[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 25775]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  (Mr. BOEHNER asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker and my colleagues, as we stand here, the 
health care bill is being written in secret in Speaker Pelosi's office 
and over in the Senate by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, even 
though the President of the United States during his campaign made 
clear that these negotiations ought to be out in the public and we 
ought to have C-SPAN cameras in there to allow the American people to 
see who is fighting for what side. Yet, it is not happening. It is 
being written in secret.
  And no wonder it is being written in secret because the Democrat 
majorities are doing exactly what the American people don't want: a big 
government-run plan. I wonder if the 53 new agencies, boards, 
commissions and mandates that were in the original House bill will 
continue to be in this bill that is being written in secret.
  But this bill is in secret for one big reason. It is going to cost 
over $1 trillion. It is going to raise taxes. It is going to have 
mandates on individuals. It is going to destroy jobs, and it is going 
to cut Medicare for our seniors.
  What cuts to seniors are going to be in this bill? No one knows. All 
I know is that there were $162 billion worth of cuts to Medicare 
Advantage in the original House bill, $162 billion, and I have 27,000 
Medicare Advantage enrollees in my district. And according to the 
Congressional Budget Office, some 80 percent of them are likely to lose 
their health coverage under this proposal.
  Republicans have better solutions. Just go to healthcare.gop.gov and 
see the Republican solutions that will help make our current system 
work better and not have this big government takeover of our health 
care delivery system.

                          ____________________