[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12346-12347]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      IMPORTANT ISSUES OF THE DAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2017, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Gohmert) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, it has been a deeply troubling last 12 
hours--24 hours, I guess. The House went about trying to repeal the--
and it is just tough to say--Affordable Care Act because of the 
thousands of people we have heard from in my district in the last 7 
years who have just been devastated by the costs that skyrocketed, the 
premiums that skyrocketed, the deductibles that skyrocketed, the 
critically important doctor or medicine or facility that President 
Obama promised they could keep that was taken away by ObamaCare. It is 
just hard to call it the Affordable Care Act because it has cost some 
people everything.
  But every Republican had promised we would repeal ObamaCare. It is 
possible Susan Collins in the Senate may not have. She didn't vote for 
the repeal in the last Congress, but it is my understanding that 
virtually everybody had promised: If you will elect me, or reelect me, 
I will vote for repeal.
  I have literally prayed for Senator John McCain with the cancer that 
they found out has overtaken him, and I do hope and pray for a speedy, 
full recovery. But I do recall, vividly, that election in Arizona, and 
apparently he was extremely concerned about getting reelected.
  There was hard-charging opposition in the Republican primary, more 
than one primary opponent, and as I recall, there were repeated 
promises that the Senator, if the good people of Arizona would just 
reelect him, give him another 6 years, he would be working tirelessly, 
he would be working so hard to repeal ObamaCare.
  And I did go down to the Senate Chamber this week a couple of days 
ago. I went down because I thought it would be historic, potentially, 
to have the Senate vote to proceed to debate on what we hoped would be 
an actual repeal of ObamaCare.
  It turns out they called it a skinny bill, or a skinny repeal. It 
wasn't much of a repeal at all. In fact, I guess there is a decent 
chance, if that had passed and become law, it may have very well 
ensured the total collapse of private insurance and, ultimately, the 
desire of those who pushed through ObamaCare. We would ultimately end 
up with socialized medicine, rationed care.
  I am not a fan of the term ``single payer'' because it masks what we 
are really talking about. We are talking about government takeover of 
healthcare. And as we have watched the little precious child, Charlie 
Gard's parents going through absolute hell, there have been so many 
questions: Whether you agree or disagree, should he be allowed to have 
further surgery? Should he have been allowed to have a procedure that 
might have saved his life?
  It ends up going to court, and because of the laws in England with 
their socialized medicine, the government gets to choose who can have 
potentially lifesaving procedures, what life-enhancing procedures, and 
who can't. That is the nature of socialized medicine.

                              {time}  1430

  During my summer in the former Soviet Union, back when I was in 
college as an exchange student over there, I didn't just have tours, I 
saw the way people were treated in the socialized medicine of the 
Soviet Union.
  I have heard even some of my dear friends and colleagues here in the 
House say: We know socialized medicine always fails.
  Actually, that is something I don't know. What I know and what I 
believe is socialized medicine never actually fails. Now, socialism 
will always fail. It always has. Even going back to the New Testament 
church when the Apostle Paul tried this beautiful, wonderful concept: 
bringing all into the common storehouse, sharing and sharing alike.
  Well, eventually he realized that is going to work in Heaven just 
beautifully, but it sure doesn't work on Earth. So here is a new rule: 
if you don't work, you don't eat.
  Why? Because in this beautiful, incredible world where people are 
human, they are imperfect. Everyone has done wrong at some point and 
fallen short of the glory of God--every one of us. Nobody is perfect. 
So you can't have a perfect system that does anything but become a 
totalitarian government.
  It has to become totalitarian in order to force people to bring into 
the common storehouse. When you do that, you eliminate the incentives 
that have proved over recorded history to be the least effective. If 
you don't have incentives, it is ineffective. People don't work the 
hardest.

[[Page 12347]]

  Mr. Speaker, I have mentioned before--because there was a great 
example during that summer in the Soviet Union at a collective farm 30 
miles or so outside of Kiev--there were thousands and thousands of 
acres, but I could not tell the difference between the cultivated areas 
and the noncultivated areas.
  I've worked on farms and ranches. This was in the middle of July. We 
are at about the same latitude in east Texas. You want to get out there 
as close to sunup as you can because it gets so hot by midafternoon you 
want to be finishing up by midafternoon.
  Here it was the middle of the morning, and most of the farmers were 
out there in the middle of the village area there in the shade. Back in 
Mount Pleasant growing up, some of the older gentlemen had a spit and 
whittle club. That reminded me of that, the old guys just sitting 
around talking--young and old.
  So I tried to use my best Russian and asked: When do you work out in 
the field? Obviously, these guys hadn't worked up a sweat all morning. 
I was trying to be pleasant. When do you work out in the field?
  They all laughed. So I thought maybe I didn't say it right. But one 
of them then responded in Russian: I make the same number of rubles if 
I am out there in the sun or I am here in the shade, so I am here in 
the shade.
  Obviously, I have not forgotten this. It is such a great example of 
why socialism never works because there is no incentive to work. Oh, 
yes, you can punish people. But that doesn't provide nearly the 
incentive as the Pilgrims found, their beautiful Compact: bring into 
the common storehouse, share and share alike.
  After they lost so many people that first harsh winter, they tried 
something called private property--you got to keep what you produced. 
Wow, did it work out well. It has worked out well over the years even 
to the present time, although this government has continued to buy and 
take over more and more land and move in the direction of being 
socialistic.
  But our medicine has not been really socialistic. It has been taken 
over more and more by government and the insurance companies. Why in 
the world did the insurance companies support ObamaCare, the ACA, in 
the past? Because they were so shortsighted.
  I think they and the big pharmaceutical companies knew that 
eventually by signing onto ObamaCare they were signing their own death 
warrants. Not immediately. Those executives that got involved would be 
able to take their golden parachutes and their millions and millions of 
dollars in distribution. But, ultimately, we would become a socialized 
medicine country.
  You would see mortality rates begin to go up where people didn't live 
as long. People would not get the knee, hip, and the back surgeries and 
hearing aids. The government ends up deciding who is worthy and who is 
not.
  So America voted the Democrats out of majorities in the House and 
Senate mainly because they pushed through ObamaCare. The huge majority 
of Americans were satisfied with their health insurance, their health 
insurance plans, and their healthcare.
  There is a big difference. Those terms, health insurance and 
healthcare, have been skewed. There is a big difference. We have got to 
get back to a place where patients and doctors have a relationship 
unencumbered and without being separated by insurance companies and the 
government.
  But if we don't repeal ObamaCare, we will move to total government 
control and Charlie Gard's situation where the government says: You can 
have a lifesaving procedure, but you cannot.
  That day has already come, and it is going to be a common occurrence 
if we don't keep our promise and repeal ObamaCare.
  I was down there when they voted to proceed to debate. But, honest to 
goodness, even though I have been here 12 years and think nothing 
shocks me, I couldn't believe that so many people who promised over and 
over and over again ``we will repeal ObamaCare, we will end ObamaCare, 
we will get you back in control of your healthcare, we will get you 
back affordable healthcare'' couldn't vote even for the skinny bill.
  It hardly did much of anything to ObamaCare, even a little bit.
  It is the first time I am aware of in the history of the United 
States Congress where one body contacted the other body--the Senate, in 
this case, contacted the Republicans in the House--and said: Please, we 
think we can pass our bill in the Senate, but you have got to promise 
us you won't pass it in the House. We will go to conference. Please 
promise us you won't pass it in the House. We have a chance to pass it 
in the Senate.
  What kind of governance is that? I think it is a good thing to take a 
break from being here in session where we talk to ourselves too much. I 
think that is a problem here on both ends of the House.
  I am proud of some of the things we have done here in the House. We 
have made some progress. We need to make a lot more. We need to pass 
the tax reform. I want to see the corporate tax get down to 15 percent 
so those hundreds of thousands of millions of jobs that went to China 
can come back to the United States. Why? Because we undercut the income 
tax that China charges to corporations.
  What is a corporate tax? It is an insidious fee that citizens have to 
pay where the government makes them think they are not paying it--oh, 
it is the evil corporation paying it. No. It is every customer pays for 
the corporate tax.
  If you reduce that tax, then we become competitive around the world 
in things that we are not competitive, and jobs come back here. As any 
historian can tell you, an international power that does not produce 
the things they need in a time of war will not remain an international 
power after the next war.
  When we lost production of steel, of rubber, and of tires--all these 
things that are critical in the time of war--it will encourage our 
enemies to take advantage of the fact that they provide the things we 
will need in a time of war. The only way you really effectively avoid 
war, as President Reagan made clear, is you become so strong nobody 
wants to fight you. Those are the small times of peace in world history 
either when someone is so strong they enslave everybody else or that 
one country is so strong that believes in freedom that they force the 
evil leaders in the world to stay at bay where people have peace.
  I want peace. I want a strong America. I want to keep our promises 
and have tax cuts. I feel pretty comfortable that we are going to do it 
in the House.
  I just hope and pray, Mr. Speaker, that those in the Senate who have 
made promises about repealing ObamaCare and cutting taxes will have the 
kind of August where God lays it on their hearts that it is not a good 
thing to lie to the American people or constituents, and that the best 
thing I can do for myself politically and for my country is to keep my 
promises.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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