[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 21]
[Senate]
[Pages 28836-28837]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, certainly in a country of 300 million 
people there are differences of opinion, and you will see them on full 
display in the Senate on this monumental 2,074-page scheme that would 
expand the reach of government deeper into our lives, raise taxes, 
increase health care premiums, and cut Medicare for seniors.
  On the other side are the American people. We know, from all the 
surveys we have seen, the American people are opposed to this bill. 
They are astonished that we are trying to pass a bill that is clearly 
opposed by the American people in every survey that has been published.
  Americans do support reform, but this isn't the reform they were 
asking for, and it is not the reform they were told they could expect. 
In fact, it is pretty clear by now that the American people were sold a 
bill of goods when the administration and its allies in Congress said 
their health care bill would lower costs and help the economy because 
the plan that has been produced, that is before the Senate, will not do 
either.
  The debate is no longer about improving care by reducing costs. We 
are past that. This plan will raise costs on American families, and it 
will make an already struggling economy even worse. The only question 
now is how we got to a point where we are actually considering spending 
trillions of dollars on a brand new government entitlement at a time 
when more than 1 in 10 Americans is looking for a job and when our 
debts and deficits are well past the tipping point.
  For many, the answer to that question is quite clear. We know that 
some here in Washington have wanted government-run health care for many 
years. It is hard to escape the conclusion that these same people saw 
the current economic crisis as their moment. Earlier in this year, some 
in this administration said that ``a crisis is a terrible thing to 
waste.'' Americans are hoping this bill is not what they meant, but 
they are concerned that it is.
  Americans already know this bill will make our economic problems 
worse, not better, without even addressing the serious health care 
problems we already face--and they would be right. That is why they 
want us to start over and accomplish the real mission of lowering 
costs.
  That is precisely what the McCain amendment would allow us to do. The 
McCain amendment would send this bill back for a rewrite. It would send 
it back to the Finance Committee with instructions to give us a new 
bill that does not include $\1/2\ trillion cuts to Medicare. It would 
send the bill back to committee; send us a new bill without $\1/2\ 
trillion cuts to Medicare, one that does not pay for the bill on the 
backs of seniors; that is, if you pass the McCain amendment.
  Here is a program, the Medicare Program, that is already struggling, 
a program that needs help. Yet, in order to

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finance their vision of reform, our friends on the other side want to 
use Medicare as a piggy bank to create an all-new government program 
that is bound to have the same problems as Medicare. As written, their 
bill would cut nearly $\1/2\ trillion from Medicare--not to make the 
program stronger but to fund more government spending. In the process, 
millions of seniors would lose benefits. Literally millions of seniors 
would lose benefits.
  The McCain amendment would not let that happen. The McCain amendment 
tells the committees: Don't cut hospitals. The McCain amendment tells 
the committees: Don't cut hospice. The McCain amendment tells the 
committees: Don't cut home health care. The McCain amendment tells the 
committees: Don't cut Medicare Advantage. It would allow us to focus 
our efforts, instead, on the prevention of waste, fraud, and abuse, 
which we know to be rampant in this program. It would ensure we are not 
cutting one government program just to create a new one. That is what a 
vote in favor of the McCain amendment would be, it would be a vote to 
preserve Medicare, not weaken it. That is the message America's seniors 
want to hear in this health care debate, that improving health care in 
America doesn't have to come at their expense.
  Some may argue that they need to cut Medicare to create a new 
government program. That is their call. But it is not the call 
Americans are asking us to make. I haven't gotten a call yet from 
anybody in Kentucky or around the country saying: Please cut Medicare 
so you can start a new program for somebody else--not my first call.
  The American people want us to start over from the beginning and 
craft a bill they can actually support, and we know they don't support 
this bill. All the surveys indicate that. Then we could start over and 
end junk lawsuits against doctors and hospitals that drive up costs, 
something the majority didn't find any room for in their 2074-page 
bill--not a word about controlling junk lawsuits against doctors and 
hospitals. Then we could encourage healthy choices such as prevention 
and wellness programs, something the majority somehow couldn't squeeze 
into their 2074-page bill. Then we could lower costs by letting 
consumers buy coverage across State lines, something the majority must 
have overlooked in their 2074-page bill. Then we could address the 
rampant waste, fraud, and abuse, something our friends didn't think was 
important enough to seriously address in their 2074-page bill.
  The McCain amendment would allow us to vote with seniors. That is 
what the McCain amendment is about. It would allow the Senate to say we 
are not going to finance a new government program on the backs of 
seniors, we are not going to use Medicare as a piggy bank to fund a new 
government program. It would allow us to vote with the American people. 
Most important, it would allow us to start over and get this right.
  I yield the floor.

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