[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 18]
[House]
[Pages 24694-24695]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         HALLOWEEN HEALTH CARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Madam Speaker, somewhere in the deep, dark, moldy 
caverns of this Capitol building, known only to the very few, the 
taxacrats are very busy writing their Halloween health care bill. They 
want to shove it through Congress before Halloween. How appropriate a 
date for that nightmare.
  The Senate took another step today toward Halloween health care. The 
Senate Finance Committee passed something they called a ``concept'' 
bill. It's not really a bill, it's just a concept, an idea. That means 
the bill is not really actually written. But they passed it out of the 
Senate Finance Committee anyway.
  Now, they're supposed to merge it together with the trillion dollar 
Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee health care bill. 
That's the HELP bill. The Senate passed that earlier this year. So in 
the secret caverns of the Capitol, the health-care-crats are going to 
merge the two Senate bills to come up with the final Halloween health 
care bill.
  Here is the problem with all the bills so far: The government decides 
our

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health care. All the power and all the control goes to the Federal 
Government. It lets the government decide what procedures doctors may 
perform on their patients. If some new medicine comes along, it won't 
be covered. You have to go into the government-run plan to get new 
medicines. And you have to pay a big fine if you don't buy insurance 
when you're young and healthy. I'm sure the youth of America will like 
that new change in health care. Plus, businesses that cannot afford to 
have health care for their employees will also get stuck with an 8.5 
percent tax. Of course, that will put some businesses out of business. 
In other words, tax them out of business.
  The bills are so vague that illegals probably are covered in all of 
the bills as well. Also these bills tax good insurance plans like the 
ones that many union members have. If someone pays more to get better 
insurance, the government is going to make them pay for having that 
better insurance with higher taxes. And millions of people are still 
not covered in the bills. Now wasn't that supposed to be the reason for 
all of this reform? We are turning the health of America over to the 
government, and these bills still won't cover everyone.
  And even when they still don't cover millions of people, government 
health care is just too expensive. America cannot afford it. 
Government-run health care is going to cost the taxpayers at least 
another trillion dollars at the very least. And where are we going to 
get the money? We don't have the money.
  Now the taxacrats are tying to tell us that putting everyone in a new 
government-run health care system won't cost the taxpayers any money. 
Well, they are wrong. That would be the first time in history a 
government-run program like this health care bill costs less than it 
was supposed to be.
  If you liked your health care when you had to pay for it, Madam 
Speaker, you will really like it when it's free.
  There's more. Government health care is going to cut half a billion 
dollars out of Medicare to help pay for this Halloween health care 
bill. Of course, that scares our seniors. And another thing that's odd: 
Every single one of these bills don't go into effect until the year 
2013. Now why is that? But the new taxes take effect in 2010. That's 
right. American taxpayers pay 3 years of new taxes on plans that don't 
take effect for 3 more years. Now isn't that lovely.
  So what's the big rush to pass all this? You'd think they're trying 
to hide something. And I wonder what that could be? If this is such a 
great deal, why is there deception surrounding this health care bill? 
Why not have openness before we vote on it? Let's have floor 
amendments. Let's have lively floor debate on it. Let's take our time. 
After all, the bills don't take effect for 3 more years. And maybe 
we'll have time for everyone in the House and the Senate to read these 
bills. Now there's a thought.
  Halloween health care is just a nightmare. And the people I represent 
in southeast Texas don't want the government controlling their health 
care. But Halloween health care looms in the dark shadows of these 
hallowed halls. Where the trolls roam at night, the bureaucrats write 
their health care bill, while the taxpayers continue to ask, ``trick or 
treat?'' And that's just the way it is.

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