[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 14]
[House]
[Pages 19543-19544]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1100
                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Daniel E. Lungren) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California. Madam Speaker, this week, it is 
still uncertain as to whether we are going to have an opportunity to 
vote on a health care proposal before we go home for the August recess. 
And I would just suggest, Madam Speaker, that what we do is ensure that 
we have absolute transparency, the capability

[[Page 19544]]

of every Member to look at whatever bill comes to this floor--we have 
been told that the bill may be in excess of 1,000 pages--that we have 
an opportunity to have a full debate and full amendments to be debated 
on the floor.
  And why do I say this? Because many people would say that would be 
what is to be expected. Unfortunately, over the last several months, we 
have had an experience in this House in which we have had major pieces 
of legislation brought to this floor, in some cases the bill itself 
with very little notice, in other cases huge 300-page amendments being 
dropped on us at the last minute.
  We have had some suggest that it is unnecessary for Members of 
Congress to read the bill or have their staffs read the bill or 
understand the parts of the bill; rather, we are told, ``just trust 
us.'' Well, I remember Ronald Reagan's very important admonition, which 
was ``trust, but verify.''
  If we are being asked to alter approximately 18 percent of the entire 
United States economy, if we are being asked to change in fundamental 
ways the delivery of health care to the men, women and children of this 
country, if we are being told that what we are going to do is going to 
inalterably change Medicare and Medicaid, if we are being told that 
what we are embarking on this week is to fundamentally change the 
manner in which men, women and children of this country receive their 
health care, if we are to be told that we must make a decision this 
week as to what the relationship between the doctor and the patient 
ought to be, if we are being told that we will have to make choices as 
to whether or not the government shall insert itself between the doctor 
and the patient, if we are being told that the President believes that 
there are doctors--the generalization was most doctors would require a 
tonsillectomy for a young person rather than continue treatment of a 
cheaper kind to take care of sore throats, if we are being told that we 
have to review the entire health care system of the United States, 
compare it to Canada, compare it to England, compare it to France, 
compare it to Sweden, compare it to the ideal, if we are being told 
that this week we have to make the decision as to whether or not the 
program we put forward will have government decide whether a 100-year-
old woman who is in extraordinarily good health but needs a pacemaker 
ought to instead be told by the government that merely she should take 
a pain pill--as the President suggested on television not too long 
ago--then maybe we owe it to the American people to give ourselves 
sufficient time. Rather than have some sort of artificial deadline, 
maybe we ought to take the time to go back to our districts and present 
the arguments to our constituents and at least give them an opportunity 
to tell us in our town hall meetings, tell us in our tele-town halls, 
tell us in our meetings with various groups as to what they think ought 
to be done.
  Why would we have a rush to judgment here, other than the fact that 
we have an August recess, other than the fact that the President said 
that we must pass it by a date certain? Shouldn't we take the time to 
do the work that the American people expect us of, particularly when it 
deals with something so precious, so personal, so important as their 
health?
  And so I hope that, rather than meet some artificial deadline, we 
will take the time to allow the American people to see the bill in all 
of its glory, to see its good points and its bad points, to see whether 
we ought to change it, alter it in any way, and then come back and make 
a decision here for the American people. There are very few issues that 
are as fundamentally important as this issue. Let's make sure we do it 
right.

                          ____________________