on the Red River, 600 people showed up. I have 
never had that kind of turnout in town halls. Not everyone agreed with 
me. Not everyone thought I was doing the right thing. But there was a 
broad consensus that they did not like what they were seeing with what 
Congress was doing with their health care.
  And you saw it play out over and over and over again across the 
country. It wasn't just north Texas. It was Michigan. It wasn't just 
north Texas, it was that way out West, it was that way on the east 
coast, over in Wisconsin, over and over and over again you saw the 
scenario replay itself. But do you know what? When I would have those 
town halls, people would say, we don't trust you with a 1,000-page 
bill. If the gentleman from Texas would indulge me, remember the good 
old days when it was only a 1,000-page bill, and he has a 2,700-page 
bill up there with him tonight? We don't trust a 1,000-page bill. We 
know you didn't read it. You said you wouldn't take this insurance 
yourself. Why should we be for that?
  But what we are for is some sensible reform. And I heard that over 
and over

[[Page H1815]]

and over again. Yes we would like help with preexisting conditions. In 
committee, we never had a hearing about is there any way to deal with 
the problem of existing conditions without resorting to an 
unconstitutional mandate? I believe that there is. But we never had a 
hearing on it. We never heard any testimony on that. It was simply, we 
have to have the mandate because everyone has to have insurance because 
that is just simply the way it's got to go.
  But that's not necessarily so. So what we heard: Help us with 
preexisting conditions, provide us a little flexibility, and maybe we 
would like to buy across State lines if it brought the cost down. We 
would like some liability reform if you don't mind. How about some 
fairness in the Tax Code so we don't punish the person who is in 
business for himself as opposed to someone who gets their insurance tax 
free from an employer. And do you know what? COBRA is awfully 
complicated and awfully expensive. Could you make that a little simpler 
for us because people are losing jobs right now, and as they lose jobs, 
they lose employer-sponsored health insurance. Yeah, you have COBRA 
where we can make that big payment and keep your insurance, but I just 
lost my job. I can't afford to make the big payment. And they let their 
insurance expire.

                              {time}  2310

  And then, unfortunately, some major medical crisis may hit, and then 
they have got a preexisting condition and the cycle repeats itself and 
repeats itself and repeats itself. These are the things that people 
told us they want to see.
  Now, I do have a Web site, healthcaucus.org. These things that I 
heard over the summer I have put into legislation, or I have taken 
legislation that other people have introduced and affixed that to those 
things that people told me they wanted to see. So at healthcaucus.org, 
under the issues tab, ``Dr. Burgess' prescriptions for health care 
reform,'' you can print that out yourself at home on your own computer, 
and there are nine things there.
  It is not like there is not already legislative language on most of 
those things, because there is. In fact, if there is a bill number 
there, I put the bill number beside it. If there is another Member of 
Congress who has a bill that has been introduced that will cover that 
issue, I have got their name there and the bill number beside it.
  The fact is that there are ideas out there. Some of them are even 
bipartisan. What a novel concept. But those ideas are out there on 
paper. We could take them up in an incremental fashion over the next 3 
weeks, and we could really be down the road on solving the problems the 
American people want us to solve.
  Instead--instead, it says one-size-fits-all. Washington knows best. 
Forget governing with the consent of the governed; we are going to give 
you this bill. And when we pass it and you find out what is in it, you 
are really going to like us after all.
  I thank the gentleman from Texas for taking this hour. The hours are 
growing close where this bill will come to the floor for a vote. We are 
probably getting down to almost the single digit number of hours that 
remain for America to remain a free country.
  This has been such an important debate. I hope people will continue 
to watch. I hope they will continue to interact with their Member of 
Congress. Remember, your Member of Congress runs for office every other 
year. We are people's closest contact with the Federal Government. That 
is what the Founders wanted. So I encourage people, even though it is 
late and even though it is on Sunday, this interaction that takes place 
between a Member of Congress and their constituents is a sacred bond, 
and that needs to be upheld over this next 24 hours. People do need to 
let their Member of Congress know how they feel about this. I think 
that is one of the most critical things that we have been missing in 
this debate.
  I thank the gentleman for his indulgence, and I will yield back to 
the gentleman from Tyler, Texas.
  Mr. GOHMERT. I thank my friend, Dr. Burgess. And I can assure my 
friend that it was not indulgence. It is a pleasure and honor to hear 
someone so knowledgeable about this very issue that is supposedly being 
brought to a vote tomorrow.
  This is big. And if people had heard the President talk back in 2007 
and going into this campaign for President in 2008, he made very clear, 
he has made it very clear that he would sign a bill like this that 
would be the first step towards socialized medicine. He said this will 
be the first step.
  Canada didn't get there in just one step. You need this step, and 
then you can transition into full--what is really socialized medicine.
  And in his speech today, to encourage Democrats to get on board, he 
said these words: ``This is the single most important step that we have 
taken on health care since Medicare.'' Absolutely. Absolutely it is. 
And that is the step he was talking about 2 years ago, that this is the 
first step, and then we move into full socialized medicine where the 
Federal Government controls everything about your health care. It is a 
huge step. It is a devastating step.
  And so you have to think that if there are those Democrats that are 
still trying to decide between ``yes'' and ``no,'' you really should 
think, what is--the President is saying all this good stuff will happen 
between now and November. Well, there may be a credit here or there, 
but when my friends that have talked to me about being so close between 
closing their business, being out of business, and hiring another 
employee and moving forward, when they get hit with an 8 percent 
payroll tax and have to go out of business and lay off everybody, or 
stay in business at a dramatically reduced level and lay off 
individuals, cut salaries, and those people can't pay their bills and 
then we lose more mortgages, I don't think people are going to be in a 
good mood come November.
  Now, I know Art Laffer has said--and he is such a brilliant 
economist--that it is possible that the economy could start improving 
for one reason, and that is that next January the biggest tax increase 
in American history will hit, and it will absolutely devastate the 
economy. So it could be that toward the end of the year, as people 
start moving to get ready for the massive increase in capital gains and 
all of the income tax rates that go up, that it may look right before 
the election like we are starting to have a recovery. Maybe so. But, on 
the other hand, when you start adding all these taxes now, that changes 
the equation.

  And how our Democratic friends and CBO can tell people with a 
straight face this pays for itself, when you have got 10 years of 
income to pay for 6 or 7 years of health care. And then we are told, 
Yeah, but in the second 10 years it really starts to pay for itself. 
That has never happened. Do you think Congress is going to sit back and 
do nothing for the next 20 years and just wait and see for 20 years if 
things fix themselves?
  The Soviet Union didn't get that chance. When they started spending 
money like this first on the Afghan war and then on the missile defense 
system, they ran out of money. Nobody would loan them money. They 
couldn't print it fast enough. They went out of business.
  When the President said in his comments these words: ``For example, 
instead of having five tests when you go to the doctor, you just get 
one.'' He was being very truthful. Thank God, my mother had many tests 
over a period of 6 days before they found her brain tumor and she 
didn't just have one.
  I do appreciate the President saying in his speech today the words 
that, ultimately, the truth will come out. I believe he is right, and 
it will be devastating for those who were pushing through this 
government control. And toward the end of his--well, actually there was 
a lot more speech, but I will just finish with one other mention 
regarding the President's speech.
  He says, ``Now, I cannot guarantee that this is good politics.'' That 
is very true. You vote for this. I know some people may have districts 
where they are used to having everything given to them, entitlement 
districts, and they will need to vote for it because they are used to 
entitlements. But elsewhere, it is not going to be good politics, and 
you are looking at the end of some political careers here, unless the 
President has agreed to give them jobs when they lose their seat.
  But you know, this deal with Caterpillar, they are saying they are 
going

[[Page H1816]]

to lose $100 million in the first year. I have heard about States, like 
one Goodyear plant in Alabama where the State and local came together 
and offered $51 million just to keep the people there and keep the 
plant open. This bill is going to cost them $100 million, cost 
Caterpillar $100 million. We are going to charge them $100 million. Do 
you think companies are going to be able to stay long like that?
  And I just want to finish up in my time tonight going back in 
history, just to remind people before this terrible vote tomorrow. 
Hopefully, the American people will prevail, people will lose their 
nerve to force this economy and the health care off a cliff, and then 
we can come back and we can work together. We can provide real 
solutions. We have got lots of good ideas. Just let us work together 
with you to do that, instead of having the President say, as he did at 
our retreat, I have read all your bills. You know, there is a thing or 
two. But I have read them. He had not read our bills. He has not read 
all our bills. We have got lots of things that could be considered.
  But you go back to the founding of this country. In 1783, the 
Articles of Confederation didn't work. They were too loosely woven, no 
common currency, a lot of problems, so it was falling apart.
  In 1787, we had the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. They 
talked George Washington into coming back and presiding. He had done 
what no man had ever done in the history of the world before or since: 
he led a revolutionary military, won the Revolution, resigned, and went 
home. He said: I did what you asked.
  Well, in 1787 they are telling him: if you don't come back and 
preside, the 13 States are not going to come back. We are done. The 
country is over. But all 13 States have agreed to come back if you will 
promise to preside over the Constitutional Convention.

                              {time}  2320

  I mean, what a testimonial for a man--a man of integrity--that he was 
so beloved. If he would come back, they would come back. They won't 
come back for anybody else. They knew he was a man who could walk away 
with power and never look back, because he had done it.
  The Convention goes on in Philadelphia. They put blankets over the 
windows to keep people from looking in and people being distracted 
looking out, and there was bickering and arguing. It went on and on for 
nearly 5 weeks. At that point, Benjamin Franklin was 80 years old. He 
was a little over 2 years away from meeting his Maker, meeting his 
Judge, meeting his Creator.
  Yes, he had sowed some wild oats in his life, and some people thought 
he was a deist. That's someone who believes God created things or 
something happened to create things and then that being has stepped 
back and never done anything, basically. Well, what some people call a 
deist today was recognized. He knew he was a couple years more away 
from meeting his Maker.
  Witty and brilliant as ever, he stood up and said these words--well, 
he started by saying, We've been meeting for nearly 5 weeks. We've 
accomplished basically nothing. We have more noes than ayes on these 
votes. Then I want to use his exact words taken down by James Madison. 
``In this situation of this Assembly, groping as it were in the dark to 
find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented 
to us, how has it happened, sir, that we have not once hitherto thought 
of humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate understanding? 
In the beginning contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of 
danger, we had daily prayer in this room for the divine protection. Our 
prayers, sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered.''
  Benjamin Franklin went on. He said, ``All of us who were engaged in 
the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending 
providence in our favor. To that kind of providence we owe this happy 
opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our 
future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful 
friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance?''
  Ben Franklin then went on and said, ``I have lived, sir, a long time, 
and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth--
that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to 
the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise 
without his aid? We have been assured, sir, in the sacred writing, that 
`except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.' 
Firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid 
we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders 
of Babel.
  ``We shall be divided by our little partial local interest; our 
projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach 
and bye word down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may 
hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing 
governments by human wisdom and leave it to chance, war and conquest.
  ``I therefore beg leave to move, that henceforth prayers imploring 
the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be 
held in the assembly every morning before we proceed to business.''
  After that, seconded by Mr. Sherman, it was unanimously adopted, and, 
from then to today, we have prayer to begin our sessions in here. But, 
oh, if we could ever come back together as a group and, as the very 
first Congress did, join and pray together as they did on their knees 
and come together. As one wrote to his wife, It was such a moving, 
powerful prayer time, even the surly old Quakers had tears in their 
eyes.
  This is an important time. I thank God for those who have come and 
made their voices known this weekend. I thank God for the blessings 
with which we have been enriched, and I hope that people across America 
will pray to that same God Ben Franklin referred to and that he will 
move in the hearts of people in Congress that they will do the thing 
that will bring us together and create a stronger Nation that can 
survive for another 200 years.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back.

                          ____________________