Republican Freshman Perspective
Floor Speech
Mrs. LUMMIS. Mr. Speaker, my name is Cynthia Lummis. I am the Member of Congress from Wyoming. I am a freshman and a Republican.
This is the first time that the freshman Republicans have engaged in a Special Order, and it's my privilege to be joined by members of the Republican freshmen. This is our opportunity to share with you our perspective on these first 5 months in Congress that we have shared together as freshmen, to tell you a little bit about ourselves and about our views about this process, about where we have been in the last 5 months and where we think, as fiscal conservatives, the Nation should be going instead.
And I'm so pleased to be joined, first of all, by one of my freshmen colleagues, who has a very interesting background. GLENN THOMPSON, from Pennsylvania, is in addition to his professional career a volunteer firefighter and has volunteered for the Boy Scouts for 30 years. I yield to him to talk to you about why he chose to run for Congress and what he is accomplishing here, and how he feels that if this Congress could work together more closely on fiscal conservatism, how this Nation would currently be better off and on the road to recovery.
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Mrs. LUMMIS. I have the privilege of serving on the House Budget Committee, and yesterday Dr. Bernanke testified at our hearing and expressed his concern over the need for Congress to develop a plan to come up with a way to deal with these debts and our deficit issues. They are part of a risk that is presented to our country long term if we don't begin to address them now, and after passing a $700-plus billion stimulus package, over $1.1 trillion when you consider the interest on top of that; also, the $410 billion budget for the current fiscal year; and then approving in the Budget Committee, over the objection of all of the Republicans a nearly $3.6 trillion budget for the next fiscal year, I firmly agree with the gentleman from Pennsylvania about the concerns that we all have as freshmen, Republicans, for the tremendous debt and the tremendous deficit that is being undertaken.
I would like to ask a couple of other colleagues to join in this conversation. Next, calling on BLAINE LUETKEMEYER of Missouri, who is another member of our freshman Republican class who is the rarest of rare commodities in Congress in that he has operated and continues to operate a small business. He currently operates a 160-acre farm after serving as a leader in a number of other small businesses. And if any entity within this Congress does not get the attention it deserves, I would suggest that it is small business.
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Mrs. LUMMIS. That is exactly what I hear when I go home. Wyoming people want Wyoming common sense. It is the same kind of common sense that you discussed was evident among people that were experiencing a tragedy in your district and who got together and solved the problem, and that is something that we as a class of freshman Republicans hope to do as well.
We represent 20 States. We span in age from 28 years old, our youngest Member, to 64 years old. Five are physicians or work in health care, and as Mr. Thompson mentioned, he works in health care. One of our physicians is with us this evening, Dr. PHIL ROE, and we will be visiting with him shortly. We have two college athletes, six with military backgrounds among our 22 freshmen Republicans, four former State treasurers and 16 State legislators or statewide officers.
And I know Mr. Luetkemeyer was a State legislator, as was I, as is our next freshman who's going to visit with us, a gentleman from Minnesota, ERIK PAULSEN, and I yield to the gentleman from Minnesota who first I might mention still finds time to teach Sunday school at his Lutheran church, Missouri Synod, of which I am also a member, and who as State legislator helped eliminate Minnesota's $4.5 billion State budget deficit without raising taxes. So this is someone that we desperately need working to pull off a similar success story here in Washington.
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Mrs. LUMMIS. You know, that is very much a bipartisan frustration right now. I read of Senators and other House Members who are tremendously concerned about their local dealers, GM, Chrysler, having to give up a profitable business because of this takeover. Both sides of the aisle on both sides of the Capitol building share in their tremendous frustration over the manner in which the bankruptcy of GM and Chrysler are playing out.
I want to give a moment to another member of our freshman class who has joined us, Dr. ROE. The gentleman from Tennessee served as a doctor for 2 years in the U.S. Army Medical Corps and has delivered close to 5,000 babies. He also has been the mayor of his small town and was very successful in using their landfill as a source of energy for that community. And being a mayor of a town of people of very modest means requires an amount of creativity that is unique in this country.
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Mrs. LUMMIS. Thank you.
Let me tell you about a few of our other classmates who could not be here this evening. We anticipated that we would have votes tomorrow and that we would have more members of our freshman class able to join us, but because of votes not being taken tomorrow, some people tried to get home tonight so they could visit with both their families and their constituents.
Among them is CHRIS LEE from New York, who has spent two decades as a business entrepreneur in New York; TOM MCCLINTOCK of California, another of our freshman colleagues, who was first elected to the California State Legislature at the age of 26; PETE OLSON of Texas, a naval aviator for 9 years, who had missions in the Persian Gulf, also a naval liaison officer in the U.S. Senate; another, BILL POSEY of Florida, an accomplished stock car racer. We have all become, of course, Pittsburgh Steeler fans due to our good friend and fellow freshman, TOM ROONEY of Florida, who also played college football and was a special assistant U.S. Attorney at Fort Hood and taught military law.
With that kind of diversity in our freshman class, it has been really helpful to me. For example, between votes, I can sit down on the floor next to Representative Rooney and ask him about things like enhanced interrogation techniques.
Well, look. He just walked in the room.
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Mrs. LUMMIS. Thank you for your statement.
Now, we have six freshmen here of the Republican class and, indeed, a seventh member in the Chair. Our Speaker this evening is a member of the majority party, a Democrat. It would be really fascinating at some point to have a Special Order some evening with our Democrat colleagues who are freshmen as well, because I think many of us came to Congress with a different perspective, with a new perspective, regardless of party, about how we think America can move forward.
As freshmen Republicans, we did support legislation that would stimulate economic growth. It would have cost $315 billion less than the bill that Congress adopted, the Democratic bill; and it would have created twice as many jobs.
In my district in Wyoming, it would have created 50 percent more jobs; but in many districts that are suffering mightily, it created twice as many jobs. That because we really targeted and took to heart what President Obama asked us to do, and that was to be targeted and temporary. Unfortunately the bill that was adopted was neither targeted--it was a shotgun approach to economic stimulus--and it is not temporary. Many provisions in that bill are built into the ongoing spending of government and inflate the costs of government, as Dr. ROE pointed out earlier, by adding to the baseline of expenditures that will go up and up and up in the future.
One of the things that Representative Rooney just mentioned that is so frustrating to all of us, I think on both sides of the aisle, is seeing legislation that is not germane to the subject of the bill being attached to the bill. In the case that Representative Rooney was just discussing with us, it was the funding for our military men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan and in Pakistan, and the addition to that bill would lend money or guarantee money to the International Monetary Fund. No connection whatsoever. And the IMF funding has created a situation where we're not voting tomorrow on that bill because there are not sufficient votes to pass it by virtue of an amendment that was not germane being added to a bill. In the Wyoming legislature you cannot do that. You cannot amend a nongermane topic to a piece of legislation or it is ruled out of order. If that rule were in effect here, we would see much better legislation. We would see people having a better opportunity to vet that legislation, discuss that legislation and then vote with their heart rather than having to grit their teeth and vote for a couple things that are just not a good pairing.
I can give an example of where it pained some people on the other side of the aisle. I am a big supporter of Second Amendment rights, but there was an amendment put on a credit card bill to allow concealed weapon permits in national parks. I firmly support allowing concealed weapons in national parks because they are so part and parcel to the State of Wyoming and to our right to bear arms, but attaching it to a credit card bill is wrong. It's just wrong.
I didn't know you were still here. I'm so pleased to see you. It's that kind of expertise that makes our class such a close group and very helpful to each other as we are dealing with the many issues at hand.
So, with the magical appearance of Representative ROONEY, I'm delighted that you have chosen to join us this evening.
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Mrs. LUMMIS. I would like to acknowledge two other Members of our Republican freshman class who have also served in the military: John Fleming, who is a family physician from Louisiana, was also a medical officer in the U.S. Navy; and Brett Guthrie, one of our colleagues from Kentucky, served as a field artillery officer in the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) at Fort Campbell. And we have other veterans as well.
I want to turn now to a subject that is on the front burner in Congress, House and Senate, both energy and health care. And we have a wonderful array of talent in our class on both subjects. We have two medical care providers with us to discuss that issue. I know I was listening briefly to the Progressive Caucus before we had this little opportunity to visit this evening, and they were espousing the benefits that they see in providing health care by way of a government-funded option.
I might point out before I turn it over to Mr. Thompson that government payers, and this was an independent study, found out that Medicaid and Medicare have shifted a total of $89 billion per year in costs on to other payers. As a result, families with private health, and I'm quoting from the study, families with private health insurance spend nearly $1,800 more per year, $1,512 in higher premiums and $276 in increased beneficiary cost sharing to cover the below-market reimbursement levels paid by Medicare and Medicaid.
My concern is, if we go to a government option that is side by side with private sector insurance, that it will be less expensive and it will recruit people to gravitate from private insurance to this government system. But the reason that it may be cheaper for the government to provide insurance is that they are continuing to shift costs and to fail to reimburse providers accurately and adequately.
I know in my State of Wyoming, where health care is the number one issue right now, that there are physicians who are no longer accepting Medicare and Medicaid patients. They cannot afford to accept them anymore because reimbursement levels in rural hospitals and to rural physicians are so low. And if that is the manner in which our country intends to get ahold of the cost of health care, we are in big trouble.
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Mrs. LUMMIS. I might mention the three officers of our freshman Republican class who couldn't join us this evening, and two of our more unique members who I hope will be able to join us if we have the opportunity to do this again. Our class president is STEVE AUSTRIA of Ohio. He was a force in getting Jessica's Law and the Adam Walsh Child Protection Safety Act passed into State law. Our representative on the Steering Committee, GREGG HARPER of, Mississippi, is an attorney with a child whom he has brought to share his unique health concerns with us. And we've all learned a lot from him.
And of course, our Policy Committee representative, JASON CHAFFETZ, who is a former Division I football player at Brigham Young University, my University of Wyoming's nemesis, but a dear colleague of ours, and two wonderful freshmen who are plowing new ground. The very first Vietnamese American to serve in the United States Congress, JOSEPH CAO, born in Saigon, Vietnam, escaped at the age of 8 to the United States, lost his home during Katrina, and fought to return electricity and telecommunications to Louisiana residents after Katrina.
We also boast the youngest Member of this U.S. House of Representatives, Aaron Schock, the youngest school board president, Illinois State Rep, and a Member of Congress with whom we are privileged to serve.
I thank the gentlemen for joining me this evening. I thank our Speaker, the gentleman from Virginia, who was very patient with his fellow freshmen colleagues from the other party, and look forward to the opportunity to have a bipartisan freshman discussion at an early opportunity.
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