[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.
____________________