[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 20213]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     AMERICANS NEED HEALTH CARE NOW

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today because America needs 
health care, and they need it now. The American people cannot wait. 
Every day that we wait 14,000 Americans lose their health insurance. 46 
years ago, at the March on Washington, I said, ``They tell us to wait. 
They tell us to be patient.'' We cannot wait, we cannot be patient. 
People are losing their health, their homes or their very lives because 
our health system does not work for them. This is not right. It is not 
just. And we can do better, much better.
  It is our moral obligation to lead. The insurance companies do not 
need our leadership. The drug companies do not need our leadership. 
They do not need our help. Real, hardworking people need us to lead. We 
must make sure that in our rush to appease the few, that we do not harm 
the many. We must adopt a bill that has a strong public health 
insurance option. We must adopt a bill that makes health premiums 
affordable to low and middle-income workers. We must not negotiate away 
our commitment to the working poor and to middle class Americans. This 
is the kind of leadership Americans need.
  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, ``Of all the forms of 
inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and 
inhumane.'' If we do not protect our most vulnerable hardworking 
Americans and their families, we will perpetuate this injustice. The 
time is always right to do what is right. We should not be afraid to do 
what is right. We must answer the call of history and pass health 
reform that works for all Americans.

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