Imposing a Minimum Effective Tax Rate for High-Income Taxpayers

Floor Speech

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HEALTH CARE REFORM

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, right outside this Chamber, across the street, is a huge gathering. It is the third day in succession that people from all across America have gathered before the Supreme Court. They have different points of view. They express those points of view in various ways--with signs, chants, music, a variety of others--costumes that are worn to express their points of view.

Let me first salute the fact that it is part of America. It is protected, and no one is going to be arrested for expressing themselves, whether they are for or against health care reform. We take it for granted, and we should not because in some countries around the world it is an exception rather than a rule. In America, it is who we are. We should celebrate even when we disagree.

But let me say a word about what is going on inside the building across the street. They are considering the health care reform bill that was passed by the Congress and signed by President Obama. Some have tried to characterize it as ObamaCare. For the longest time that was the biggest applause line at Republican Presidential rallies, after candidate after candidate stood up and said: I will repeal ObamaCare.

Let me speak to the issue which I think is guiding the discussion across the street and give perhaps a perspective on it that is not often stated on this floor. Earlier this morning several of my colleagues on the Republican side who voted against health care reform came to the Senate floor to express their opposition to the notion of a mandate. Here is what the mandate is about.

Currently, in America, there are millions of people who have no health insurance. Some of them by choice--young people think they are invincible; they will not buy it. Some people cannot afford it. But the fact is, even these uninsured people get sick.

When they get sick or are the victims of trauma--automobile accidents, diagnosed with a disease--they don't stay at home and wait for death, they go to a hospital. When they arrive at that hospital they are treated--emergency rooms, regular treatment--and then the bills are sent their way. Without health insurance many of them cannot pay the bills.

A little over a year and a half ago I went in for one night, overnight surgery in Chicago--the first time I was ever in a hospital since I was born. Everything worked perfectly. The ending was great. I couldn't ask for a better result. The total bill, start to finish, was $100,000.

Lucky for me, I am a Senator. I have the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. It paid for almost everything. What if I had no insurance? They would have sent me the bill. Perhaps I could have come up with the money to pay for it, but some people cannot. What happens then?

The hospitals and doctors then take these bills and say: Well, so-and-so didn't pay their bill. We are going to charge someone else who is paying more. Mr. President, 63 percent of the medical care given to uninsured people in America is not paid for, 63 percent. It is shifted, that financial responsibility is shifted to those who do pay, those who are under government insurance programs and private insurance programs. What it means is for those of us in private insurance programs, we pay $1,000 more a year--$80-plus a month--to pay off the bills of those who are uninsured. That is the subsidy which insured people pay to cover the unpaid medical expenses of the uninsured. That is the starting point.

Until we reach the point where everyone is under the tent of insurance, this will continue. Uninsured people will get sick, and those who buy insurance will pay for them. That is cost shifting. It happens every single day in America.

The health care reform bill said we have to have health insurance. It is a mandate. But we know some people cannot afford it. If someone is poor, in the lower income category, we will enroll them in Medicaid so they will have at least Medicaid insurance to pay their medical bills.

At Memorial Medical Center in my hometown of Springfield, IL, Ed Curtis, who runs that hospital, said to me: Senator, if you just did that alone, if we could just get Medicaid payment for everyone who walked through the door, we would be fine. What hurts us are those who pay nothing because they can't. That is a problem.

The bill we passed went on to say that if you are working, you will never have to pay more than 8 percent of your income for health insurance premiums. People would rather pay nothing, but 8 percent is a lot more manageable than people who are facing 10, 20, 30 percent of their pay going to health insurance premiums. So we basically have created a requirement to have health insurance but with a helping hand to reach that goal.

So what about the people who already have health insurance? They are untouched by this mandate. They just continue on and let life continue. You have made your choice; you have health insurance; it doesn't affect you.

What I find interesting are so many Senators--primarily from the other side of the aisle--who come to this floor condemning government-administered health insurance. ``Get the government out of health insurance.'' You hear that speech over and over. What they don't tell you is their own health insurance policies are administered by the Federal Government.

Mr. President, as Members of the Senate, you and I are eligible--so too are Members of the House--to be part of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. This was created decades ago to provide health insurance for people working for the Federal Government. Eight million people--employees and their families--are covered by this plan. What you have learned as a new Senator is that they come to us once a year and say: Durbin, you and your wife are eligible for the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, and here are the private insurance plans you can choose from that are enrolled in our program.

We have nine choices in Illinois, so Loretta and I looked through and picked the plan we liked. We pay part of my income as premium, and the government pays the remainder. It is a government-administered plan, and each year we have an open enrollment to change if we wish. This has been wildly successful and popular. Private insurance companies fight to enroll in it so they can cover Federal employees, and we have good, reliable, affordable insurance, insurance that we can change if we don't like it.

A few years back, one of my employees needed a specific foot surgery. It turned out her health insurance didn't cover it, but she knew the open enrollment period was coming. She waited and enrolled in a plan that covered it. What a luxury. People across America would applaud if they thought they could get that treatment, government-administered health care for Members of Congress.

I have waited patiently now throughout this entire debate for the first Republican Senator who condemns government-administered health care to come to the well of the Senate and announce they are dropping their own health insurance as a matter of principle. No way.

I think people across America are entitled to health insurance that is at least as good as the health insurance Members of Congress have today. I don't think that is a radical idea, and, in fact, the health care reform bill we passed said that Members of Congress will be part of the same insurance exchanges we are creating all across America. That is only fair. I am hoping it offers the same plans as the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, but I am sure it will offer me a choice, and with that choice I am sure my family will get good coverage.

When I hear the debates across the street suggesting that the notion of requiring people to buy health insurance is somehow un-American or unconstitutional, I struggle with that concept. We know what we are trying to do--reduce the overall cost of health care for America. We also know that the requirement of having health insurance is not that much different from the requirement of paying into Social Security if you go to work in America. If you want another parallel, in my State you have to have insurance to drive an automobile. They don't want you getting involved in an accident without insurance. For one thing, it is not fair to the other driver, let alone the person who might be injured in the car. These are mandates under the law relative to insurance--one for retirement, the other for liability--that are built into the law, and we don't have people marching in the streets over them.

We have to come to a point in this country where we reach a balance, and the balance suggests personal responsibility. It means that the millions of Americans who should have and could have health insurance with the help of a tax break, perhaps with the help of Medicaid, should have that insurance so that the burden of their medical bills does not fall on every other family and every other insured person. Those who are screaming for freedom ought to stop and think a second. Those who are accepting the personal responsibility of having health insurance are exercising their right to protect their family, and they should have the peace of mind of knowing that their neighbor who didn't accept his personal responsibility will not pass his medical bills on to them. I think that is the basis of what we are debating across the street.

I would like to raise a point, if I can, about a bill that was pending this week. It was offered by Senator Menendez of New Jersey to end Federal subsidies to oil companies.

Last Sunday in Chicago, I went by a BP gas station on the Congress Expressway, and I saw it for the first time--more than $5 a gallon for gas, $5.03 a gallon for ultimate gasoline at the BP station. For reasons I cannot explain, Illinois has the highest gasoline prices in America. We have refineries all over our State. I don't get it. But I know it is a recurring problem and a recurring theme. Every spring we go through it. The runup to Easter is the time for every politician in America to dust off the press release expressing outrage at our oil companies.

They do it to us every year. They come up with convenient excuses: You know, it is all about uncertainty in the Middle East. How long have they been playing that card. No, it is about the change of seasons. You see, when we go from winter to spring, we just are not ready for it. Really? You weren't ready for the change of seasons? There was a refinery accident in some town in the Midwest 400 miles away, and it has really disrupted everything. Well, I don't buy it, and I haven't over the years.

What they are doing is what they can do: they run up the price of this commodity because we have no choice. Until we have a choice in the vehicles we drive or in the sources of energy we use, we are kind of stuck with oil companies. But we are not stuck with paying a $4 billion annual subsidy to these oil companies. That is what the tax break we give to oil companies comes to. Senator Menendez of New Jersey has said: Stop it. Take the $4 billion and invest it in renewable, sustainable energy research, and take the rest and reduce the deficit. The five biggest oil companies had profits of over $137 billion last year. They won't miss $4 billion. And we should be ashamed that we continue to shove subsidies at them when they are so profitable.

What is happening when it comes to oil exploration? It is a legitimate question. We are now at an 8-year high in terms of the oil production in America. Starting under President Bush and continuing under President Obama, we have more oil and gas rigs in place working today in the United States than in the rest of the world combined. So those who say that if we just drilled a little more, gasoline prices would come down, you have to look at that. We are increasing the supply, and yet the prices go up.

Secondly, we also understand that when it comes to these gasoline prices, even when the supply goes up, the prices are going up. It defies the law of physics. Demand is down because of the recession, supply is up, and prices are going

up. That violates principles of economics 101 that I studied in college.

What Senator Menendez is suggesting is a move in the right direction, not just because we cannot justify the subsidies to oil companies anymore but because we should be investing in new ideas that will move us forward in the right direction.

This morning we had a meeting that I think the Presiding Officer attended, and the CEO of Chrysler Corporation was there. He is an interesting and curious man, Sergio Marchionne. I don't think he owns a suit and tie. He never wears one. He is the CEO of a major corporation, and he wears kind of a black-knit sweater. I see him all the time. But you have to give him credit; he took Chrysler Corporation when it was on the ropes struggling and near extinction and turned it around completely. They are looking forward to more than doubling the automobiles they are going to sell. Those who thought that the automobile bailout, as they called it, was a bad idea should listen to this man.

I can tell him the story of Belvidere, IL, northern Illinois, Boone county. We have a Chrysler production facility that Marchionne said to me is one of our best. They have gone on to a second shift, and he said that by the end of the year, they will go to a third shift in producing cars for America. He gets it. And when you talk to him about fuel efficiency and fuel economy in cars, they are moving in that direction. They are committed to it.

The President brokered an agreement with the major auto companies that they would make more fuel-efficient vehicles. That is good news for consumers. We need to be subsidizing research into better, more efficient forms of energy instead of subsidizing oil companies with recordbreaking profits.

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Mr. DURBIN. I say to the Senator from Ohio, that is a good point and one we ought to make over and over because there is no question that the downturn in the recession forced the management of these auto companies and the workers to step back and take a look at the challenges they faced.

Mr. Marchionne, the CEO of Chrysler, said this morning: We are where we are today because our UAW workers--union workers--sat down at the table and said, we have to agree on a future together or we are sunk. They agreed on that future, and he said: Now my workforce is excited and productive.

The Senator just made the point--more businesses are coming back from overseas. It is a great success story.

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Mr. DURBIN. It is not lost on the American people. There was a different point of view when President Obama said: I never wanted to own an automobile company; that is not why I ran for President. But he realized we faced an economic crisis. If he had not stepped in for Chrysler and General Motors at the moment he did, they might not exist today.

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r. DURBIN. Mr. President, I would just add--and this is not lost on most Americans--there are some political figures who said publicly they should have just gone bankrupt and gone out of business. I think the President made the right decision. Today, Mr. Marchionne made it clear Chrysler has paid back everything. They have paid it all back. So now, he said, if we need to borrow money, we are not going to come knock on the door of Secretary Geithner of the Treasury Department; we can go to banks. We are a thriving corporation. We are doing well. He said: I have nothing but good news for you, which is great to hear in a recovering economy.

It was a bet made by the President on behalf of hundreds of thousands of workers and companies and it paid off. What it says is that if we stand behind the basic pillars of the American economy--and manufacturing is one of those; maybe the largest pillar that holds up this great economy--we can prosper and succeed. Jobs being brought back from Mexico and overseas into the United States, I am glad I have lived to see it because I can remember when they were headed in the other direction.

Companies that were almost given up on by some politicians turned out, such as GM and Chrysler, to be prosperous today, building new cars and thinking about the new demands of our economy and our future, tells me we can put this together.

So when we hear those who say what we need to continue to do is to shovel subsidies at oil companies that earn $137 billion a year in profits, let's take that money--we do have a deficit--take that money, invest it in something that will create jobs and take the balance and reduce the deficit. I don't think that is a bad outcome. There are lots of good things we can invest in. The Department of Energy is talking about battery technology. That is still going to be our challenge for the future--finding ways to create power and save power for when it is needed. I think we need to incentivize that kind of research in the future as well.

At this point, I will yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, we have the bill before us relative to the tax subsidies given to major oil companies--it gives $4 billion a year to companies that registered $137 billion in profit last year. It is such a popular measure that moving to it attracted a 92-to-4 vote in the Senate. We are trying to bring that to closure and get a vote on it. I know the Senator has an amendment she feels is valuable. I don't know the merits of it. I wasn't on the floor to hear the entire explanation. We have just gone through a transportation bill on which for more than a week we entertained an amendment on contraception on that side of the aisle.

We wish to, if we can, limit amendments to relevant issues, and limit them in number and try to actually pass a bill in the Senate, which would be almost historic. I hope we can do it in a bipartisan way. I invite the Senator from Alaska to join us in a conversation about that. Until we can reach agreement on that, I am afraid I have to object.

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Mr. DURBIN. The Senator from Louisiana and I can get into a debate about whether taking $4 billion in subsidies away from five oil companies that reported $137 billion in profit last year is going to change the production of oil, but we will save that for another day.

This amendment, like others, needs to go through the Senator's leader, and with some understanding as to whether we are going to stay in the energy field or go far afield, as we have in previous bills. I am afraid I am constrained, until that conversation takes place between the leaders, to object

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I believe the shipbuilding industry in Arizona is about the same size as it is in Illinois, so I don't come to this issue with any particular hometown or home State view, and I am open to the Senator's suggestion. But I would say at this moment we are clearly focused on doing one thing; that is, eliminating the $4 billion annual subsidy to the five big oil companies that registered $137 billion in profits last year. Moving to this measure was voted favorably by 92 Senators, and we are trying to move this to a vote. Perhaps we can move to another issue--the ones the Senator is proposing--at another time, but at this point, I have no other alternative but to object.

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