Providing for Consideration of H.R. 2, Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act; Providing for Consideration of H. Res. 9, Instructing Certain Committees to Report Legislation Replacing the Job-Killing Health Care Law; and for Other Purposes

Floor Speech

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Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, the American people made it very clear in the last election that they want us to focus on one thing, jobs. But the new Republican majority has instead chosen to reopen an old ideological battle. I think that's a mistake.

But the good news is that the American people will have the opportunity, right at the outset of this new Congress, to see the clear differences between Democrats and Republicans.

Democrats believe that insurance companies should be prohibited from discriminating on the basis of pre-existing conditions. Republicans do not.

Democrats believe that we should close the doughnut hole and reduce prescription drug prices for our seniors. Republicans do not.

Democrats believe that young people should be allowed to remain on their parents' health insurance plan until the age of 26. Republicans do not.

Democrats believe we should provide tax breaks to small businesses and subsidies to low-income Americans to help them pay for health insurance for their workers and their families. Republicans do not.

And Democrats believe that we need to seriously address the budget deficit. Republicans do not, as the Congressional Budget Office made abundantly clear. The CBO told us yesterday that the bill to repeal health insurance reform would add $230 billion to the deficit over the next 10 years and another $1.2 trillion in the following 10 years.

As far as I can tell, this is the most expensive one-page bill in American history: 114 words, that's $2 billion per word.

And rather than address those budgetary facts, the new Republican majority has simply decided to ignore them, to cover their ears and pretend that the laws of arithmetic do not apply to them.

In their first order of legislative business, the Republicans want to take health insurance reform and toss it in the trash. And how many hearings have they held on the impact of this repeal? Zero. How many mark-ups did they have? Zero. And, most shockingly, how many amendments will they consider in this bill? Zero.

The new majority whip, Mr. McCarthy, said after the election last November, and I quote: ``When you look at the Pledge to America that the Republicans have laid out, there is a cultural change in there. There is something that opens up the floor that hasn't been done for quite some time, where bills won't be written in the back room, where the bills have to be laid out for 72 hours, where bills actually have an open rule, where people can bring up amendments on the floor.''

So much for that. And instead of thoughtful, reasoned legislative language that addresses the health care issues, the Republicans' replace part of their repeal-and-replace strategy is just a list of happy-talk sound bites. It's no more than a press release.

So again, Madam Speaker, I believe we should be focusing on jobs and the economy. And in the meantime, I urge my colleagues to reject this rule and the underlying, reckless bill.

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