[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 2672-2673]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, let me mention the real reason I came down 
here was to talk about health care. I have noticed all the Presidential 
candidates who are out there today are talking about health care. I am 
glad to see that. I know a number of Republicans have gathered around 
the notion of making sure every American has access to health care.
  I myself have authored a bill with Senator Burr from North Carolina, 
a number of others have joined in. I know Senator Wyden from Oregon has 
joined in with Bob Bennett of Utah, they have authored a bill.
  But I think we have a tremendous opportunity during this year to help 
shape the debate on health care legislation, my sense is, in a very 
bipartisan way, that in this next Congress, in 2009, we are going to 
have the opportunity to actually create health care legislation that 
focuses on the private sector, that ensures people have choice in order 
to maintain the quality of health care they would like to see.
  But my guess is we have a tremendous opportunity. I wish to say today 
I would like to join in with other Senators on both sides of the aisle, 
to ensure we do those things, create the mechanisms to allow people who 
cannot afford health care today to be able to afford it but to do so in 
a manner that preserves choice, preserves quality, preserves the 
doctor-patient relationship that now exists.
  We have been able to do that in other ways dealing with seniors, we 
have been able to do that certainly with those people throughout our 
country who cannot afford health care through programs such as 
Medicaid. Obviously, the focus of this effort needs to be on preserving 
the private-sector means of delivering health care. But I wish to say 
to you I am uplifted by what I am seeing on both sides of the aisle.
  I know Republicans and Democrats together want to make sure we solve 
this problem. I know, Mr. President, you have been very involved 
yourself. I wish to say to you I think this is a tremendous opportunity 
for us in this body to come together and do something the American 
people want to see done but do so in a manner that at the same time 
preserves the best qualities of our health care system.
  I wish to offer up my efforts to join in with others to make sure 
this happens.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Tennessee.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, could I be informed when 10 minutes is 
up.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Chair will so notify you.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. I wish to thank my colleague from Tennessee for his 
comments on health care, for his leadership. He has been, on our side 
of the aisle, one of the principal actors in the effort to try to 
combine the idea of, as some say, ``universal access,'' with two other 
words, ``private sector.'' Four words that usually do not go together.
  I agree with him. If there was one agenda item on the Republican side 
of the aisle we could all agree on this year as a goal that we would 
like to start this year, it would be having every American insured.
  We would like to make it possible for every American family to have 
access to and to be able to afford health insurance. I would like to 
speak to that.
  First, I would like to comment on the majority leader's comments and 
those of the Republican leader. We respect the majority leader's right 
to set the agenda on the Senate floor, and he decided to bring up the 
Iraq debate this week. But if he brought it up, why doesn't he want to 
talk about it? We were here yesterday. We are here today.
  I came down last night and talked about the fact that even though I 
have had differences with the President on Iraq, we are moving in the 
right direction. We should say that to our enemy, to our troops, and to 
the world. Troops are coming out instead of going in; the mission is 
shifting province by province; we are identifying a long-term but 
diminishing role in Iraq; and diplomatic efforts are stepped up. Those 
are basically the three recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, which 
I wish the President had embraced. He didn't embrace the report itself, 
but he is headed in that direction. So we are glad to talk about it.
  Although I agree it would have been better to talk about the economy 
and housing, we are ready to talk about that as well. But if we are 
going to talk about housing and the economy, we are ready to take 
action this year, and we have some pretty big differences of opinion 
across the aisle.
  We were able to agree on a stimulus package. First, we had to stop 
$40 billion in extra spending, but we were able to agree on allowing 
individuals, largely, to keep their own money. Mr. President, 2.7 
million Tennesseans will receive a so-called rebate this spring.
  There were provisions I liked so well that I am going to introduce 
legislation to make them permanent. These are the small business 
provisions that in Tennessee counties, such as Cheatham County where 
400 different small businesses will be eligible for accelerated 
depreciation and expensing. This allows those businesses to keep more 
money, create more jobs, and stimulate the economy. In Washington 
County, it is several thousand small businesses. These are good 
provisions and a good start. I agree we should get on with the next 
steps to make sure we have a strong, vibrant economy. This is the 
economy that produces about a third of the money in the world for just 
5 percent of all the people in the world. We are in a slowdown right 
now, but there are steps we can take to step it up.
  We would say, on this side of the aisle, that would be a bigger, 
bolder, broader pro-growth economic plan including such things as lower 
taxes. For example, making permanent the dividend, capital gains, and 
estate tax rate at 15 percent. Or lowering the corporate tax rate from 
35 to 25 percent, so our companies can be competitive with the world 
and keep their jobs here instead of going overseas. Or a simpler 
flatter tax giving taxpayers the option of filing a one-page return 
with a 17-percent or so flat rate.
  We would support doubling funding on the physical sciences to keep 
our brain power advantage and can continue to grow jobs here, so these 
jobs would not go to India and China. That is part of a pro-growth 
Republican economic plan that would also attract significant 
independent and Democratic support. We would like to continue to in-
source brain power by giving green cards to foreign students who are 
legally here and who want to stay here and work, creating jobs here 
instead of going back to India, Ireland, or China and creating jobs 
there. We would like to make the research and development tax credit 
permanent, so companies can create more jobs here. We would like to 
reward outstanding teachers and outstanding school leaders. We can 
debate that. We would like to give Pell grants to low-income kids so 
they can have more choices of schools. We would like to implement the 
America COMPETES Act which we agreed on in a bipartisan way. We would 
like to lower energy costs by more conservation and nuclear power. We 
would like to lower the cost of Government by fewer rules and 
regulations. As Senator Corker was talking about, we would like to 
lower health care costs.
  The words that we could most easily agree on on this side of the 
aisle--and there might not be so much objection over there either--are 
``every American insured.'' There is a step-by-step process to get to 
that. We have over 800,000 Tennesseans without health insurance. We 
have about 47 million Americans without health insurance.

[[Page 2673]]

  We are at a time in our history where reports by distinguished 
journals of medicine, such as the New England Journal of Medicine, the 
Institute of Medicine, and the Trust for America's Health say today's 
children are likely to be the first generation to live shorter, less 
healthier lives than their parents. That is a health care crisis. At 
the same time, the most rapidly growing part of the Federal budget is 
spending for Medicare and Medicaid. It is growing so rapidly we can't 
sustain it, so we need an overhaul of our health care system. We need 
to lower health care costs for the average family so each family can be 
able to afford at least a basic health insurance policy that doesn't go 
away when they lose their job.
  On the way to lowering health care costs and giving every American 
access to such a health care insurance policy are several pieces of 
legislation, many of them bipartisan, which we could pass this year. 
For example, the Kerry-Ensign e-prescribing bill would provide for 
electronic transmittal of prescription information from the doctor to 
the pharmacists. In addition, we could pass legislation to allow small 
business health plans this year. Senator Enzi has been the leader on 
this issue, and he has worked on legislation that basically would allow 
small businesses to pool their resources in order to offer health 
insurance to their employees at an affordable rate--to let them do the 
same thing big businesses can do. Senator Enzi estimates that could 
provide insurance to more than 1 million Americans who are not now 
insured.
  Senator Martinez has introduced legislation to help get rid of fraud 
and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid. Tens of billions of dollars are 
wasted there, and it would lower health care costs to pass the Martinez 
legislation.
  Senator Gregg has offered legislation which isn't bipartisan but 
deserves to be. I hope it can be. It would put limits on damages from 
lawsuits against doctors who serve pregnant women. Medical malpractice 
insurance has gone sky high, over $100,000 a year because of lawsuits 
in some States. As a result, the doctors are leaving the rural areas, 
and pregnant women are having to drive 40, 50, 60 miles for prenatal 
health care or to deliver their babies, because the doctors aren't 
there anymore. In a few places such as Mississippi, Texas, and 
Kentucky, steps have been taken to say: As long as you are damaged, you 
can collect, but there is a limit on the damages in those States. Where 
the rules have been changed, doctors are moving back into those States 
and back into rural areas. That also lowers health care costs.
  I am here today as a cosponsor of three different health insurance 
bills which I hope will move us toward the idea of every American 
insured, and I would like to talk about two of them today. Senator 
Coburn, Senator Burr, and Senator Corker have one of those bills, and I 
am a cosponsor. Senator Wyden and Senator Bennett have another of those 
bills, and I am a cosponsor of that as well. It has six Republicans and 
six Democrats. I don't agree with every part of the Wyden-Bennett bill, 
specifically the mandates from the beginning, but I agree with the 
spirit of what they are trying to do. Most Americans like the fact that 
they are working across the aisle to try to make real the idea that 
every American can have access to health insurance, and they are 
willing to include--and we would emphasize--the private sector in that 
solution.
  We have a whole year. This is a Presidential year. That doesn't mean 
we should take a vacation. We got off to a pretty good start with the 
stimulus package. We got off to a very good start with the FISA bill. 
Unfortunately, the House took a vacation without acting on it. I 
suggest that Republicans are ready to join with Democrats and take 
steps this year toward the goal of every American insured.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator has used 10 minutes.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Georgia.

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