[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 105 (Wednesday, June 16, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H2887-H2888]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  DEBT IS ABOUT TO CRUSH THIS COUNTRY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 2021, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. 
Schweikert) until 10 p.m.
  Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Mr. Speaker, I know we are all up against the clock; 
as my wife would say, the tyranny of the clock. So I had all sorts of 
boards and information. I was going to drive the poor stenographer nuts 
because sometimes I talk a little fast. I will try to slow down. I 
apologize. I have had a lot of caffeine.
  But I have a simple thing I want to try to walk through. And that is 
that this place isn't dealing with the actual crisis that is about to 
crush this country, and it is debt. But it is also opportunity. It is 
opportunity for our underserved populations; those who have

[[Page H2888]]

been crushed by COVID. And when you look at why, I think we have a 
solution, but we have to think differently in this place.
  So first let's do the global problem. The honest truth about what is 
about to crush us, as a people, is debt. Take a look at this chart next 
to me. Over the next 30 years--and this is in adjusted dollars, so this 
is in today's dollars--$101 trillion of debt in today's dollars. I 
don't think we ever get close to that, being able to finance that type 
of debt.
  But if you look at the chart, 67 percent of it is just Medicare. The 
rest here is Social Security. The little green part of that $101 
trillion, only about $3 trillion of it is the rest of government. It is 
Medicare and Social Security.
  If you believe, like I do, that we have a moral obligation to keep 
our promises on Social Security and Medicare, we need to step up and 
deal with the reality of the math hiding it.
  So think about the debates that have been going on here. We are 
talking about $4 trillion here, $4 trillion for this. This is the 
Damocles sword hanging over our head. And the economic violence, the 
evil that we will do to seniors and this government when this blows up 
on us is terrifying.
  So I want to walk through some basics, and as I juggle these boards, 
a really interesting number here, and this one is really important. If 
you can take a look at this top line, this is what needs to bounce off 
here. Of that, functionally, I think it is $68 trillion of debt that is 
driven just by Medicare over the next 30 years, 31 percent of it is 
diabetes.
  If you look at the health outcomes from COVID, from my Tribal 
communities out in the Southwest, for urban populations that have lots 
of diabetes issues, take a look at what a crappy year they had, dying 
from COVID.
  If we don't change this policy of saying, well, we are going to spend 
money putting up more medical clinics and in doing this and doing that, 
we are going to spend money to help people live with their misery?
  Is that really what we are about?
  How about doing something bold?
  We are going to do an Operation Warp Speed to cure diabetes, and, 
yes, it is going to be hard.
  There is some incredible science coming on type 1 because type 1 is 
an autoimmune. Type 2, a lot tougher because a lot of it is lifestyle. 
And we are going to have to deal with government policy on how we do 
farm policy, on how we do nutrition support.
  But maybe we can come together here and say we are going to stop 
financing misery; the diabetes that is rampant through our society. Oh, 
by the way, at the same time, it is the single biggest impact you can 
have on the debt bomb that is hanging over our society.
  And we have got to work through some of the crazy policy proposals 
here that sound great, and you work through, and all they are going to 
do is bring more misery to our society.
  How many of you have actually read H.R. 3?
  That is the Democrats' bill on trying to deal with prescription drug 
costs. And I understand we need to something about prescription drug 
costs, but what it does is it uses reference pricing. Which means we 
are going to go to Great Britain here and take what they allow for a 
year--so a single quality year of life--and if the drug costs more than 
$37,000, you don't get it.
  So the new Alzheimer's drug that was finally approved last week, you 
don't get it because it doesn't give you--it costs more than $37,000. 
That is the price mechanism that makes H.R. 3 work. That is cruel.
  But on the conservative side, we have got to get our math right. We 
tell people, price transparency. Price transparency does a good thing. 
It makes a difference, but it only makes a fractional difference. The 
best research we have been able to find is it is .1 percent to .7 
percent change in healthcare cost.
  So here is the point I am trying to get through. ObamaCare, the ACA, 
the Republican alternative, they were financing bills. It is who had to 
pay, who got subsidized. We need to start having a debate here on what 
we pay and how we crash the price of healthcare.
  Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have left?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman has under 3 minutes remaining.
  Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Mr. Speaker, okay. In that case, I am sorry, I am 
going to talk even faster.
  I am going to make an argument that there is a technology disruption 
here that can help us change what we pay. The single thing we could do 
immediately to have the most impact is if we could get our brothers and 
sisters to take their hypertension medicines, to take their pills. That 
is 16 percent of all healthcare costs. A half a trillion dollars a year 
is just from people misusing or not taking their pharmaceuticals.
  There is technology now on the pill cap, the dispenser, to help 
grandma, to help me, to help all of us take our pharmaceuticals when we 
need it.
  But the other thing, this can be in your medicine cabinet. We now 
have the technology that you blow into, that tells you if you have a 
virus; that tells you if you have a cancer; tells you what you have.
  It is time for the technology disruption, and it is time this body 
started to legalize that technology to help us disrupt the price of 
healthcare. We can do something. And the beauty of it is, by doing the 
right thing, it affects the debt crush that is coming to our society. 
But, also, we start helping our brothers and sisters not have to live 
with the misery.
  So an Operation Warp Speed for diabetes, Republicans, Democrats, we 
can get on that. There may be some who want to do it because of debt. 
Some want to just do it for a humanitarian cause. It is the right thing 
to do.
  And then let's legalize the technology that helps us change what we 
pay, instead of having the crazy debate we have here of how we pay.
  It is time for the revolution. Adopt the technology. Let's change the 
price of healthcare.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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