[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3710]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      HISTORIC HEALTH CARE DEBATE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Manzullo) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MANZULLO. Mr. Speaker, we are engaged in what is called an 
historic debate over the issue of health care reform, and there are a 
couple of issues that need to be addressed.
  The area that I represent in northern Illinois, the biggest city is 
at 19.7 percent unemployment. Add 7 percentage points to that, it's 
nearly 27 percent unemployment. It's incredible.
  The State of Illinois is laying off teachers, social workers, people 
involved in all types of social services. Students at a nearby high 
school went out and picketed because they're concerned over the loss of 
their advanced placement classes. Yet, under the Senate bill, many more 
across the country would be added to the Medicaid roles. The State of 
Illinois, already bankrupt, billions of dollars in debt, would have to 
take on paying an additional $400 million a year in Federal mandates 
and unreimbursed increased Medicaid expenses. This doesn't make sense.
  On top of it, there's a 2\1/2\ percent--we think that's the amount--
excise tax on medical equipment, medical devices, the very equipment 
that was used to save the life of my wife who came down with cancer 4 
years ago: the titanium brace that replaces one of her vertebrae, the 
radiation machine, all the latest equipment. A tax on the very 
equipment that's used to help people get excellent health care in this 
country? We're not quite sure which equipment would be taxed or which 
would be free of tax, but once the tax starts--and we all know what 
happens with the tax. It's passed on to the consumers.
  So here's this monstrous bill from the Senate that the House is 
supposed to adopt by some type of unique process that's going to tax 
lifesaving equipment. It just defies logic as to why this is being 
done; $500 billion in tax increases. Now Social Security would apply to 
dividends, interest, capital gains taxes. Tax after tax after tax 
hurting the American people. I never thought that it would happen in 
America when lifesaving devices would be taxed to increase the cost to 
the people who use them.
  This isn't what the American people want; it certainly isn't what 
they deserve. There are many ways to bring down the high cost of health 
care: through association health plans, through meaningful medical 
liability reform, through increasing the number of community health 
centers, by allowing small employers the ability to have the same tax 
breaks that corporations do when using their money to buy health 
insurance premiums.
  America watches and looks and wonders and asks this question: Why are 
the leaders in Congress doing this to us?

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