Health Care

Floor Speech

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Ms. FOXX. Well, I want to thank the gentleman from Missouri for the yeoman work that he has done on leading these Special Orders to explain to the American people what's wrong with these plans that are being presented by our colleagues across the aisle, and pointing out that Republicans do have alternatives to what is being presented here.

This morning, during 1-minutes, at least two of our colleagues got up and said, Republicans have no alternatives. And I think it's very important that we continue to point out that we are not just here to be critical of what has been proposed by the Democrats, but to say, yes, we have alternatives. Our alternatives don't cost any money. We can do whatever needs to be done.

Mr. AKIN. Congresswoman Foxx, let's just hold right there for a second. What you just said is so very, very important. We've already mentioned one Republican alternative that is not in any single Democrat plan, which is tort reform, isn't it?

Ms. FOXX. That is correct.

Mr. AKIN. And so our good friend from California, who is an attorney who came in here and warned us about this, there's one. Okay, now why don't you name another one or two.

Ms. FOXX. Well, we have bills that talk about accessibility and portability. Portability, meaning we would all own our own health care insurance. If we lost our jobs, we take it with us. We want to give tax deductions to individuals.

Mr. AKIN. So that's usually called by the word ``portability,'' isn't it? And that's something that Republicans largely support; is that your understanding?

Ms. FOXX. That's right. And the American people support that. We also support accessibility for people who have preexisting conditions. We support groups being able to band together and form larger groups to bring down the cost. So we support all those things the American people say they want.

Mr. AKIN. So, in other words, another proposal would be that if you got a bunch of small businesses, if they want to pool their employees and get a better deal on health care, they can create these health care pools. Now that's an idea. Do you know any Republicans that are opposed to that?

Ms. FOXX. I don't know any Republicans that are opposed to it; and, frankly, I don't know any Democrats who've signed on. But what we need to point out again is that what the Democrat plans do is to cut existing Medicare programs to come up with sham funds to put in their new program.

And with that I'm going to yield back, because the Rules Committee is currently meeting, and I'm going to have to go back there.

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