Service Members Home Ownership Tax Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, this morning we are continuing to run time postcloture on the managers' amendment. Following any leader remarks, the time until 12:30 p.m. is equally divided between the two leaders or their designees. Senator Reid has asked me to serve as his designee on the Democratic side. At 12:30 p.m., we will begin alternating 1-hour blocks of time until 6:30 p.m., with the majority controlling the first hour. If all 30 hours postcloture is required, then the rollcall vote on the managers' amendment will occur about 7:15 a.m. tomorrow, Tuesday morning, and the cloture vote on the substitute will occur immediately after that. So we expect at least two rollcall votes early Tuesday morning. Hopefully, votes will not be needed today to recess or adjourn this evening. That is the state of play and business on the floor.

I see the majority leader has arrived on the floor, and I wish to give him a chance, if he is seeking that opportunity, to make any announcements he believes will be timely and appropriate.

The majority leader indicates he is not going to make an announcement, so I wish to make some comments about where we are at this moment.

I can't imagine there are many people in America who have been following this day's session because it began at 12:01 a.m., when the Senate was reconvened for a vote on the managers' amendment to health care reform, which took place just a few minutes after 1 a.m. this morning. We recessed and now are returning for the rest of the legislative day.

When the history of the Senate is written, I think this vote will be included because it is a historic vote. We consider many issues in the Senate of great importance to individuals, groups, States, and to our Nation, but seldom do we address an issue of this magnitude or scope. This health care reform issue literally touches every person who is following this debate and many who are not even aware of it. What we are doing is addressing some of the fundamentals of our health care system in America that need to be changed.

Whenever you are suggesting change in America, there is resistance. There are people who are currently comfortable with the health care system as we have it, and there are people who are benefiting from the system as we know it, particularly health insurance companies which enjoy great profits because of the current system of health care in America. But at the heart of the issue, we know this system is unsustainable and, as a result, we have engaged in almost a 1-year effort to thoroughly investigate our health care system and to find ways to change it for the better. This has called on so many of our colleagues to make extraordinary contributions to this search for reform.

I wish to commend, first, our majority leader HARRY REID, who usually stands at our caucus meetings and says: Stop congratulating me; I am just doing my job. I am going to do it anyway. Senator Reid has worked tirelessly--and I have seen most of it firsthand--to build a coalition for health care reform within the Democratic caucus. We didn't have a single Republican vote that was in support of reform in the early morning hours. I hope that changes as time passes, but he had to build a coalition within our caucus of conservative and progressive Senators, and he did it, so we had all 60 Democratic Members voting for health care reform.

We are united in the belief that there are fundamental things that need to be changed in our health care system. First, it needs to be more affordable. People cannot afford this dramatic escalation in the cost of health care. Ten years ago, a health care policy for a family of four offered through their employer cost about $6,000 a year in premiums. That is $500 a month which, instead of being paid to an employee as salary, was taken from them for health insurance--$500 a month.

Today, that number has grown to $12,000 a year for an average family of four for health insurance through their employment. One thousand dollars a month that might otherwise go to a family for basic necessities of life and savings and buying things that are important to their future instead goes to pay for health insurance. That escalation, that 100-percent increase in health insurance premiums in 10 years, is troubling but not nearly as troubling as the projection that if we continue to see an escalation in costs of health insurance premiums based on what we have seen in the past, in another 8 years it will double again. Imagine 8 years from now, in 2017, that you have to work and earn $2,000 a month just to pay for your health insurance. How many people will be able to do that? How many businesses will be able to afford it? The answer is obvious. More and more people will be dropped. Today, 50 million Americans have no health insurance. Many of them go to work every single day, but their employers can't afford to provide health insurance or they are unemployed or they have some other problem where they have been excluded by a health insurance company. So in addition to dealing with the fundamental issue of health care reform, we are focusing on affordability, how to bend the cost curve, as they say, or reduce the increase in costs of health insurance premiums. I wouldn't stand here and say to the people of America, with the passage of the bill we are now considering, everyone's health insurance is going down, but I think I can say, with some confidence, the rate of increase is going to decline, and that will give people a better chance of affordability. That is essential.

Secondly, what about those 50 million uninsured people? I have met them, as the Senator from West Virginia has as well. These are not lazy, shiftless people who aren't trying. Many of them are trying hard, but they don't have a chance for health insurance coverage for a variety of reasons. We are going to change that. Of the 50 million currently uninsured, over 30 million will have insurance under this bill. Those in the lower income categories will qualify for what we call Medicaid, which is a Federal-State health insurance program for the poor and disabled. Most of those people--those who make less than $15,000 a year--will not pay any premiums because they can't. They don't have enough money. For those who are making slightly more, we provide in this bill tax credits that will help people pay for their premiums. So if your family is making up to $80,000 a year, the Tax Code will now help you pay for your monthly premium for health insurance.

So we are going to expand coverage. Thirty million people are going to have the security of health insurance coverage. We are bending the cost curve so the increase in health insurance premiums is not as steep, making sure more people are covered, and then, equally important, we are

changing the rules when it comes to health insurance companies.

For too long, these health insurance companies have ruled the roost. Since the early 1940s, they have been exempt from antitrust laws which allow them to literally collude and conspire with these set prices. Over half the insurance markets in America are dominated by only two companies, and it is legal under our law for those two companies to sit down and say: OK, how much are we going to charge? They don't compete with one another, they conspire with one another to set premium rates. If you think I am a conspiracy theorist, what I am stating to you is what the law clearly says in the McCarran-Ferguson Act--something I think should be repealed posthaste--because they can sit down and set premiums. They can also allocate markets. They can say to two companies: You take over St. Louis and those two companies will do Chicago and these two companies are going to do Wheeling, WV. They can set up the market structures so there is little or no competition. How can that be good? If we truly believe in a free market system, how can this be good for America?

So what we are doing as well is saying: We are going to change some of these rules, some of the most egregious abuses by these health insurance companies--first and foremost, preexisting conditions. How many of us are in such perfect health that we can count on a health insurance company covering us without delving into our background, finding something in our family history or something in our own personal history and saying: Well, we are either not going to cover you or we are going to charge you dramatically more. Those days have to end.

Let me tell my colleagues what this bill does. It says immediately--immediately--children under the age of 18 with preexisting conditions cannot be discriminated against by health insurance companies. You can't deny them coverage because a child is born and develops diabetes. You can't deny coverage because a child has had cancer and is fighting that cancer. You cannot deny coverage because of those preexisting conditions. That is fundamentally fair. It gets to the heart of what we should be doing as a nation.

Senator TOM HARKIN of Iowa stood at this podium early this morning and said: What this debate is about is whether health insurance is a right or a privilege. If it is a privilege only for the wealthy in America, then we have lost our way as a nation. We have to understand that protection of our well-being and health through health insurance is something every American is entitled to. We have to understand we are the only developed Nation on Earth where a person could literally die because they don't have health insurance.

If you think that is overly dramatic, let me give an illustration.

A man I met in Illinois had a health insurance policy that wasn't very good. It had a $5,000 copay. He had to take that copay so his premiums would be low enough so he could afford it. That man went to a doctor who said to him: I see some indications from tests that you need a colonoscopy. You may be developing colon cancer. So the man went and priced a colonoscopy procedure and found out it was $3,000 he would have to pay out-of-pocket and he said: I don't have it. So he didn't go through with the procedure. That is a risky thing, and it is something no one should have to face, but that is the current system.

What we are trying to do is change that system so that basically preexisting conditions are excluded from the discrimination of health insurance companies, that basic procedures that are needed for prevention and wellness are included in every health insurance policy. We are also making certain that these health insurance companies can't cut you off when you need them the most, can't cancel your policy when you face an accident or a diagnosis where medical bills are going to pile up. That is one of the provisions of this bill as well.

We also say, for families with young children who are off to college--and my wife and I have been through this--that you reach the point where you finally say: Wait a minute. My daughter is graduating from college. I wonder if she is still under my family health insurance plan. Today, in most cases, if your child has reached the age of 24, they are off your family plan. Well, we extend that now so those 24 and 25 will have the protection of their family health insurance plan while they finish school, look for their first job and obtain their own health insurance. That is going to be peace of mind for a lot of families across America, just those 2 years when young people are the most vulnerable and need the protection of their family health insurance plan.

Are these worth anything, these changes? I think they are worth a lot. I think that is why 60 Democrats stood proudly and voted for this.

Senator McConnell, the Republican leader, turned to us in the midst of this dramatic debate early this morning and said: If one of you--and he pointed to all of us sitting here--doesn't vote against it, then all of you Democratic Senators will own this.

We know that, and we have pride in that ownership because we know the alternative. Those who voted against change are voting for a system that is unsustainable and morally indefensible--a system which, frankly, today puts good, hard-working people, folks who follow the rules, Americans who believe they are doing the very best for their country, at a distinct disadvantage for one of the most basic things we expect in life: protection of good health care when we are facing illness and when we need a helping hand.

This bill is also going to change the face of health care in America. I don't think I overstated it. Our bill has $10 billion to be invested in community health clinics. Senator BERNIE SANDERS of Vermont has been such a leader on this issue and deserves credit for it. He was dogged. Some Members looked to this bill for a variety of things, but Senator Sanders looked to this bill to provide a helping hand across America through community health clinics. As those clinics are built and expanded, more and more small towns in West Virginia and in Illinois are going to have satellite clinics where people, regardless of whether they are wealthy or not as wealthy, will have a chance to walk in the front door and see a medical professional. They will not be queuing outside the emergency rooms of hospitals, where their care is much more expensive. They will be going to these community health clinics and meeting primary care physicians who will give them the basic care they need before their medical problems become much more serious.

That is what this bill is fundamentally about. There are many other parts to it, parts I am proud to be cosponsoring and proud to be supporting--giving a hand to small businesses, giving a hand to individuals to expand health insurance coverage.

Some might ask: If you voted on it at 1 o'clock this morning, why are you still here? Because the minority is exercising its right under the Senate rules which requires us now to wait 30 hours before we can vote again on this one section of the bill. As I announced this morning, that means that in the early hours tomorrow morning, about 7:15 or 7:20, Senators will be coming to the floor again for two votes to move this process forward. I understand it is the right of the minority to ask us to come in at 1 in the morning or early in the morning. They have that right. Historically, we have usually reached some accommodation and agreement, and I hope we can here. The 60 votes that were there last night will be there again tomorrow morning, and they will be there every time needed until this bill is finally passed.

Those on the other side believe this bill is so bad that it is going to revitalize the Republican Party in the next election. I disagree with them. I think the American people, as they come to understand this bill, will view it in its historic context, one of the most dramatic steps forward to provide peace of mind and security to families and businesses across America for an issue we know needs to be addressed.

There are some who came to the floor yesterday--there was one Senator. I invited him to come in and explain his remarks. He said people should say a prayer that someone would miss the vote at 1 a.m. I do not think we should be praying for misfortune for our Senators, that they would be delayed or for some other reason could not make the vote. Instead, we should be praying to overcome the misfortune of 30 million Americans who will not have health insurance if this bill fails. That is the kind of misfortune I want to avoid in the future.

We also have one other item of business remaining, and that is the debt ceiling of America. It is something none of us want to face. It is almost like making your monthly payment for the mortgage, and that is what it is, the mortgage of America. We have to acknowledge the fact that as we fight a war and incur the costs, as we have the workings of government assessed, and we know there are costs, it adds to the expense of our government, and some of it is in debt, and that debt needs to be extended for a short period of time as we move forward into the next year that begins in just a few days. This debt ceiling issue is one we need to come to grips with before we leave at the end of this month. There is a short-term extension which I hope the Senate will consider.

I wish to also say that Senator Conrad of North Dakota, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, has been a real leader in talking about coming to grips with this long-term debt. I have said to him, in the midst of a recession, with high unemployment, most economists believe it would be a mistake for us to pull back in terms of the safety net for families out of work, to pull back in terms of the investment in infrastructure to put people to work, and Senator Conrad says he agrees. Although he believes we need to be honest about the debt of America, he has said to me repeatedly that he is not a Hooverite, referring to that period in history when the Great Depression hit and President Herbert Hoover believed government should address the debt of America instead of the depression of America. He lost that election to Franklin Roosevelt in 1932 as a result of that point of view.

Many of us believe the debt is a serious issue to be grappled with, but at the current moment we have to focus on the millions of Americans out of work who need a helping hand, first with unemployment benefits, COBRA benefits, food stamps, the basic necessities of life. We have to provide opportunities for education and training, and then we have to find a way to spark this economy and move it forward.

Senator Reid has given to me and Senator Dorgan of North Dakota the responsibility of looking at the Senate jobs-creation package. We have been working on that, and we are close with our colleagues in the House in coming up with some ideas on how to expand employment. I hope we can have bipartisan support for that. It would certainly make it a lot easier, and it would be done more quickly so that we do not lose jobs in the next construction season coming up next year.

That is the reality of the agenda we face when we return. I did tell you that now most Members of the Senate on both sides of the aisle are anxious to share their holiday season with their families. It is one of those special times of the year. We now have a record vote of 60 Members on this side on health care reform. I hope we can get the agreement from the Republican side to bring this matter to closure soon, to vote on the debt ceiling, and to have at least a short adjournment for some time for us to return home to our States and home to our families.

Mr. President, if there is no one seeking recognition at this time, I suggest the absence of a quorum and ask that the time under the quorum call be assessed against both sides.

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