Health Care Reform

Floor Speech

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, it has been interesting listening to the other side of the aisle talk today. One gentleman got up and talked about the health care bill in a cold and calculating fashion that made me think that he wanted the trains to run on time. Never did he consider the fact that the Congressional Budget Office said that this is the largest deficit-reducing bill in the history of the United States, over a trillion dollars in the second 10 years, and $123 billion in the first 10 years.

Another said it is patient centered, patient centered. It sounds nice, Madam Speaker. What that means is that if the patient has money now, they can get health care; and if the patient doesn't, they don't get health care. And if you don't get health care and you don't get wellness programs and you don't get prevention programs, you die. You don't get mammograms and you don't get colonoscopies. You don't find out if you have cancer, and you die. Patient centered, very cold and calculating.

They say we need to fix this bill. They never explained what part of the bill they liked. They were against it all. Daniel Webster said to do something worthy to be remembered. What the other side did was say you lie, baby killer, and encourage outsiders that almost brought about civil unrest.

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