[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 26548]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1500
                              HEALTH CARE

  (Mr. SMITH of Nebraska asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SMITH of Nebraska. Mr. Speaker, millions of Americans are 
concerned with spending; and the spending contained in this bill and 
the more than 3,000 references to the word ``shall'' concerns 
Americans, especially as it relates to their tax dollars. This tax on 
medical devices, in my reading of the bill, looks like the sicker you 
are, the greater the tax you will pay. That is a huge concern to me.
  When I look at the challenges that we face with needing to streamline 
government, with needing to first streamline Medicare and Medicaid and 
find this fraud that's out there first before we go about depending on 
the money that we find, we can make a lot of progress, rather than 
implementing 111 new agencies, commissions and bureaucracies in 
general. Mr. Speaker, we owe Americans better than this; and we can do 
better.

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