[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 7 (Wednesday, January 19, 2011)]
[House]
[Page H328]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         THE ASSAULT ON OUR RIGHTS, OUR FREEDOMS, OUR DEMOCRACY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen) is recognized 
for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, for everyone who has been listening to 
the dialogue and debate around health care reform, I want to make 
something crystal clear: regardless of the vote in the House, health 
care reform was not repealed today; and despite what some might be 
projecting and promising, all of us on both sides of the aisle know 
that this is true.
  We also know that the next step in the larger plan to repeal health 
care reform will involve directing committees of jurisdiction to 
revisit the health care reform law.
  Now, if this is going to be a process that includes meaningful 
hearings and honest dialogue about how to strengthen and bolster--not 
dismantle and obliterate--health care reform, then I would support that 
strategy. It would allow us to work together to build upon the many 
successes that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has 
already demonstrated: successes for our children, our seniors, the 
poor, and the already insured. That was the kind of process that led to 
the development and passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable 
Care Act.
  But, to be honest, that was then; and I do not believe that such a 
process will occur this time because those calling for repeal don't 
seem to be interested in socially, fiscally and medically sound public 
health strategies to solve our Nation's public health problems.
  Instead, the supporters of repeal have been steadfast in their 
efforts to minimize and even downplay the devastating steps backward 
that H.R. 2 would mean, not only for our Nation's most vulnerable 
residents--children and our seniors--but also for small businesses, the 
middle class, rural and low-income populations, and the financial as 
well as the physical health of our Nation.
  So I urge not only my colleagues here, but every American who wants a 
healthier and stronger tomorrow to be engaged and active and to be 
alert because the real health care reform repeal efforts begin, not 
with this vote, but in the months ahead. All of us, everyone in this 
country--the insured and the uninsured--have too much at stake to sit 
on the sidelines and remain silent.
  We know that there is an appropriations strategy to ensure that the 
health care freedoms in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 
are not adequately or appropriately funded, making their implementation 
an utter impossibility. We can't let that happen.
  We also know that efforts are under way that will allow the chairman 
of the Budget Committee to set spending limits on his own, without 
committee consensus and clearly without a fair, transparent, and 
democratic process. This is an assault on our democracy.
  Finally, we also know that all of the harsh realities that repeal 
will mean to millions of Americans and their families will not be 
highlighted or even mentioned. For example, those calling for repeal 
won't admit that repeal would mean more uninsured Americans--54 million 
uninsured by 2019.
  Those calling for repeal will never admit that repeal means an 
increase in the number of American families who will file bankruptcy, 
lose their homes and suffer other financial hardships because their 
health care costs are so high.
  Those calling for repeal will never admit that repeal means a loss of 
jobs, increased unemployment and an increase in the deficit, even 
though they know, as we do, that without health care reform the Federal 
deficit will explode by $143 billion over the next 10 years and by more 
than a whopping $1 trillion over the next two decades.
  Those calling for repeal will never admit that repeal will mean a 
drastic increase in the health disparities that we know leave racial 
and ethnic minorities and low-income and rural Americans in poorer 
health, who are more likely to die prematurely from preventable causes. 
A recent Joint Center study found that eliminating racial and ethnic 
health disparities would have reduced direct medical care expenditures 
by $229.4 billion in just 4 years.
  Finally, those calling for repeal will never admit that repeal, 
literally, could be a death sentence for thousands of innocent 
Americans every year. A recent IOM study suggests that more than 15,000 
deaths per year could happen just because insurance was taken away.
  So repeal did not take place today, but the assault on our rights, 
our freedoms, our democracy, as well as our very lives are on the line 
in the planned committee process, the budgetary sleights of hand and a 
targeted appropriations process. So let's not find ourselves repenting 
for the silence of good people.

                          ____________________