[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 20]
[House]
[Page 27135]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Maffei). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, let me introduce you and my 
colleagues to someone. I would like to focus for just a moment on this 
first poster.
  This is the Health Choices Czar. You may not know him today, but if 
Democrats have their way and they pass their government takeover health 
care, we will all know him soon enough.
  In the fictional Hazzard County, Georgia, he was known as Boss Hogg 
from 1979 until 1985. Portrayed by the late actor Sorrell Booke, he was 
an infamous government corrupt official on ``The Dukes of Hazzard,'' 
who every week tried to exert his will on the people he was supposed to 
be serving. On the show, if it wasn't for honest citizens like Bo and 
Luke Duke and Crazy Cooter, he might have been able to run Hazzard 
County into the ground.
  Mr. Speaker, Boss Hogg is a fictional character. The Health Choices 
Czar created under the Democrats' health care bill, unfortunately, is 
not. This boss, created by President Obama and Nancy Pelosi, is very 
real. This boss will have the power to tell you what health products 
you can and cannot buy. This boss will be able to decide whether you 
need to pay him a tax. This boss will decide whether your health 
coverage is legal or not. In its roughly 2,000 page manifesto, this 
boss will soon control every decision you and your doctor want to make.
  Mr. Speaker, throughout the health care debate, I have heard a number 
of complaints from the majority that we are focused too much on the 
number of pages in their government takeover bill. In addition to the 
sheer number of pages of H.R. 3962, I think it's equally important to 
point out other numbers associated with the bill that are even more 
troubling.
  $1.2 trillion--the total cost of the bill for the American taxpayer.
  $2.5 million--the cost of each of the 400,000 words in this bill for 
the American taxpayer.
  $730 million--this is the amount of new taxes created in this bill 
for small business, individuals who cannot afford health care coverage 
and employers who cannot afford to provide coverage that meets the Boss 
Hogg's standard.
  10.2 percent--the Nation's current unemployment level reported just 
yesterday by the Department of Labor.
  190,000--the number of jobs lost in the month of October reported 
yesterday by the Department of Labor.
  5.5 million--the estimated number of jobs that could be lost as a 
result of taxes on businesses that cannot afford to provide health care 
coverage. This is according to a model developed by one of the 
President's chief economic advisers, Christina Romer.
  114 million--that's the number of people who could lose their current 
health care coverage--coverage, of course, that they like--under the 
proposed government-run health plan in H.R. 3962.
  3,425--Mr. Speaker, the number of times the word ``shall'' appears in 
H.R. 3962 that results in new duties for bureaucrats and mandates on 
individuals' businesses and states.
  118--the number of new bureaucracies created by H.R. 3962.
  Mr. Speaker, when the Democratic majority says Republicans focus too 
much on the number of pages of H.R. 3962, they really avoid a 
deliberative debate, because this bill is bad legislation. In fact, the 
editorial on Monday's Wall Street Journal called H.R. 3962, ``The Worst 
Bill Ever.'' That editorial said, ``Epic new spending and taxes, 
pricier insurance, rationed care, dishonest accounting: The Pelosi 
health bill has it all,'' and I am quoting the Wall Street Journal.
  According to this editorial, Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats in 
Congress are more like Boss Hogg looking to exert their will on the 
American people than they are responsible Members of Congress. It 
states, ``Democrats have dumped any presence of genuine bipartisanship 
and moved into the realm of pure power politics.''
  Clearly, the Wall Street Journal understands the ramifications that 
this legislation has for the American people. Quite frankly, I agree 
with that paper's characterization of H.R. 3962 that, ``In a rational 
political world, this 1,990-page runaway train would have been derailed 
months ago.''
  Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, in the case of this legislation, it seems 
to me like we live in Boss Hogg's Hazzard County, instead of a 
rationally based society. I urge my colleagues to look beyond the 
rhetoric that Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats use to promote ``The 
Worst Bill Ever'' and look at the numbers associated with this 
legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, Boss Hogg went off the air in 1985. Unfortunately, this 
legislation is real and poses a real threat to the foundation of our 
health care system. Tomorrow, or whenever we vote on H.R. 3962, I hope 
all of my colleagues have the sense to defeat this irrational 
legislation.

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