Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011

Floor Speech

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Mr. NEAL. I thank the gentle lady.

When you consider how rhetoric doesn't square up with reality in this institution, the gentleman from Iowa started by saying this is the greatest threat to personal liberty in history. Well, we have some young people here today, and I guess he thinks that Plessy vs. Ferguson and Dred Scott and Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus, that those didn't represent a threat to personal liberty.

Now, President Bush said that the best way to get health care, for those who were outside the mainstream, was very simple. You could go to an emergency room.

That is not health care. That treats the issue in front of the individual. It denies preventive care. It doesn't offer assistance to women who are in need of additional health care. This proposal that we passed was modest, and it was market driven. It kept the private sector alive and it put in place basic protections for the American consumer.

I wish that we could have a separate vote on the individual proposals that we included in that bill, and I guarantee you we wouldn't be talking about death panels; we would be talking about the idea of extending health care benefits to all members of the American family, including the 51 million who find themselves outside of the mainstream.

Just think of it today. This is more of a threat to liberty than Plessy vs. Ferguson and Dred Scott and Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus.

Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to the amendment offered today which wold repeal the historic health care reform bill.

With passage of the new law last year, American families can take back the control of their health care.

The law bars insurance companies from discriminating coverage based upon pre-existing conditions, health status and gender.

The law caps the out-of-pocket health care expenses that have bankrupted many American families.

The law allows individuals and small businesses to purchase affordable insurance from competitive marketplaces.

And--the law contains the cost of health care while reducing the deficit by $138 billion over the next 10 years.

We solved the dilemma so many Americans families face on a child's 22nd birthday by extending dependent benefits until age 26.

I am an ardent supporter of Social Security and Medicare. The new law filled the Medicare prescription donut hole and provided new wellness and preventive benefits seniors.

We made history last year with this new law. And yet, today, this amendment seeks to undo all of this progress, all of these achievements, all of these new protections and benefits for Americans.

I have visited the world-class hospitals of Massachusetts and spoken with the administrators, doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals. Massachusetts is way-ahead of the rest of the country in requiring health insurance coverage for almost all of our citizens. And I can tell you the state is better for it. The hospitals are better for it.

I urge opposition.

The Acting CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.

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