[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 25798]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              COMPETITION

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, there's been a lot of talk about choices and 
competition recently. We're hearing now that some on the other side of 
the aisle want to rename the ``public option'' the ``competitive 
option.''
  Will the competitive option negotiate with doctors like private 
insurance? No. Will the competitive option be subject to thousands of 
different State mandates on coverage? No. Will a competitive option be 
subject to State and local taxes? No. Will the competitive option face 
an endless assault of lawsuits costing billions of dollars? No.
  Senate Leader Reid has brought forth a bill that would allow 
individual States a choice to opt out of the competitive public option. 
What we're not sure of is whether people in these States will be able 
to opt out of the billions of new taxes mandated by the bill. Like most 
Federal programs, the States will either accept the program or watch 
their citizens' tax dollars go to other participating States.
  The government option offers few choices, and its competitive 
advantages will mean that in a very short time, millions of Americans 
will end up with no option, just the government.

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