[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 2946]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




     BUSH BUDGET AND HEALTH CARE: NO SOLUTIONS, ONLY MORE PROBLEMS

  (Mrs. CHRISTENSEN asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, the President's budget is bad policy 
and bad medicine for Americans. It fails to reduce the costs of health 
care and prescription drugs and it fails to reduce the number of 
uninsured Americans. It is simply unacceptable that the President 
continues to ignore these pressing needs, but it is inexcusable that 
the President plans to make our health care problems even worse.
  The President would inflict more pain on American seniors by slashing 
Medicare funding. His budget cuts $36 billion from Medicare payments to 
hospitals and home health providers over the next 5 years, which would 
severely limit seniors' access to much-needed health care and would 
force some seniors to pay more in premiums for that health care.
  The Bush budget also cuts vital funding for medical research, 
research needed to discover health care cures for the future. Although 
the National Institutes of Health is responsible for much of our 
country's medical advancements, the President proposes real cuts in 
that budget for the second year in a row.
  This is not a blueprint for fixing America's health care system. 
Instead, it can destroy it. Congress should reject this blueprint.

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