[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 22399]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              CMS GAG RULE

  (Mr. HERGER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HERGER. Mr. Speaker, the Obama administration keeps trying to 
silence critics of its government-run health care plan. This week, the 
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services decided that Medicare 
Advantage plans were offering the wrong opinions about the health care 
bill. So CMS ordered them to stop telling their customers about the 
proposed cuts to Medicare benefits.
  Mr. Speaker, this Chicago-style politics is a shocking abuse of power 
that flies in the face of the President's call for open and honest 
debate. It's time to remind the President and CMS that all Americans 
have a constitutional right to speak their mind, even when that holds 
back a government takeover of health care.

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