[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 19473-19474]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     HEALTH CARE WEEK VIII, DAY II

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, as the debate over health care 
continues, it is important that we not lose sight of the fact that the 
American people expect results. No one was ever elected to Congress to 
push a problem down the road or to point fingers. Americans certainly 
want reform, and that is exactly what they expect us to deliver. At the 
same time, Americans have a right to expect that the legislation we 
pass actually addresses the problems they face and that we do not use 
the need for reform as an excuse to pass legislation that does not 
really help or that makes existing problems worse.
  This is the nature of the debate we are in: Some in Washington seem 
to be rushing to push through so-called reforms just for the sake of 
reform, regardless of whether they actually help the situation, while 
others are insisting we take the time to get it right.
  Fortunately, with each passing day, more and more Americans and now 
more and more Members of Congress are insisting that we take the 
responsible path to health care reform--even if it means hitting the 
reset button and meeting in the middle on reforms that all of us can 
agree on and that Americans can embrace.
  Here are some of the cautionary notes we have heard from Senators 
just in the last few days.
  One top Senator said:

       It's better to get a product that's based on quality and 
     thoughtfulness than on trying to just get something through.

  Last week, nine freshmen Senators wrote an open letter to the Senate 
Finance Committee calling for a solution that doesn't bankrupt our 
health care system. Here is what those nine Senators wrote:

       In the face of exploding debt and deficits, however, we are 
     concerned that too little focus has been given to the need 
     for cost containment.

  We are hearing the same things over in the House. One Congressman 
said on Sunday morning that:

       The American people want to take a closer look. They want 
     to feel comfortable with it. We have a long way to go.

  Another Congressman said he thinks Americans are ``shell-shocked'' 
after last year's financial bailout, the stimulus, the cap-and-trade 
bill, and other major bills approved this year.
  Another Congressman, referring to health care reform, asked:

       Why are we rushing? Why are we rushing? Let's get it right.

  America's Governors are also calling on the administration and 
Congress to slow down and insisting that Congress take the time to 
produce the right reform.
  One Governor recently was quoted as saying he:

       Personally was very concerned about the cost issue, 
     particularly the $1 trillion figure being batted around.

  Here is another one commenting on proposals to shift Medicaid costs 
on to already cash-strapped States. She said:

       As a governor, my concern is that if we try to cost-shift 
     to the States, we are not going to be in a position to pick 
     up the tab.

  Another Governor had the same concerns about Medicaid. Here is what 
he was quoted as saying in the New York Times last week:

       Medicaid is a poor vehicle for expanding coverage . . . 
     It's a 45-year-old system originally designed for poor women 
     and their children. It is not health care reform to dump more 
     money into Medicaid.

  All these people have something in common: They all want reform. They 
have concerns about the proposals we have seen so far, and they have 
something else in common too. Every one of the lawmakers I have quoted 
is a Democrat--every one of them.
  Some are trying to portray this debate as a debate between 
Republicans and Democrats. This is a distortion of the facts and is a 
disservice to the millions of Americans who want us to get this reform 
right. As I and others have said, the only thing that is bipartisan 
about the reforms we have seen so far is the opposition. The reason is 
clear: It costs too much; they don't address the long-term challenges 
in our health care system; they don't reduce long-term costs; they 
would add hundreds of billions to the national debt; and there is no 
way the American people will embrace them because all of them fall

[[Page 19474]]

well outside the boundaries of the middle path Americans are asking us 
to take.
  This is why so many within the President's own party are now standing 
and telling the administration to slow down and to reassess. This is 
why even traditionally Democratic groups, such as the AFL-CIO, are 
having second thoughts. Just last week, the AFL-CIO criticized a plan 
to tax so-called gold-plated insurance plans because of the impact it 
could have on workers. Why? Because they know that when politicians 
talk about raising tax on business, it is average Americans who end up 
shouldering most of the burden.
  Americans don't want to lose the quality of care our current system 
provides, and they certainly don't want to pay trillions of dollars for 
a government takeover of health care that could lead to the same 
denial, delays, and rationing of treatment we have seen in other 
countries. They have heard the same stories we have--of someone with 
cancer being denied a drug because it costs too much or the woman who 
came here from Canada to deliver her babies because there wasn't any 
room in the neonatal intensive care units back home or they visited 
places such as the M.D. Anderson Center in Houston, TX, as I have, and 
saw how dozens of patients from other countries go there for 
treatments.
  We don't know the exact circumstances that brought these people here, 
but we do know this: that they decided to come to the United States, in 
some cases traveling thousands of miles to do so, to get the kind of 
care that only America could provide.
  Some people, for some reason, seem afraid to admit it, but the fact 
is, American health care is the envy--the envy--of many people around 
the world, and Americans don't want to lose it. That is why Americans 
are telling us we can reform health care without bankrupting the 
country or destroying what is so unique and special about our current 
system. That is why a growing number of politicians in Washington are 
hearing the people's concerns and speaking out. That is why many of 
them are now urging the administration to take a different path.

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