Health Care Reform

Floor Speech

Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, the American people are fed up with the most costly health care system in the world with too little good health to show for it. We are 38th of 195 countries in life expectancy. Pity those who think they can run on the theme: ``Repeal health care reform.'' Democrats opposed Bush's version of prescription drugs for seniors because, unlike our health care bill that's coming to the floor, the Bush plan added billions to the deficit, didn't pay for the bill, and cut seniors off with the doughnut hole. But we never ran on the outrageous theme ``repeal prescription drugs for seniors.'' Instead, we vowed to fix the prescription drug law if Americans would give us control of the Congress. They did--and we are. We are closing the doughnut hole, and we are paying for it. You're entitled to criticize, indeed to change the health care reform Americans have been waiting for for almost a hundred years. But it is simply a fool's errand to oppose it, and madness to try to repeal it.

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