Service Members Home Ownership Tax Act Of 2009 - Motion To Proceed
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, we gather on the floor today at a time that is historic. It is hard to imagine, to put it in the appropriate context, but this debate over health care reform is remarkably similar to the national debate over the creation of Social Security, or the creation of Medicare. It is that historic. It affects that many Americans and their futures. That is why it is important that all of us come forward to understand what this debate is about, the important issues that are before us.
The starting place for those who want to get into it is, of course, a Web site in today's technology and reality. The Web site is democrats.senate.gov/reform. If you visit that Web site, you will be able to see the bill that will be before Congress in its entirety. You will have your chance to read it, though it will be challenging. It is difficult not having all of the Federal statutes before you. But most of it is fairly clear in terms of what we are trying to achieve.
There have been critics of the bill who have come to the floor and argued that this bill should be defeated because it is too long, too many pages. They bring to the floor more than a copy of the Senate bill; they bring the House bill and the Senate bill and stack them up here to say how long this is. Well, of course, we are not going to vote on the House bill; it is the Senate bill. That is a bit of an exaggeration, but it is a long bill, over 2,000 pages. I won't talk about whether it is small or large print, but it is 2,000 pages plus.
You may ask, why does it take so many words to address this? But wait a minute, this is about health care in America. One out of every six dollars in our economy is spent on health care. It affects every single American citizen, and it will be challenged in court by the health insurance companies that want to stop this health care reform. We have to make sure this is carefully and well written, perhaps erring on the side of adding more language so there is no question as to our intent. But that is it.
The obvious question I ask back to the critics on the Republican side of the aisle, who say we should vote against this bill because there are too many pages in it, is: Where is your bill? Where is the Republican health care reform bill?
I know that in a few moments--in about 10 minutes--Republican Senators will come to the floor to talk about this important issue. I welcome that. I wish we could come to the floor at the same time. We might get close to something called ``debate,'' which would be an interesting phenomenon in the Senate, as it is something we have gotten away from. When they come to the floor, I hope the first Senator who stands up will do what I did. I hope the first Republican Senator will read a Web site where the American people can go to to read the Republican health care reform proposal. Again, ours is democrats.senate.gov/reform. What is the Republican Web site? Where can we find the Republican bill? I know the answer. There is no Web site where you can find the Republican health care reform bill--at least not today. I hope it will come soon. They have spent their time criticizing our efforts to change this system. That is healthy in a political system like ours, but at some point criticizing isn't enough. Stand and tell us what you are for, what you are going to propose.
If we start moving on this, as we expect to tomorrow, the procedures will take us to the consideration of the Senate Democratic amendment offered by Senator Harry Reid. I want to suggest and heartily recommend to the Republican side of the aisle--I see my friend, Senator John Barrasso, of Wyoming, who is here. He is a medical doctor, an orthopedic surgeon. We are friends. We may disagree on this issue, but we agree on many other issues. I hope he will encourage his leadership to produce a bill, show us what they believe. It would even be good if they send it to the CBO, as we did, and let us know what it would cost for the Republican plan for health care reform.
I will tell you what we have received from the Republican side of the aisle. It is three pages long. If you are looking for brevity, it is a very brief analysis of the health care reform issue in America. It is a press release from Senator Mitch McConnell, where, as of yesterday, Senator McConnell laid out everything--maybe not everything but most of the things he thought were wrong in the Senate Democratic approach. It is all negative. There is not one positive in here in terms of what the Republicans would do. Are they sensitive to the reality of health care in America today? Do they know the cost of health care insurance premiums have gone up three times faster than wages, that fewer businesses are offering health insurance coverage to their employees, and that more and more Americans have no health insurance protection because of unemployment and because of the cost of health insurance today? Are they aware that two out of three people filing for bankruptcy today are doing so because of medical bills--two out of three--and that 75 percent of them have health insurance that isn't any good? And they are in bankruptcy court. Are they aware of this cost challenge? If so, what will the Republicans do about it?
They will show us a stack of paper that Senator Barrasso will show when he speaks, but they won't show us the Republican alternative. What is it? How much does it cost? How many people will it cover?
I hope my friend from Wyoming is the first Republican Senator who will come to the floor and join us in at least saying there is one thing we agree on--that health insurance companies are running roughshod over consumers and families of America. I hope this Senator from Wyoming, and other Republican Senators, will say there is one thing we can agree on with the Democrats: We should stop these abuses by health insurance companies. We should not allow these health insurance companies to turn you down for a preexisting condition when you get sick. We should demand that the health insurance companies cover our children beyond the age of 23.
My wife and I have been through this with our kids, and a lot of others have, too. Here comes your son or daughter, fresh out of college and looking for a job--oops, he or she is 23 years old, so now they need their own health insurance. Our bill moves that age to 26. Could the Republicans endorse that idea? It would be great if they did.
Would they endorse the idea that your health insurance would stay with you if you lose your job, and that we should not put caps on the coverage of a catastrophic illness so it won't wipe out a family? I hope they will join us in health care reform.
Of all the criticisms, I have yet to hear the first Republican Senator take on the health insurance companies. That is what this battle is about. Who will win? Will it be the American people or the health insurance companies? I hope our friends on the Republican side of the aisle will join us in saying that it is clear it will be the American people.
Finally, this bill will expand coverage to 30 million more Americans. How many more Americans will be covered by the Republican health care reform plan? I am sorry to say I can't tell you. No one can tell you, because they have not produced a plan. We don't know what they are planning on doing.
This bill we are bringing before the Senate tomorrow for a procedural vote and to start the debate is a bill that is not perfect. I would have written it a lot differently. But it is a bill that we are working toward a working majority on. That means concessions. Some of these concessions are painful, from my personal point of view, but they are necessary. It would be great to have one Republican Senator cross the aisle tomorrow night and say, all right, I may not agree with everything in your bill, but I do believe this is an important national issue; the Senate should debate it, and this Republican Senator will join the Democrats in saying let's proceed to the issue, proceed to the debate. I don't think that is too much to ask. In fact, I think most Americans would say: Why wouldn't they want to debate it? Tomorrow night, they will have a chance to vote on that cloture motion on the motion to proceed to that debate. I hope they will join us at that point.
I will address one particular issue raised by one Republican Senator yesterday. Senator Coburn of Oklahoma, a medical doctor, said of the Democratic health care reform bill that there is a 5-percent tax on cosmetic surgery. He went on to say that this bill would cover breast reconstruction surgery after a mastectomy--in other words, imposing a tax on a surgery for breast reconstruction. I want to respond to him and say he is wrong and inaccurate. I want to make sure the record is clear. The bill we are proposing says the surgery is not a cosmetic surgery if it is ``necessary to ameliorate a deformity arising from, or directly related to ..... disfiguring disease.'' That is in the bill.
The bill points to the current definition for deductible medical expenses for the interpretation of this language. The IRS has already dealt with this. IRS publication 502 specifically states that breast reconstruction surgery following a mastectomy for cancer is deductible. It is clearly not taxable under our bill.
That statement on the floor by Senator Coburn was inaccurate. I wanted to make that clear. The Senator was mistaken. Breast reconstruction surgery is not elective cosmetic surgery for the purpose of this bill and is not subject to the bill's 5 percent excise tax on elective surgery.
I know we have a limited amount of time before the other side of the aisle has a chance to speak. I will save my remarks I had planned relating to some people in my home area back in Illinois, who are battling health insurance companies. On the Senate floor, I told the story of Danny Callahan, a baseball coach at Southern Illinois University who is fighting cancer. WellPoint has turned down the drug he was using, which his doctor recommended, to fight cancer and said they won't pay for it. It is a good drug for him, but it is expensive. It stopped the spread of cancer. His doctor said this drug works, but the health insurance company won't pay for it. The drug costs $12,000 a month. Danny Callahan cannot afford that. He will get a couple more treatments, but that is it. At the first of the year, the health insurance company is cutting him off from this lifesaving drug that is attacking the cancer in his body. They made that decision. His doctor said it was the wrong decision. He is another of many Americans who are at the mercy of the health insurance companies when you need help the most.
Can we change this? Can we give the American people a fighting chance when it comes to these situations? I think we can. But we won't do it by saying no. That is what we have heard from the other side of the aisle--no to everything. I hope that after 11 o'clock today, on Friday, November 20, the first Republican speaker will say: Here is the Republican health care reform bill. You can find it on the Web site. You can read it and compare it to the Democrats' bill. Again, the Democratic version is available at democrats .senate.gov/reform. Read it.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source