[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 25777]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  (Mr. DREIER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, last month, President Obama stood right 
behind me here in our Chamber and delivered an address to a joint 
session of Congress in which he said, ``Anyone who mischaracterizes our 
bill, we will call you out.'' His next line was, ``I will not accept 
the status quo.''
  Well, Mr. Speaker, we all know that no one--no one--wants to accept 
the status quo. I've been listening to my California constituents, and 
they've been saying that we need to have exactly what our colleague 
from Washington (Mrs. McMorris Rodgers) described as a step-by-step 
approach. They know and understand that a massive government takeover 
of health care is not the answer to our problem; in fact, it could 
exacerbate the problem, especially with the proposed Medicare cuts that 
will hurt our seniors.
  We need to do things like allow people to purchase insurance across 
State lines, giving them a chance to have the best quality product at 
the lowest possible price. We need real medical liability reform, 
which, according to the Congressional Budget Office, will bring about a 
savings of $54 billion. We need to have the step-by-step approach that 
Mrs. McMorris Rodgers said that we need. Let's make it happen.

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