[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 18491]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     CONSTRUCTIVE HEALTH CARE BILL

  (Mr. BLUMENAUER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. It's been fascinating watching some of my friends 
parade to the floor making some pretty outrageous claims. The most 
recent one was, my good friend from Florida suggesting that by having 
the administration follow the law, that if the cost-of-living has not 
increased sufficiently, so that there isn't a cost-of-living increase 
for Social Security, somehow this is an administration assault on 
senior citizens. This is a rather bizarre notion when we think about 
their record when they were in charge, seeking to undercut formulas 
like the one in question to move them back in the other direction.
  When it comes to health care, when our friends on the other side of 
the aisle, strong-armed their prescription Medicare drug coverage 
program into law; did not seek concessions from the pharmaceutical 
industry; created the ``doughnut hole'' that has created a massive gap 
in coverage and no mechanism to pay for it.
  What we're doing at this point is trying to move forward in a 
constructive fashion to give the American people choices, follow the 
law, save money, and improve the quality of care.

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