[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 46 (Tuesday, March 20, 2012)]
[House]
[Pages H1423-H1425]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 ONGOING HEALTH CARE DEBATE--Continued

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Georgia may proceed.
  Mr. WOODALL. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that.
  I was very lucky when my friend from Florida came to file that rule 
because that's another example that what we're doing down here isn't 
just howling at the Moon. It isn't just blowing hot air.
  What I'm talking about here on the floor right now is repealing this 
Independent Payment Advisory Board to stop this cycle of destruction 
that has already been put into place. And no sooner do we come down 
here to do it than my colleague from the Rules Committee comes down to 
file this rule, Mr. Speaker, so that we can do this bill not 2 years 
from today, not after the next election, not 6 months from now, kicking 
the can down the road, but so that we can bring this bill to the floor 
tomorrow to address the concerns that we're talking about today. That's 
why you and I came to Congress, Mr. Speaker. That's why this whole 
freshman class came to Congress.
  You know, I've only been here now about, what, 14, 15 months, Mr. 
Speaker. And what I have found is that each and every day, my 
colleagues in this freshman class do not evaluate their success by how 
many favorable newspaper articles are written about them. They don't 
evaluate their success by how many times they've seen their face on TV. 
And they certainly don't evaluate their success based on what the mass 
media writes about them in this town. They evaluate their success based 
on whether or not the promises they made to folks before they got 
elected are the priorities that they've set for themselves now that 
they have been elected. And each and every day, I see people making 
that a reality. Republicans and Democrats alike, Mr. Speaker, in this 
freshman class came to this Congress for a different purpose, with a 
different mission, with a different vision. And I see them implementing 
it every day. It makes me proud.

  Speaking of being proud, Mr. Speaker, you know, folks back home say, 
Rob, how come we don't see you on FOX News preaching the good 
conservative news? I tell them, Mr. Speaker, that anybody who is 
watching FOX News already knows the good conservative news. They don't 
need to hear it from me. The folks who need to hear from me are the 
folks who are watching MSNBC. That is who needs to hear my message. And 
I happened to bring some MSNBC knowledge down here with me today.
  This is a headline recently from the Web page, Mr. Speaker. This is 
what it said: ``In risky election year move, Republicans offer Medicare 
alternatives.'' Ooh. It kind of sounds ominous, doesn't it, Mr. 
Speaker? Ominous. ``In risky election year move, Republicans offer 
Medicare alternatives.'' Why? Why? For the reason I just talked about, 
Mr. Speaker, where we have this freshman class, where we have these 
senior Members of Congress who didn't come here to pontificate, who 
didn't come here to grandstand, who came here to make a difference.
  I don't care that it's an election year. In fact, if anything, Mr. 
Speaker, in an election year, we ought to do more of the right things. 
We ought to spend even more time each and every day getting it right. 
``Risky election year move'' is what folks say. I tell you, Mr. 
Speaker, I would be disappointed if we did anything else. Medicare is 
in crisis. This IPAB board is further destabilizing the Medicare 
program. You are doggone right it may be a risky move, but we did it 
anyway because it's the right thing to do.
  I sit on the Budget Committee. That is actually what they are talking 
about. This is a March 15 article. And they're talking about the plan 
that we in the Budget Committee are going to hold a markup on tomorrow, 
which does what? All of these things I've been talking about, Mr. 
Speaker: bringing choices to consumers, bringing competition to the 
Medicare system, investing consumers in Medicare outcomes. It does all 
of those things, Mr. Speaker, that we believe can control costs using 
the power of the marketplace, using the power of the American people, 
using the power of the American family, and not just by rationing care, 
as this IPAB board does.
  This is the headline. I'm going to read it again, Mr. Speaker, just 
because I like it so much: ``In risky election year move, Republicans 
offer Medicare alternatives.'' They go on to say this: ``Running a 
political risk during an election year, Republicans continue to offer 
proposals to cut future Medicare outlays.'' Medicare outlays, that's 
this dramatic rise we see in Medicare spending, Mr. Speaker. It's not a 
rise associated with quality of care. It's not a rise that's associated 
with whether or not people get the services they need. It's a rise 
that's associated with an out-of-control Federal health care program 
that has absolutely no consumer involvement at all, absolutely no 
competition at all, absolutely no free market involvement at all. And 
it's going broke.
  We have a proposal to fix it. What is our proposal? Well, I didn't 
just bring our proposal, Mr. Speaker. But I brought our proposal, and I 
want to compare it to the President's approach. There are two things we 
need to talk about when we talk about changes to Medicare, Mr. Speaker, 
and you know this better than most. There are changes to the Medicare 
program that save it for future generations, and then there are changes 
to the Medicare program that destabilize today's seniors. A big 
difference in those two things.

                              {time}  1800

  I'm in my forties, Mr. Speaker. My Uncle Sam has to come to me today 
and say, Rob, I know you've been paying your Medicare taxes in every 
single paycheck since you were 16 and I know we promised you that 
Medicare was going to be there for you like it was there for your 
grandparents and your parents; but Rob, we've got bad news. It turns 
out we overpromised and we're underdelivering and we've got to 
renegotiate our Medicare contract with you.
  We do.
  That is the bad, bad news for your generation, Mr. Speaker, for my 
generation, and for everybody younger. The government--surprise, 
surprise--has overpromised and underdelivered. And the time to tell me 
that is now, not when I'm 65 and I can't make any more choices about my 
life, but today while I can still make accommodations.
  So I've divided this chart, Mr. Speaker, up into two categories--what 
are our proposals for current seniors and what are our proposals for 
future seniors--and I've done the same thing for the President's plan, 
because it is important that we do keep our promises here. It's no 
senior's fault in this country that they're dependent on Medicare. They 
paid into it their entire life for the part A through the Medicare 
taxes. They were promised it would be there for them in their time of 
need.

[[Page H1424]]

They didn't ask for it. They didn't solicit it. The money was taken 
from them and now they deserve those benefits.
  So here's what we do. The program that's coming out of the House 
Budget Committee, the program similar to what was passed on the floor 
of the House last year and it's coming before the House next week, Mr. 
Speaker, has absolutely no changes--no changes, Mr. Speaker--for 
today's seniors. If you're on Medicare today, no changes, no 
disruptions in our plan, Mr. Speaker. That service, it's already begun 
for you and it is going to continue uninterrupted for as long as you 
need to utilize the program. But the program is going bankrupt, Mr. 
Speaker, and so we're making some changes that will preserve and 
protect it for this current generation of seniors. If we do nothing, 
bankruptcy looms on the horizon. And if current seniors want it, we'll 
allow them to get what I'll call personalized Medicare like what 
Members of Congress have.
  Mr. Speaker, folks often think--in fact, my mom sends me that email 
about once a week that says, Rob, I can't believe you're getting all 
that free health care in Congress. You know that's nonsense, Mr. 
Speaker. We have exactly the same health care plan in Congress that 
every Federal employee across the country has. And that plan is this: 
You open up a book that has about 30 plans to choose from and you 
choose the one that works best for you. Imagine that.
  Imagine that our seniors today have had a lifetime of health care 
choices, and the day they turn 65, Mr. Speaker, they surrender their 
freedom as an American and they are forced into a health care system 
that they cannot opt out of--cannot opt out of. Oh, you're in it. You 
can opt out of Medicare part D, you can opt out of Medicare part B, but 
you cannot opt out of Medicare part A. You are in it.
  And if you want a doctor that won't take you--he'll take other 
Medicare patients but he won't take you--the Federal law of the land 
prohibits you, Mr. Speaker, from paying cash out of your pocket to see 
your doctor. That's the law of the land where? Russia? China? It's the 
law of the land in America.
  You turn 65, you enter the Big Government health care program, 
suddenly your freedoms begin to be eroded. We say no. We say let's make 
Medicare have the choices that we as Members of Congress have, and 
let's make those available to current seniors.
  So to recap, Mr. Speaker, no changes or disruptions in our plan. We 
preserve and protect the program for current seniors for the 30-year 
life of the program and we personalize Medicare to make it more like 
what we have in Congress so that we can give those folks choices.
  What does the President do for current seniors? He empowers 15 
unelected bureaucrats to cut Medicare in ways that will most certainly 
deny seniors care. Do I need to go back to the 40 pages, Mr. Speaker, 
of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, section 3403, the 
advisory board, IPAB? This is what it does. It's the 15 unelected 
bureaucrats that have the power to cut Medicare in ways that, as we 
have discussed, will most certainly deny care.
  If your plan is to cut reimbursements to doctors, fair enough. I 
think it's shortsighted; I think it's destructive. But if that is your 
plan, embrace that plan, I say to folks who support the President's 
health care bill. Embrace it and defend it. But be honest with the 
American people who most certainly know that if you cut those 
reimbursement rates to a level that doctors cannot see patients, they 
will not see patients.
  And here's one that doesn't get talked about much, Mr. Speaker. The 
President's plan raids the Medicare program and removes $682 billion. 
This is a program that's already going bankrupt. This is a program that 
already needs substantial reform to protect it and preserve it for 
another generation.
  The President's health care bill, which isn't something that might 
happen, it's something that's already the law of the land, takes $682 
billion that was intended for Medicare beneficiaries and cuts it out--
``saves it'' is the term of art they use around here, Mr. Speaker, as 
you well know--cuts it and saves it. What do they save it for? So they 
can bring it over here and spend it on the President's new health care 
plan for the rest of America; the nonseniors.
  The program is already in trouble. Current law under the President's 
health care plan removes $682 billion designated for Medicare 
beneficiaries, takes it out, moves it to the rest of the population, 
again, exacerbating the challenge.
  Future seniors, what are we going to do? Well, our plan, Mr. Speaker, 
coming out of the Budget Committee, coming here to the floor as passed 
by the House last year, is personalized Medicare not just for current 
seniors but for future seniors, Mr. Speaker. For folks like you and me 
and our generation, when we get to Medicare age, we would have choices. 
All Americans would have choices to choose the plan that works best for 
them.

  Do you need a plan that covers prescription drugs? Choose that. Do 
you need a plan that is flexible so you can summer in Florida and 
winter in New Jersey? Though I suspect, Mr. Speaker, they'd probably be 
summering in New Jersey and wintering in Florida; but if they travel 
like that, maybe they need that plan. Maybe they still have young kids 
in the house and so need a plan that speaks to youngsters as well.
  Folks could choose the plan, Mr. Speaker. Personalized health care, 
just like what we have here in Congress. Our plan, Mr. Speaker, means 
that wealthy families will get less and sick and low-income families 
will get more.
  Mr. Speaker, we talk about shared sacrifice around here all the time, 
and I am not in favor of raising taxes on the American people. The 
American people can't afford it. The economy can't survive it. But what 
we can do is start giving away less from Washington, D.C.
  And so what we say for future seniors--folks in my generation, your 
generation, Mr. Speaker--is that your support from the Medicare program 
is going to be less than low-income families. If you've done well in 
your life and you can afford to help with the cost of your Medicare, 
we're going to ask you to do that. We're going to means-test these 
things.
  We're still going to be there for you; the Medicare program is still 
going to be there for you. The promises we made to you are still going 
to be kept. But in the renegotiation, we're going to confess what 
America already knows, which is that this program is going bankrupt and 
cannot be sustained, and that in order to sustain it, we're going to 
ask folks who can't afford it to pay more and recognize that folks who 
can't afford it will pay less. That's our program for the future to 
save and strengthen Medicare.
  What does the President propose? And this is so important, Mr. 
Speaker. Can I go back to what my good friends at MSNBC said? This is 
how they described this plan that I'm just describing to you: In a 
risky election year move, Republicans offer Medicare alternatives.
  The President, for future seniors, offers no serious plan to save 
Medicare. If I had the President's budget down here with me, Mr. 
Speaker, it would be about 12 inches tall. And it's a serious budget. I 
don't fault him for submitting the budget. I'm glad he did. It lays out 
his priorities and his strategy for saving America. But there's not one 
Medicare reform proposal in those 12 inches of budget. Not one. Not 
one.
  Why?
  Because traditional politicians, Mr. Speaker, think it's risky in an 
election year to propose things that shake up the status quo. Mr. 
Speaker, it ought to be risky in an election year to maintain the 
status quo when you know a program depended on by millions upon 
millions upon millions of seniors is going bankrupt today.

                              {time}  1810

  Not tomorrow, not 10 years from now. It's happening today. It's under 
way today. The time to stop it and save it is today. And I don't care 
if folks think it's scary to propose it; that's what we came here to 
do.
  What happened, Mr. Speaker? What happened to folks that caused them 
to believe the reason they came to Congress is to get reelected? What 
happened? You didn't come here to get reelected. I didn't come here to 
get reelected. We came here to make a difference for families back 
home, we came here to draw a line in the sand

[[Page H1425]]

for saving America, and we came here to get the American Dream of a 
successful economy and freedom back on track. It ought to be risky to 
sit here and do nothing, Mr. Speaker. That ought to be the risky thing.
  What has happened to this country that the risky thing for those who 
call themselves public servants is to do something instead of nothing? 
Because that's what the President proposes in his 10-year budget plan: 
nothing, nothing that does one thing, that takes one baby step forward 
toward saving Medicare. In the Budget Committee, we are proposing 
serious alternatives. Are they going to be frightening to folks in my 
generation? I don't think so, Mr. Speaker. You and I have a long time 
until retirement. Despite all our gray hair, we've got a couple of 
decades left before we get there; and we've got time to prepare, and we 
will, and America will. But it is our responsibility to offer those 
alternatives. The President offers nothing, and Medicare goes bankrupt.
  This chart says it all, Mr. Speaker. There is a path to prosperity 
for America that we are proposing here in this House, and there is the 
President's approach, and they could not be more different.
  Our approach tells the American people the truth. There are a lot of 
political pundits out there that believe telling people the truth is a 
risky thing to do in an election year. Mr. Speaker, I tell you it's our 
solemn obligation. I tell you the oath we took requires us to tell 
folks the truth. I tell you the responsibility that our voters back 
home have entrusted us with requires us to be bold.
  And if the consequence for trying to save the Medicare program--not 
just for this generation of seniors, but for a generation to come--if 
the consequence of that is that I frighten voters back home and I get 
defeated, so be it. So be it. No one sent us here to get reelected year 
after year. They sent us here to do the work that they asked us to do. 
They sent us here to follow through on the promises that we made during 
the last campaign. They sent us here to offer serious solutions to what 
we all know, Democrats and Republicans alike, are serious problems 
threatening the future of our Republic. And none is more serious when 
it comes to a social safety net here in this country than the giant 
fiscal crisis looming in Medicare.
  I'll leave you with this, Mr. Speaker. We have the law of the land 
that's already on the books. It's in the President's Patient Protection 
and Affordable Care Act, that bill that raids Medicare in order to fund 
his other social priorities, that bill that hastens the demise of 
Medicare rather than preventing it. And in that they find 15 unelected 
bureaucrats that they say will not ration services; they'll just cut 
reimbursements for docs. And we have testimony after testimony after 
testimony after testimony that says, go ahead, if you think you need to 
cut docs, cut docs; but just know those docs will not be there for you 
when you need them to be because they can't--because they can't.
  Do you really believe it, Mr. Speaker? Does anybody in America really 
believe it? Find your primary care doctor that lives down the street 
from you. You know him or her. They're in your Sunday school class and 
they coach your kids' soccer team. You know who they are. Do you really 
believe that they're the ones that are driving the Medicare program 
into bankruptcy? Do you really believe it? Or does the Washington 
establishment just use our docs, the healers in our community, those 
folks who are there for us when we need them the most? Does the 
Washington establishment just use those folks as the scapegoats for 
what is a much more serious, much more systemic underlying problem with 
the way that we finance federally funded health care systems in this 
country?
  Competition has served this country well, Mr. Speaker. Individual 
responsibility has served this country well. Entrepreneurship and 
innovation have served this country well. And we have a choice now to 
embrace those functions that are so indicative of who we are as 
Americans and where we've come from, and use those tools to set 
Medicare on a new and sustainable course; or we can go back to business 
as usual, more pages of Federal regulation, more blaming other people 
for the problems we've created, more unelected boards of bureaucrats 
who make health care decisions for us instead of letting us make those 
decisions within our family.
  The choice for me is clear. Mr. Speaker, you know these aren't things 
that we're just down here to talk about. You know these aren't just 
ideas that are being brainstormed. We have a real opportunity to make 
this change not 2 years from now, not after the next election, not 6 
months from now, but tomorrow. Tomorrow we'll bring a rule to the floor 
of this House to allow for a consideration of a measure that will 
repeal IPAB once and for all. IPAB, this word that was not in our 
lexicon 2 years ago but now threatens to control the health care 
decisions of every senior in America.
  With a successful vote tomorrow, Mr. Speaker, we can make that a 
thing of the past.
  And with that, I yield back the balance of my time.

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