Department Of Defense Appropriations Act, 2010

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I agree completely. As a practicing physician taking care of people in Wyoming for 25 years, I have great concerns about this bill, what we know for sure is in it, which is $500 billion of cuts in Medicare to our patients who depend on Medicare, and that is a system that we know is going broke. That is why there is a front-page story in one of the Wyoming papers: ``Doctors Shortage Will Worsen.'' It is going to be harder on rural communities and others around the country if this goes through, and we know that because the folks who have looked at the parts of the bill we have seen have said that one-fifth of the hospitals in this country will be--if they are able to keep their doors open--operating at a significant loss 10 years from now. That is not the best future for health care in our country.

I had a telephone townhall meeting. People from all around the State of Wyoming were calling in and asking me questions, and they asked: What is in the bill? What is coming to the Senate?

We don't know yet. We haven't seen it.

They said: Well, when you find out, come home and let's have some more townhall meetings so we can have some input.

That is what we ought to do as a Senate. We ought to know what is in the bill and then let us go home and share it with our friends so they know. Because right now what the American people have seen of this bill, the 2,000-page bill, they rightly believe this will increase the cost of their own personal care.

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Mr. BARRASSO. Following along what the Senators are saying, that is why the support of the American people for the bill is at an all-time low. It is at the lowest level of support ever. According to this NBC poll, fewer than one out of three Americans support this bill. They don't know all that is in it, but they don't like what they see so far, because they believe, in overwhelming numbers, that the cost of their own care will go up, that this will add to the deficit, it will hurt the economy, and their health care would actually be better if we pass nothing.

So why would the American people support a bill that is going to cost them more personally and when their health care will get worse? That is not the value the American people have ever wanted.

That is what I hear from patients at home, and it is what I hear on telephone town meetings. That is what we are hearing in all of our States. This is what the American people continue to say: Do not pass this bill.

As our leader said, we do need health care reform, and Dr. Coburn certainly knows that. But it is not this reform that we need.

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