Health Care

Floor Speech

Ms. FOXX. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Everywhere I go in my district, people tell me they are frightened. They are frightened about what is happening in this country. They fear for the future of our country. What they're talking about is that they fear for our freedoms and they fear for the principles that formed this country and have always been the basis on which we've operated. I share that fear; and I believe they should be fearful. And I believe that the greatest fear that we all should have to our freedom comes from this room, this very room, and what may happen later this week in terms of a tax increase bill masquerading as a health care bill. I believe we have more to fear from the potential of that bill passing than we do from any terrorist right now in any country.

In order to help explain some of why we should be fearful, the Republican Conference has gone through Speaker Pelosi's bill--tax bill masquerading as a health care bill--and brought out some pertinent points page by page; and I want to share some of those with people. One of the good things that's happened this year is that people have learned they can read these bills and become familiar with them themselves, so they don't need us to tell them, but it may help to point to specific pages.

Page 94--section 202(c) prohibits the sale of private individual health insurance policies beginning in 2013, forcing individuals to purchase coverage through the Federal Government. We can't make that up. It's right there in the bill.

Page 110--section 222(e) requires the use of Federal dollars to fund abortions through the government-run health plan; and, if the Hyde amendment were ever not renewed, would require the plan to fund elective abortions.

Page 111--section 223 establishes a new board of Federal bureaucrats (the ``Health Benefits Advisory Committee'') to dictate the health plans that all individuals must purchase; and would likely require all Americans to subsidize and purchase plans that cover any abortion.

I think one of the funniest pieces in the bill, if anything can be considered funny, page 122, section 233(a)(3), requires the commissioner, the new insurance czar, to, quote, issue guidance on best practices of plain language writing--this from the same people who wrote a 1,990-page health care bill which is very difficult to read.

Page 1183--section 1904 provides $750 million in Federal funding for a new entitlement program to offer, quote, knowledge of realistic expectations of age-appropriate child behaviors and skills for parents to interact with their child.

Page 1255--sections 2231-2235 makes veterinary students eligible for up to $283 million in Federal scholarship and student loan forgiveness funding.

Page 1432--section 2531 provides incentive payments to States that enact new medical liability laws--but only if such laws, quote, do not limit attorneys' fees or impose caps on damages.

We need medical liability reform. This bill will prevent that from happening. It's a bad bill. The American people should be frightened of it.

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