[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 80 (Tuesday, May 25, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Page S4166]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I wish to say a word about the 
administration's health care plan. Along with most Americans, the 
entire Republican conference opposed this legislation. We listened to 
the public and argued strenuously against its passage at every 
opportunity.
  We also offered detailed reasons for our opposition, along with 
commonsense alternative reforms aimed at lowering the cost of health 
care without undermining the system we already have.
  Since its passage, our arguments against the bill have been 
repeatedly vindicated, even as the administration's many promises about 
the bill have been called into question again and again. So Democrats 
may have passed this bill, but the debate is far from over. It is 
important that Americans know the ways in which the promises they heard 
aren't adding up.
  The supporters of the bill said it would lower costs for families, 
taxpayers and small businesses and that the President would not support 
any plan that ``adds one dime to the deficit.''
  As it turned out, Medicare's own experts say the bill will actually 
increase costs by more than $300 billion.
  The pricetag Democrats used to sell the bill is dramatically lower 
than the revised estimates that are now coming in. Sometime in the next 
several days, Democrats in Congress plan to add tens of billions of 
dollars more in health care spending on top of that, which, if they had 
been honest about it, would have been included in the original bill.
  Needless to say, all this extra spending is money we don't have, and 
it goes straight to the deficit.

  Take all this together, and it is no wonder that an overwhelming 
majority of Americans continue to oppose this new law.
  Tomorrow, Senator Barrasso will be on the floor offering what he 
calls a second opinion on the bill. This is an important effort that I 
think deserves and will continue to receive considerable attention. Dr. 
Barrasso is holding the supporters of the bill accountable for the 
assurances they gave the American people, who deserve to know the real 
effects and the real impact of this bill.
  Related to all this, of course, are the methods the administration 
and its allies in Congress used to pass the bill. The cornhusker 
kickback may be a household phrase, but it is just one of the 
questionable methods that were used to force it through against the 
will of the public.
  Another method was the stifling of critics, as was done by the 
Department of Health and Human Services.
  I have spoken out repeatedly on the gag order HHS issued against 
private companies for doing nothing more than informing seniors about 
provisions of the bill that could affect their benefits.
  Well, now you can add another layer of outrage to that unfortunate 
chapter in this debate because, just yesterday, I came across a recent 
flyer from the Department of Health and Human Services, which I am 
holding up, that does the very thing the administration didn't want 
private companies to do. They sent out a gag order against private 
companies saying you cannot express yourself about how this law would 
affect your beneficiaries. Now the government, at taxpayer's expense, 
is sending out--with our tax money--exactly the same thing to seniors 
that they would not let a private company do.
  This flyer purports to inform seniors about what the health care bill 
would mean for them. Much of it directly contradicts what the 
administration's own experts have said about the law. This flyer--
printed at taxpayers' expense and distributed to seniors--contradicts 
what the administration's own experts are saying about the health care 
bill. All this, as I said earlier, is bought and paid for by the 
American taxpayer.
  This is a complete outrage. It is an absolute outrage. It is 
precisely the kind of thing that Americans are so angry about at the 
moment.
  Here is the Federal Government telling a private business it can't 
communicate with its clients about important legislation and then doing 
the very same thing itself, paid for with our tax money.
  The administration's own Actuary at the Centers for Medicare and 
Medicaid Services says seniors who use Medicare Advantage will lose 
benefits as a result of this bill. Yet the flyer they are putting out 
says absolutely nothing about that. Instead, it implies that nothing 
will change for seniors.
  But perhaps most egregious is the claim that a bill which cuts 
Medicare by $\1/2\ trillion will actually ``preserve and strengthen'' 
Medicare. What nonsense.
  This is nothing short of government propaganda, paid for by the 
taxpayer. I am sure Dr. Barrasso will have more to say about this in 
the weeks ahead.
  I commend to my colleagues a brochure that was put out by the Centers 
for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the message therein by the 
Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius--``Medicare 
and the New Health Care Law--What it Means for You.''

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