[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 25183]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         HALLOWEEN HEALTH CARE

  Mr. POE of Texas. Madam Speaker, the Senate's Halloween health care 
bill seeped out of the dark dungeons of the Capitol Building today. 
News reports say it's 1,500 pages long. Why is legislation drafted in 
the secret, dark caverns of the Capitol, where the trolls roam at 
night, void of public view? Is it so scary the healthcrats don't want 
us to know what's in it?
  We need to know exactly what's in these bills and how much they 
really cost before we vote on anything. And why is there such a rush to 
pass a bill anyway? Maybe they have frightening parts that no one will 
see if quickly passed. One scary part is the government wanting 
American money now. You see, new taxes take effect immediately, but the 
legislation won't be in operation until 2013. That's right. American 
taxpayers pay 3 years of new taxes on a deal that doesn't take effect 
for 3 years. Now isn't that scary?
  And what is the goal of this government bill? If the goal is to 
provide universal health care for everyone, the bill is a failure. The 
President told us there are 30 million uninsured. The Congressional 
Budget Office said the latest and greatest bill still will leave 25 
million uninsured. So we're letting the government take over health 
care just to add 5 million people to the government system. It would be 
cheaper just to buy them all health insurance and then require proof of 
citizenship to get insurance rather than spend trillions and let Uncle 
Sam take care of us all.
  If the goal of the Halloween health care bill is to provide better 
quality care, the bill is a failure. Just look at the way the 
government runs the Indian universal health care system. The government 
has been committing medical malpractice against the Indians for 
decades. If the goal is to make health care cheaper, the bill fails 
again. The bill will cost over $1 trillion just to set it up. And the 
idea that government can run an entire health care system cheaper than 
the private sector is a myth. The only way that government can do it 
cheaper is to drastically cut services to patients, ration care or 
both.
  Madam Speaker, has there ever been a government program that costs 
less than projected? I don't think that has happened in the history of 
the Republic.
  If the goal is to make government-run Halloween health care more 
efficient, the bill fails once more. The government is almost always 
more inefficient because it has no competition, has no accountability, 
and when it runs out of money, it just spends more money and taxes the 
taxpayer.
  However, if the real goal of this legislation is to have government 
take control of our health care, the bill is a total success.
  The Halloween health care nightmare on Capitol Hill is this specific 
provision--government takeover of health care. So rather than let the 
government take care of us all, Congress should reform specific 
problems under our current system. Allow insurance to be purchased 
across State lines, provide for a safety net for catastrophic injury or 
illness, have a method to allow people with preexisting conditions to 
obtain insurance, allow for health savings accounts so people can take 
care of themselves and get a tax break, provide tax incentives and tax 
breaks for businesses who take care of their employees rather than more 
taxes on small businesses, which taxes them to death, and eliminate the 
fraud, waste and abuse in the Medicaid system.
  And, Madam Speaker, there are many other specific things Congress 
should do. But turning over America's health to the Federal Government 
is unhealthy for the American people. Such an idea is truly a Halloween 
nightmare and a trick on the American people.
  And that's just the way it is.

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