Health Care

Floor Speech

Health Care

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, at the end of President Bush's term, this House was faced with a TARP bill. The American public likes bipartisanship, and we had bipartisanship on that bill. There were Democrats and Republicans who voted ``no,'' but there were Democrats and Republicans who voted ``yes.'' Just about everyone agrees that bill saved us from going over the abyss into a Great Depression similar to 1933. It was a moment of bipartisanship and a moment I was proud to participate in.

When President Obama became President, bipartisanship ended. The ARRA--which everybody agrees, the stimulus package, has helped our economy and provided millions of jobs in State and local government and education and other places and provided jobs in the private sector--didn't have a single vote on the Republican side. Not one single vote.

And now on health care, we see not one single vote coming from the Republican side. Doing nothing is not the answer. Everybody knows the health system needs reform.

In my city, the emergency room at Charity Hospital, the public hospital, is about to close. People are having great problems paying their premiums. We need health reform, and we need bipartisanship.

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