[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3289]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  (Mr. TURNER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. TURNER. Madam Speaker, it is irresponsible for Congress to 
continue debating an increasingly unpopular and costly health care bill 
at a time of record-breaking deficits and uncertainty about our 
economy. We should be focusing on reducing spending and creating jobs. 
In Tuesday's New York Times, columnist David Brooks editorialized that 
the majority's ``passion for coverage has swamped their . . . 
commitment to reducing the debt. The result is a bill that is 
fundamentally imbalanced.'' Brooks wrote that ``they've stuffed the 
legislation with gimmicks and dodges designed to get a good score from 
the Congressional Budget Office but that don't genuinely control 
runaway spending.'' He points out that the bill appears deficit-neutral 
because it immediately collects revenues but doesn't pay for benefits 
until 2014. It also doesn't include $300 billion in additional costs 
because it assumes Congress will cut Medicare reimbursements by 21 
percent.
  Unfortunately, this proposed government takeover of health care has 
blocked the path to reasonable reform. We can and must work together on 
a bipartisan basis to achieve real reform that will bring down costs 
and increase access for all Americans without increasing the national 
debt.

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