[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 20]
[House]
[Page 27132]
[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 Kansas (Mr. Moran) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MORAN of Kansas. This week, I had the honor of meeting 30 Kansas 
World War II veterans at the national World War II Memorial. These 
veterans, who are in their 80s and 90s, were part of Honor Flight, an 
organization that brings veterans to Washington, D.C. to see the 
memorial dedicated in their honor.
  Welcoming these Honor Flight veterans is an incredible privilege and 
one of the most rewarding experiences of my time in Congress. As I 
visited with these veterans about the sacrifices they made, the friends 
they lost, and the love they have for their country, I was reminded 
about how serious my responsibility is as a Member of the United States 
House of Representatives to do right. It also caused me to reflect on 
the importance of this weekend's vote on health care reform.
  As Chair of the House Rural Health Care Coalition, I know how 
important health care is to the survival of Kansans and their home 
towns. The vote we will take this weekend will affect all Kansans at 
every age, those proud aging veterans, the senior couple counting out 
their medications each morning, the young family just starting out, the 
children playing hide and seek in the yard, and the small business 
owner looking over the budget report.
  The decision we make this weekend matters; it matters from coast to 
coast and across the sweeping plains of Kansas. Our State has unique 
health care needs, different from much of the country. We have an aging 
population that has spread widely across a large area. I consider these 
unique needs in each policy decision that I make.
  Changes are truly needed in our current health care system, and I 
have written about my ideas for reform and have shared them with folks 
back home and anyone up here who will listen. After studying H.R. 3962, 
Speaker Pelosi's health care reform bill, listening to the concerns of 
Kansans and visiting with Kansas hospitals to speak with doctors and 
nurses, patients and administrators, I have concluded that the 
Speaker's 2,000-page bill will do great harm to Kansans, and I strongly 
oppose it.
  The Pelosi bill is essentially the same version that the Speaker 
started out with months ago, except it's 1,000 pages longer. Instead of 
working to repair our current system, which a majority of Americans 
favor, the Pelosi bill will turn much of our system on its head by 
creating a new government-sponsored health care program financed by 
deficit spending and taxes.
  This bill levies taxes on businesses, cuts Medicare benefits to 
seniors, eliminates jobs with employer mandates, and enables 
bureaucrats to define what form of health coverage is acceptable for 
Americans.
  The bill would create 118 new boards, bureaucracies, commissions and 
programs to carry out its so-called ``reforms.'' I am especially 
troubled how $500 billion in Medicare cuts and proposed reimbursement 
rate changes contained in this bill will affect Kansans with our high 
population of seniors. Only in Washington does cutting billions of 
dollars from a near bankrupt Medicare program seem like a good idea. 
These cuts will reduce benefits and raise premiums for Kansas seniors 
and make it harder for us to find a doctor or nurse when we need one.
  We strengthen our health care system by reducing cost. The Speaker's 
bill does nothing to reduce cost. In fact, Medicare and Medicaid's own 
actuaries have warned that the plan will dramatically increase Federal 
health care spending.
  The veterans I met at the World War II Memorial fought for a country 
they love and that country's promise of liberty and opportunity. After 
the war, these men and women returned to their homes and ventured off 
in different directions, some rejoined families and jobs, some got 
married, some went to college, and some started a business. But one 
thing they all shared was the desire to continue fighting to make a 
better life for their children, a life better than the one they had for 
themselves. This is the desire that my mom and dad--my dad who turns 94 
tomorrow--had for my sister and me, and the one that my wife, Robba, 
and I have for our daughters. This is what we do in America: we leave 
the next generation better off.
  I have concluded this bill will not make health care more affordable 
or more accessible to Kansans. I have also concluded that, coupled with 
all the other bad ideas of this Congress--stimulus packages, bailouts, 
Cash for Clunkers, cap-and-trade--we will be leaving our children with 
more debt, less freedom, diminished personal responsibility, and fewer 
economic opportunities. Worse, we will have failed to honor the dreams 
of those Kansas soldiers for a better life for another generation of 
Americans.

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