[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 23025]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Grayson) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GRAYSON. Last night here in this Chamber I gave a speech. I'm not 
going to recount every single thing that I said, but I will point out 
that immediately after that speech, several Republicans asked me to 
apologize. Well, I would like to apologize. I would like to apologize 
to the dead. And here is why. According to this study, ``Health 
Insurance and Mortality in U.S. Adults,'' which was published 2 weeks 
ago, 44,789 Americans die every year because they have no health 
insurance. That's right, 44,789 Americans die every year according to 
this Harvard study called Health Insurance and Mortality in U.S. 
Adults. You can see it by going to our Web site, grayson.house.gov.
  That is more than 10 times the number of Americans who have died in 
the war in Iraq. It's more than ten times the number of Americans who 
died in 
9/11. But that is just once. This is every single year. That's right, 
every single year. Take a look at this. Read it and weep. And I mean 
that. Read it and weep because of all the Americans who are dying 
because they don't have health insurance.
  Now I think we should do something about that. And the Democratic 
health care plan does do something about that. It makes health care 
affordable to those who can't afford insurance, and it saves these 
people's lives. Let's remember that we should care about people even 
after they are born. So I call upon the Democratic Members of the 
House, I call upon the Republican Members of the House, and I call upon 
all of us to do our jobs for the sake of America, for the sake of those 
dying people and their families. I apologize to the dead and their 
families that we haven't voted sooner to end this holocaust in America.

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