Department Of Defense Appropriations Act, 2010
Floor Speech
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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, we met before 7 a.m. on this Saturday morning, and I am reminded of the famous quote:
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.
A snowstorm has struck Washington, DC. Yet 100 Members of the Senate will be called on in less than half an hour to be on the floor of the Senate to vote at this early morning hour. And for any who are hale and hearty and up watching or following this debate, the obvious question is, why? Why is the Senate in? What is it doing?
Well, we are in because the Republican Senators are filibustering the Department of Defense appropriations bill. This is the money for our troops, for our military, for their families, for their health care, for their equipment, for their paychecks. It is a bill which usually passes with a few patriotic speeches and little controversy. Yet the Republicans have held us now. This is the third day on the floor because they are filibustering the Department of Defense appropriations bill.
You might ask yourself: What is happening? Has the Republican Party turned on America's military? I do not think so. I think, in fact, they support America's military. But they are willing to use them and use their spending bill as part of their parliamentary procedure.
We know what this is all about. It is about delaying the business of the Senate and not just health care. They want to delay everything in the Senate. That is their strategy. That is what they have to offer to the American people. Not ideas, not alternatives, not solutions, but delay.
I suppose they think that is a winning way. The Senator from Tennessee just predicted in the next election the American people will rally behind this strategy of theirs of doing nothing, of failing to respond to the challenges facing America. I see it otherwise. I have this simple analysis of why I am here. The people of Illinois sent me here to try to do a good job for them and make some good judgments on the Senate floor, but basically to help improve their lives. If you do nothing, if you deny, if you filibuster, if that is all you do, you don't have much to show for it at the end of the day.
The record is pretty clear. We have been debating health care reform for more than 2 weeks, about 19 or 20 days of debate, on a 2,000-page bill. The Senator from Tennessee complains: Well, we just don't know what is in this bill. This bill has been posted on the Republican Senate Web site for more than 2 weeks. I think they know what is in it.
Do you know how many amendments they came up with to change the language of this bill in the span of 20 days? How many bright, creative Republican ideas came up to change this bill in 20 days? Four, four amendments in 20 days. The combined wisdom of the Republican Senate caucus came up with four amendments to this bill of 2,000 pages in 20 days and six different motions to send the bill back to committee and stop talking about it.
Now the Senator tells us: We just need more time.
You have had time. You have had plenty of time. You have had time to offer your substitute. We have been waiting on the Republicans to come forward, if they think America's health care system could be improved, with their ideas. The Senator from Oklahoma, Mr. COBURN, has said he has a plan. He never offered it. I don't know if he tried to offer it, if the Republican leadership turned him down. He never offered it.
Senator GRASSLEY from Iowa said on the Senate floor: We have a plan.
Where is this secret plan? Where is the Republican plan for reforming health care? Carefully hidden, secreted away in a cloakroom? Is it under a snowdrift in a parking lot? What have you done with your plan? You don't have one. If you go to the Republican Senate Web site and look for health care reform, you will find it. You will find the Democratic bill because, frankly, they have nothing to offer.
Now comes the Senator from Tennessee and he says stop what we are doing. Let's stop right now. Our plan is to slow down, filibuster the Defense appropriations bill, and then slow down everything that comes after it in the hope that we will stop and do nothing. He argues that is good for the American people. Let me tell my colleagues what the Senator from Tennessee will risk for the American people if he has his way.
We know immediately--immediately--the doughnut hole in the Medicare prescription Part D for seniors is going to be filled across America. What it means is seniors who have a gap in insurance coverage for prescription drugs will have that filled. Eight million seniors in 2007 hit that doughnut hole because they had medical bills more expensive than what Medicare covered. We are going to fill that doughnut hole. By 2010, seniors across America, immediately, will see the benefit.
The Senator from Tennessee says: This bill will destroy Medicare. Not quite true. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office says this bill will put Medicare on sound footing. Medicare untouched will go broke in about 8 years. Medicare, because of this bill, will have another 10 years of sound financial footing--exactly the opposite of what has been stated on the floor of the Senate.
How many parents get worried because their kids are in college and they are on their family health care plan and they are about to graduate and they wonder if they are going to have health insurance. Well, in most places across America, most policies, by age 24 your dependent child is no longer covered by your family plan. Immediately, with the passage of this bill, we are going to extend coverage, providing immediate help for 13 million to 14 million young Americans no longer in college and not covered by their own employment insurance, not eligible for their parents' coverage. They are going to have coverage under this plan.
Only 6 months after the enactment of this bill, insurers will be required to permit children to stay on family policies until age 26, in the year 2010. So when the Senator from Tennessee says nothing happens until 2014 except collecting taxes, he is mistaken. That happens. It happens immediately.
Free prevention services are going to be available as well--prevention services that will help a lot of people avoid serious illness. Today, many Americans pay 20 percent of the cost of many preventive services. Millions have no access to them at all. The Senate bill will require coverage of prevention and wellness benefits. For seniors, the Senate bill is going to provide free annual wellness checkups, immediately.
There is insurance reform as well. The Senator from Tennessee keeps overlooking this, and he shouldn't. One of the biggest ripoffs for American consumers are health insurance companies that turn you down because of preexisting conditions and a variety of other reasons they find not to cover you. This Senate bill will give Americans the opportunity to focus on healthy living, will put patients first. It will eliminate abuses by insurance companies. It immediately bans rescissions, the practice where health insurance companies cancel your policy. Six months after enactment in 2010, insurers are prohibited from imposing lifetime limits on benefits. These are immediate benefits.
We know what the Republican playbook is because they gave it to us--maybe not intentionally. But early on, 8 months ago, the Republican strategist Frank Luntz sent out a memo before the bill was even written and said: Here is how we can defeat health care reform. That suggests to me there was never a good-faith effort at the top in the Republican Party to even consider health care reform. Frank Luntz went through all the things to defeat health care reform even before the bill was introduced, talking about rationing and denial and talking about government programs and so forth and so on--buzz words. Then, the current inspiration of the Republican National Party, Michael Steele, the Republican National Committee chairman, a man I am sure the Senator from Tennessee holds in the highest esteem, recently shared with us the following in a memo. Chairman Steele wrote:
I urge everyone to spend every bit of capital and energy you have to stop this health care reform. The Democrats have accused us of trying to delay, stall, slow down, and stop this bill. They are right.
Chairman Steele says, his words: ``Delay, stall, slow down, and stop.'' And for 8 months that has been the Republican strategy.
Unfortunately, that strategy now applies to the Department of Defense appropriations bill which we will vote on this morning. One hundred Senators will trek through the snow and come in early this morning to vote on a bill which we should all support unanimously. They will try parliamentary efforts to stop the bill, derail the bill, even though the continuing resolution expired last night.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator's time has expired.
Mr. DURBIN. I hope we can gather enough bipartisan support for our troops this morning, have a cup of coffee, and go home to our families soon to celebrate the holiday season.
I reserve the remainder of my time and yield the floor.
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