Providing For Consideration Of Motions To Suspend The Rules

Floor Speech

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Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding time.

Madam Speaker, we are on the cusp of voting on legislation to permit a Federal Government takeover of one-sixth of the Nation's economy.

This is the most significant piece of legislation in our generation. The American people get that, and they do not want this bill. They want health reform that makes sense and that will make health care more affordable and accessible.

When the chairwoman of the Rules Committee, Ms. Slaughter, floated the proposed Slaughter solution last week, the outcry was immediate. You would think that my colleagues would take their title of ``Representative'' seriously and want to listen to the American people and have an open process. That is why I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the previous question today, so that we can amend this rule to allow the House to consider H. Res. 1188.

This resolution, sponsored by Mr. Griffith, will ensure an up-or-down vote on the Senate's health care takeover by preventing the Speaker from using the Slaughter solution to ram the Senate health care bill through the House, bypassing regular order. The American people do not want the Senate bill, and neither do most Members in this Chamber.

The American people deserve an open process and an up-or-down vote. Voting ``no'' on the previous question, Members will be on the record opposing the Slaughter solution and voting to allow for consideration of a remedy aimed at protecting against this attempt to ram through the Democrat plan to socialize medicine.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of the amendment and extraneous materials immediately prior to the vote on the previous question.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentlewoman from North Carolina?

There was no objection.

Ms. FOXX. I reserve the balance of my time.

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Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, my colleague across the aisle talks about what the State of North Carolina does and does not do.

This insurance should be a State issue; it should not be a Federal issue. Maybe changes need to be made in the State of North Carolina, but that is up to the State of North Carolina. This is a Federal Government takeover, which is inappropriate.

Let me talk about the AARP and what they do about preexisting conditions, because our colleagues have put a special carve-out in this bill for the AARP. They deny access with preexisting conditions by imposing waiting periods on Medigap plans. They have a tremendous turn-down on preexisting conditions. Medicare turns down more people, twice as many people as the insurance companies do, and they want to put us all in Medicare-type plans. My colleague is a little disingenuous when he brings up selective situations like this.

I now would like to yield such time as he may consume to my distinguished colleague from California, the ranking member of the Rules Committee, Mr. Dreier.

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Ms. FOXX. I want to say that, again, our colleagues across the aisle are in the business of picking winners and losers. They do love one insurance company. They love the AARP, which in 2008, from their financial statements, had royalty fees of $414 million. Pure profit on their bottom line. I raised this issue with Mr. Rangel when he was at the Rules Committee before, because I am very concerned about the way AARP is being represented to the people. Their profits have skyrocketed in recent years, jumping 31 percent just from 2007 to 2008. So we find, again, that they want to pick the winners and losers instead of allowing individuals in this country to make their decisions on what they should be doing.

I'd like now to yield 2 minutes to my distinguished colleague, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Broun).

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Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, I want to say to my colleague from Kentucky, even his own President has said that Americans will not have competition and choice in terms of what they are able to keep. He said that people will not be able to keep the insurance plans they like under this plan. So I wanted to make a correction of that.

With that, I yield 2 minutes to my distinguished colleague from South Carolina and the next Governor of South Carolina, Mr. Barrett.

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Ms. FOXX. Let me say, Madam Speaker, that the gentleman obviously did not pay attention to what the President said at the Republican retreat, because he said he had made a mistake in saying that people could keep their insurance plans if they liked them, that a few stray cats and dogs had gotten into the Senate bill. And what I wanted to ask my colleague is: Can he guarantee the American people that, in the Senate bill that they are going to vote on under a trick being used by the Rules Committee, that the American people will be able to keep their insurance plan if they like it? Because the President has said that isn't the case, and I think it's really important that we get that said here.

With that, I yield 3 minutes to my colleague from Texas (Mr. Gohmert).

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Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, I think the thing that my colleague across the aisle fails to mention when he talks about the deficit is that, in order to do that, they raise taxes, and that's something they always leave out. They're never real about that.

I yield an additional 30 seconds to my colleague from Texas.

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