[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19560]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         THE SYSTEM IS WORKING

  (Mr. BARTON of Texas asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I have news for the American 
public. The system is working. The Congress is working. The Energy and 
Commerce Committee is working. The reason that the Speaker and the 
President can't get their health care bill through is that there is not 
consensus on it.
  I want to congratulate the other 22 Republicans on the Energy and 
Commerce Committee who are united against this bad piece of 
legislation. I want to also congratulate the 7 to 10 Blue Dog Democrats 
and conservative Democrats on the same committee.
  The reason we're not supportive of the President and the Speaker's 
plan is that it's bad for America. It doesn't solve the problem. It 
costs too much. It has got too much bureaucracy. The word ``shall'' is 
mentioned almost 2,000 times. It's a $1 trillion hit on the economy, 
and it doesn't solve the problem.
  We, the Republicans on the committee, have over 80 amendments that we 
wish to offer. Our Blue Dog friends have over 20. I asked the Speaker 
and Chairman Waxman to bring the bill up for markup. Let it be an open 
and transparent markup. If it takes us until September or October to 
get it done right, it's better to get it done right than to do it 
badly. The system is working.

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