[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6387]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  WE JUST BROKE HEALTH CARE IN AMERICA

  (Mr. SHIMKUS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, President Obama stated on February 7, 2010, 
``If we can start bending the cost curve on health care, that's the 
most important thing we can do to deal with the deficits long term.'' 
Well, we always agreed that he was bending the cost curve. But our 
position was that it wasn't being bent down; it was being bent up.
  The chief actuary of CMS, Mr. Foster's, report supports this and 
states that health care costs will accelerate by over $300 billion 
because of this bill. The health reform law will not extend the life of 
our entitlement programs, because severe cuts to the programs are used 
not to strengthen Medicare but, rather, to finance other outlays. And 
Medicare cuts could lead to providers ending their participation in the 
program.
  This is not Republicans. This is the chief actuary of CMS who is 
saying this bill is a dog, and we'd better redo it because it's going 
to raise costs and decrease benefits.
  There is an old saying, If you broke it, you have to keep it. We just 
broke health care in America.

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