Health Care Reform

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. JORDAN of Ohio. I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his leadership on many issues here in the Congress and certainly on this issue of fighting and opposing this takeover of one-sixth of our economy, this health care bill. I appreciate my colleagues here from Louisiana and Illinois and their work as well.

Look, when I think about this bill, I first start with the fundamental question, What part of ``no'' don't they get?

They have tried to pass this thing. The majority has tried to pass this bill now for almost a year, and every single time--they tried to pass it in September and the American people said no. They tried to pass it in October and the American people said no. They said, oh, we're going to get it done before Thanksgiving, and the American people said no. Oh, well, wait a minute. We're going to get it done before Christmas, and the American people said no. Then they said, well, we're going to do it before the State of the Union, and the American people said no. And now, here, we're going to get it done before Easter, and we're going to keep all the Members here as long as it takes, twist as many arms, do what we can. What part of ``no'' don't they get?

Mr. AKIN. You know what amazes me about that, gentleman, is I have heard various news outlets and various individuals, even people of political stripes saying that this bill is being held up by the Republicans. Now, somehow that just tickles my funny bone. You know, they've got 80 more people on this floor than we do, and if we all voted ``no'' and lit our hair on fire, there's no way we could slow this bill down. There's nothing we could do. The only thing slowing this bill down is there's a whole lot of Democrats that are going, ooh, is it ugly. So how in the world are they accusing us to be obstructionists or, you know--there's nothing we could do. I wish there were. But it's amazing.

What you're saying, I just want to underline because what you're saying is it's the American people. The American people are the ones that are really driving what's going on here. And they're looking at this thing and they're saying, oh my goodness. What part of no don't you understand? Go ahead. I didn't mean to interrupt the gentleman.

Mr. JORDAN of Ohio. I thank the gentleman. And you're exactly right. The reason the American people are speaking out loud and clear, the reason the American people, frankly, the reason the citizens of Massachusetts decided to send a Republican in Ted Kennedy's seat is because on a fundamental level, there's a lot of problems with this bill; but I want to just talk about three quick ones if I can. First and foremost--and this is what the majority party misses--it's a fundamental fact about Americans: Americans hate being told what to do. We're Americans. We actually think this thing called freedom and liberty is pretty important. And the idea that now here comes the big, not your local government, not your community, the big Federal Government's going to tell you and your family and you as a small business owner how health care is going to be delivered, and you're going to have bureaucrats getting between you and your doctor, they just fundamentally don't like that approach. And that's what the other party's missing. Americans don't like being told what to do.

Americans don't like, secondly, and I think this is important, and I know Congressman Smith spoke earlier on the floor this evening, Americans don't like the idea that their tax dollars could be used to take the life of an unborn child. I mean, they fundamentally don't like that, and appropriately so. And so just two basic things they don't like.

And then I would say third is Americans understand this thing is going to cost a lot. I mean, it's going to cost a lot.

Now, they can, you know, here's the way CBO works. We've heard a lot of talk. More Americans know about the Congressional Budget Office then they ever knew about them based on this debate over the last year. The Congressional Budget Office, the data and the assumptions and the premises that are given to them, that's what they have to work on. They're good people over there and they do good work, but they have to take what information they're given from the majority party when they put together their analysis.

And so people understand that this bill has 10 years of taxes and only 6 years of benefits in the next decade. They have all kinds of gimmicks, all kinds of things put into the CBO assumptions and premises when it's given to them to come up with this ``deficit neutral'' thing.

There is not--now think about this: outside of this city, this bill is going to insure 30 million more Americans and be deficit neutral. Now, outside of Washington, D.C. there is not one person in America who believes that. Americans understand, on its face, that cannot be the case.

Mr. AKIN. Let me just restate that. That is really an amazing premise, isn't it?

This bill is going to insure 30 million more Americans and it's going to be budget neutral. Do you think people believe that?

Mr. JORDAN of Ohio. There's no way. I mean, the claim is laughable on its face, and yet that's what we continue to hear out of the other side. And I think it's those kind of things that deep down Americans understand we need reform. They understand that there are some concerns and some real problems in our health care system.

But they also fundamentally get that this bill, this package, with the dollars being used to take the life of unborn children, with the cost estimates that we know are really going to be there, they understand on a basic level that they don't want the Federal Government attempting to take over one-sixth of our economy and getting between them and their family and their doctor.

And with that I would yield back to the gentleman.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source