[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 232-233]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            THE WOLF IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING FOLLIES ACT OF 2011

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, those who are watching this today may 
wonder what just happened in the House of Representatives. And I want 
to talk a little bit about it so they understand what goes on next week 
on the floor of this House. Today we set the stage for the passage of 
the Republican health care plan. It won't be a repeal of what the 
Democratic Congress did before. It will be returning us to the status 
quo where the health care insurance industry in this country is totally 
in control of the private insurance industry.
  Now, yesterday I was on a conference call with groups that represent 
18,000 physicians who want us not to act and repeal the Affordable 
Health Care Act next week. They have taken resolutions in every 
district around this country among physicians. They have delivered them 
to the Speaker's Office, Mr. Boehner in Cincinnati. They have taken 
them to Mr. Cantor's office in Virginia. Because doctors know what this 
act really does.
  I listened to a couple of my colleagues who are physicians, and I 
heard them say they wanted to repeal it all. But the 18,000 physicians 
who I was talking to, or their representatives, on the phone yesterday 
were talking about what the real experience is out in the doctors' 
offices, not on the floor of the House or not in some political arena 
where we are making points, but when you are actually dealing with 
patients.
  I am a physician. I have been there. I have done it also. I have had 
phone calls from Omaha, Nebraska, about whether I could continue to see 
a patient. And every doctor who has practiced in this country in the 
last 30 years knows that is what goes on. They know that patients don't 
have health insurance because they have a preexisting condition. They 
know that people who thought they had insurance suddenly get an illness 
and then find out their insurance company won't cover them because of 
some technicality or whatever they find. They worry about their own 
children who finish college at age 21 or 22 and can no longer be 
covered on their insurance policy. But with the bill that we passed 
last year, those young people can be covered from age 22 to 26 until 
they get a job where they have health care benefits. Those are the 
reasons why doctors want to see this bill stay in place and be enacted.
  Now, what we're going to see out here next week is political theater. 
I call it the Wolf in Sheep's Clothing Follies Act of 2011. We have a 
piece of legislation which we weren't told about today. It is exactly 
one page long and repeals everything that happened. It repeals the 
prohibition against preexisting condition exclusions. It allows 
insurers to no longer cover children over the age of 22. It sets 
lifetime limits again on people's insurance policies. All of that 
occurs here in one single piece of paper, with no debate, no committee 
hearings, no effort to find out what's going on out there in the 
community. It's a political document for a political purpose for a part 
of the Republican Party. It is not what the American people are 
actually feeling.
  Now, what you will hear next week is even more interesting because we 
are going to get a fraudulent piece of legislative hot air. They will 
say, Well, yes, we are repealing ObamaCare. You know, it's strange. 
They never call Medicare ``Johnson Medicare.'' It passed under 
President Johnson. I wonder why not. Because it was for all Americans. 
It's not the President. It's

[[Page 233]]

the body that sits here that passes the legislation that covers all 
Americans. And yet we are now, next week, going to be offered this 
piece of fraudulent hot air. It's House Resolution 9. They will say, 
Yes, we're repealing that, but we have this.

                              {time}  1210

  And when you read H. Res. 9, it's one page of nothing. Read it. 
You've got the weekend.

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