[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 26432]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, continuing on from my 1-minute I 
gave earlier, this bill, the Pelosi bill, the Pelosi health care bill 
that the Democrats are embracing is almost 2,000 pages long. It's going 
to cost $2.25 million for each word, and that does not include the 
manager's amendment, which we have not yet seen. I imagine it's going 
to come down probably sometime tomorrow.
  As I said before, Members of Congress don't have to enroll in this 
public option which is in the bill. I hope everybody in America, if 
they happen to be paying attention--I know I can't talk to them, but if 
I were talking to them I would say, Hey, ask your Congressman why he is 
voting for a bill that's going to exempt him and make sure he can join 
a private health care insurance plan when there is a public option in 
here that he should be joining just like everybody else has to.
  This bill is not going to cost under a trillion dollars as the 
Speaker has said. If you put the doc fix in there, it's going to cost 
another $250 billion. So we are looking at something between 1.2 and 
1.3 trillion at a time when we are suffering economically in this 
country. Unemployment is close to 10 percent. The deficit this year, 
the deficit this year is already 1.4 trillion, almost three times just 
what it was last year, and we are going to add this new bill, which is 
going to cost another 1.2 to 1.3 trillion dollars.
  The American people simply don't want it. Let's go into some of the 
other things that are in the bill, the Pelosi health care bill.
  First of all, there is a surtax on small business people. Now, at a 
time when we have unemployment that's almost 10 percent, this is going 
to drive additional jobs out of the country offshore or they are going 
to have to cut back some of these businesses that stay here in America 
and let people go, which means there will be more unemployment. There 
is an employer mandate that's still applied to small businesses. Small 
businesses that have a payroll as low as $500,000 a year are going to 
be hit with a tax.
  There is a new medical device tax. In Indiana, we have some companies 
that make medical devices to help people, prosthetic devices, 
wheelchairs and things like that. There's a new medical tax that's 
going to be levied on these kinds of devices of 2.5 percent, and that's 
going to be passed on to people who are suffering from medical problems 
that need these medical devices. We call that a wheelchair tax that's 
in this bill.
  There's going to be new taxes on health savings accounts. The Pelosi 
bill eliminates the nontaxable reimbursements of over-the-counter 
medication from HSAs, HRAs, and FSAs. There is a new payroll tax, and 
the Pelosi bill creates a new voluntary payroll tax to fund new long-
term care programs requiring mandatory spending, also known as a new 
entitlement.
  Abortions are authorized in a break from the Hyde amendment and other 
longstanding pro-life policies. The bill includes the Capps amendment 
to authorize government funding of abortions through the public option. 
It also establishes an accounting gimmick to justify subsidizing 
private plans that cover abortion.
  Next, Members of Congress, as I said, are exempt. They say that they 
may--not have to--enroll in the public option. At the same time it says 
``may'' in there, there are 3,425 times in the bill it says you must, 
shall do something, and ``shall'' means it's a mandatory. There are 
mandatory things in here to the tune of 3,425 times.
  Doctors reimbursement levels are up in the air. They've got those 
budget gimmicks that I talked about, which removes the doctor fix, the 
medical doctor fix of 250 billion, which takes this up to between $1.2 
and $1.3 trillion.
  It reduces affordability credits and instead expands Medicaid. The 
States are going to love that. They are going to shovel a lot of this 
onto the States who are already suffering, and they are going to have 
to raise taxes.
  The Pelosi bill reduces the size of affordability credits for 
patients to purchase the insurance in the exchange and, instead, 
expands eligibility for Medicaid to up to 150 percent of the Federal 
poverty level, placing more Americans on entitlement programs at a cost 
to both the Federal and the State governments.
  As I said most States are in the red, and they are not going to like 
this. Ask any Governor; he will tell you.
  This also significantly changes the Medicare part D prescription drug 
program. The Pelosi bill requires the Secretary of HHS to negotiate 
drug prices for the prescription drug program. There are also several 
provisions in the bill that will likely increase seniors' premiums as 
identified by CBO, including the bill that would force seniors, force 
seniors, to pay at least an additional 20 percent more for their 
Medicare prescription drug coverage. That's part D.
  These things the American people need to know. This is not a good 
bill. There is a better way, a better way.

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