Floor Statements

Mr. President, I wish to proceed for a few moments on my leader time.

Without objection, it is so ordered.

Health Care

Mr. President, Democratic leaders in the House say they are giddy because of CBO's latest estimate of their $1 trillion health care spending bill. That is what you call trying to get out in front of the news. Because if you look at the details, if you look under the hood, you will see this latest bill is even more painful than the Senate bill that Democrats over in the House are afraid to take a vote on.

Democratic leaders are bragging about this bill's impact on the deficit. They say it reduces the deficit by $130 billion over 10 years. The more important question is: How do they get there? They get there with even higher taxes and even deeper Medicare cuts than the first Senate bill. Let me say that again. This second bill that is coming along has even deeper Medicare cuts and even higher taxes than the first Senate bill that over in the House they don't seem to want to have a recorded vote on.

Let's start with the Medicare cuts. The Senate bill Speaker Pelosi said Democrats are so afraid to take a vote on originally cut Medicare by $465 billion. That is the original Senate-passed bill that passed on Christmas Eve. The latest bill increases those cuts by $60 billion more.

How about taxes? The Senate bill the Democrats over in the House are so afraid to take a vote on raises taxes by $494 billion--$494 billion. The second bill coming along increases taxes by at least $150 billion on top--on top--of the $494 billion original tax increase.

So if you were worried about raising taxes in the middle of a recession, this bill raises taxes even more. If you were worried about cutting Medicare for seniors, this bill cuts it even more.

So here is how Washington works. Democrats want to spend trillions of dollars on this bill in order to save $130 billion 1 week after voting to add nearly that much to the deficit in a single vote. If Democrats are giddy about this CBO score, then they must get a kick out of higher taxes and Medicare cuts because that is what this bill will mean--even higher taxes and deeper Medicare cuts than the original Senate bill.

If wavering Democrats needed any more evidence that this bill is actually worse than the Senate bill, they got it from the chairman of the Budget Committee just this afternoon. If our Democratic friends in the House were counting on the Senate to fix the original Senate bill they don't want to vote for because it is so bad, I wouldn't count on the Senate. The Budget Committee chairman over here is already warning that if that reconciliation bill comes over to the Senate, it will have to go back to the House once again for changes. So don't count on us to fix this bill for you, I would say to my Democratic friends in the House. Don't count on us.

Republicans have been saying for nearly a year now that this bill is unsalvageable. The latest CBO score proves our point.

I would suggest the President not scrap his trip to Indonesia. He should scrap this bill and start over on a bill that Americans can embrace and that lawmakers from both parties will actually be proud to vote for.

Taking a bill that House Democrats are too embarrassed to vote for, adding more than $150 billion in new taxes and slashing $60 billion more from our seniors' Medicare and keeping sweetheart deals may make some Washington Democrats giddy, but that is not reform.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I have been in the Senate for quite a while. I have seen a lot, but I have never seen anything like the plan House Democrats hatched this week to jam their health care bill through Congress and over the objections of the American people.

Americans woke up yesterday thinking they had seen everything in this debate already. Then they heard the latest. They heard that Democrats want to approve the Senate version of the health care bill without actually standing up and taking a vote on it. Let me say that again. They heard that Democrats over in the House want to approve the Senate bill without actually voting on it. These Democrats want to approve a bill that rewrites one-sixth of the economy, forces taxpayers to pay for abortions, raises taxes in the middle of a recession, and slashes Medicare for seniors, without leaving their fingerprints on it. In other words, they want to get around the very purpose of a rollcall vote. They want to hide what they are doing from the American people whom they seem to view as an obstacle. They want to hide what they are doing from the American people whom they see as an obstacle to what they are trying to do.

Well, it won't work. They realized that yesterday when they saw the public reaction to their plan. Americans are more outraged than ever. Americans are shocked at these tactics. They are fed up, and they have had enough. The longer Democratic leaders ignore this outrage and ignore these questions, the worse it is going to get.

Democrats have lost their perspective in this debate. They have lost their way. They do not even seem to care what the public thinks. Speaker Pelosi said yesterday that they will do ``whatever it takes'' to ensure this bill becomes law. While she is at it, she is throwing other legislation into the bill that does not have anything to do with health care--major legislation that would enable the government to take over the student loan industry without any debate whatsoever. That has been their strategy all along. Anytime one of their proposals meets resistance, they look for a way to get around it. But the schemes they have used end up making their proposals even more repellant than they originally were. And this latest scheme is the most outrageous one yet.

What has happened is they are trapped in a vicious cycle that someone over there needs to bring to a halt. This is now a fight between Democrats and their own constituents, and the only way to stop this madness is for a few courageous Democrats to step forward and put a stop to it.

Historians will remember this as a new low in this debate: the week America was introduced to the scheme-and-deem approach to legislating-- the scheme-and-deem approach to legislating. They will remember this as the week Congress tried to pull the wool over the eyes of the public in order to get around their will. And they will remember the men and women who stand up and put an end to it.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Do you solemnly swear that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of G. Thomas Porteous Jr., Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, now pending, you will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws, so help you God?

Mr. President, I move to lay the motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. President, I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. President, in accordance with the resolution on the appointment of an impeachment trial committee, I recommend to the Chair the appointment of Senator Hatch, who will serve as vice chairman, and Senators Barrasso, DeMint, Johanns, Risch, and Wicker.

Madam President, the President recently noted that everything there is to say about health care has already been said. When it comes to the substance of the legislation, this may be true. I suspect that is why an overwhelming majority of Americans oppose it. Americans know exactly what is in this bill, and they have rejected it. They do not want this bill to pass.

But there is still a lot to be said about the process Democrats are using to force this bill through. That won't change whether they get their votes this week or not. The fact is, the die has already been cast on this Congress. Democratic leaders have been imploring Members to make history--make history, they say--by voting for this bill. But this Congress is already guaranteed to go down in history--not for any piece of legislation but for the arrogant way it has dictated to the American people what is best for them and for the ugly way in which it has gone about getting around the will of the American people. Democratic leaders have made it perfectly clear that they view their constituents as an obstacle, particularly on the issue of health care. At every turn, they have

met fierce public opposition, and every time they have tried to come up with a way to get around that fierce public opposition. It has become a vicious cycle: the harder Democrats try to get around the public, the more repellent their proposals become and the more egregious their efforts become to get them through anyway.

We watched last summer as they forced their partisan health care bill through the committees. We watched as they tried to sell it to the public as something other than what it was. We watched as they wrote the final bill behind closed doors, then wheeled and dealed to get the last few votes they needed to squeeze it through both Chambers on a party-line vote. We saw the ``Cornhusker kickback,'' the ``Louisiana purchase,'' ``Gator Aid,'' and all the rest. But as ugly as all this was, as distasteful as all these deals have been, they were child's play--child's play--compared to the scheme they have been cooking up over in the House just this week.

The plan Speaker Pelosi has hatched for getting this bill through is to try to pull the wool over the eyes of the public, and it is jaw- dropping--it is jaw-dropping--in its audacity. Here is their plan: Speaker Pelosi can't get enough of her Democratic majority to vote for the Senate version of the bill, so she and her allies have concocted a way to pass it without actually casting a vote on it. They are concocting a way to pass it without actually casting a vote on it--the so-called Slaughter solution in which the Senate bill is ``deemed'' to have passed. This way, they will claim they never voted for it, even though they will vote to send it to the President for his signature.

This ``scheme and deem'' approach has never been tried on a bill of this scope, according to today's Washington Post. This is how they will try to keep their fingerprints off a bill that forces taxpayers to cover the cost of abortions, cuts Medicare by $\1/2\ trillion, raises taxes by $\1/2\ trillion, raises insurance premiums, creates a brand new government entitlement program at a time when the entitlement programs we already have are on the verge of bankruptcy, and vastly expands the cost and reach of the Federal Government in Washington at a time when most Americans think government is already entirely too big.

As Speaker Pelosi put it, ``Nobody wants to vote for the Senate bill.'' But anyone who believes they can send this bill to the President without being tarred by it is absolutely delusional. Anybody who thinks this is a good strategy isn't thinking clearly. They are too close to the situation. They don't realize this strategy is the only thing for which they or this Congress will be remembered. Anyone who endorses this strategy will be forever remembered for trying to claim they didn't vote for something they did. They will be forever remembered by claiming they didn't vote for something they did vote for. It will go down as one of the most extraordinary legislative sleights of hand in history. Make no mistake, this will be a career- defining and a Congress-defining vote. Make no mistake, this will be a career-defining and a Congress-defining vote.

Most of the time, the verdict of history is hard to predict. In this case, it is not. Anyone who endorses this strategy will be remembered for it. On the other hand, anyone who decides in a moment of clarity that they shouldn't, that they should resist this strategy, will be remembered for standing up to party leadership that lost its way.

Democratic leaders continue to advance the false argument that this effort is somehow akin to certain legislative efforts of the past. There is no comparison. First of all, the good programs they are referring to were far more modest. They enjoyed broad support from both parties in Congress. Most importantly, they enjoyed broad support of the American people.

By contrast, there is no bipartisan consensus about this bill in Congress. It aims to reshape no less than one-sixth of our entire economy at a moment when our economy is already suffering and our existing debts threaten to drown us in a sea of red ink. Most importantly, Americans overwhelmingly oppose it. If you need any evidence of that, look no further than today's Washington Post, which calls this process unseemly, or the Cincinnati Enquirer, which calls it disgusting. Look no further than the President's own pollster, who is telling the White House that the chicanery the Democrats have used to advance this measure is a serious problem.

This entire effort has been a travesty, but the latest solution to give House Members a way out by telling them they can pretend they didn't vote for something they will, in fact, be voting for has sealed its fate. The latest solution to give House Members a way out by telling them they can pretend they didn't vote for something they will, in fact, vote for has sealed the fate of this legislation with the American public.

It is time for rank-and-file Democrats to pull the fire alarm--pull the fire alarm--and save the American people from this latest scheme and this unpopular bill. The process has been tainted. It is time to end the vicious cycle, start over, cleanse the process, and work on the step-by-step reforms the American people really want. It is time to recognize that constituents are not obstacles--constituents are not obstacles--to overcome with schemes and sweetheart deals. Fortunately, it is not too late.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, the debate over health care continues, and this week all eyes are on the House. All we hear about is the arm- twisting and the horse-trading going on over there behind the scenes-- the mad dash ahead of the big vote--and once again Americans just can't believe what they are hearing.

Behind all of these stories is a simple truth: Democratic leaders are doing everything they can to convince a handful of lawmakers that they should vote for a bill they don't really like and which their constituents overwhelmingly oppose. They are scrambling to get these wavering House Members to vote for a bill which claims to be reform but which promises to lead to

higher health care costs, higher insurance premiums, and a vast expansion of government's role in our daily lives. They are pulling out all the stops. They are doing everything they can to jam this bill through, and they don't even seem to care anymore about how ugly it all looks.

What we are seeing is nothing more than a replay of the same revolting process Democrats used to pass this bill in the Senate, a process that completely outraged the public. The same deals they used to get this bill through the Senate are back. As if voting on these deals the first time wasn't bad enough, Democrats in the House are now getting ready to vote for them again. Every one of the deals that were so revolting to the American people will still be in the bill House Members are expected to vote on later this week. That means that anybody who votes for this bill will be voting in favor of the special deals that were put there for no other reason than to sway votes.

A handful of Democrats have stood up in opposition to these deals and this entire process. One longtime Democratic Congressman said last week that he won't be voting for the bill as a result of the deals. Here is what he had to say. This Democratic Congressman said:

I reject unequivocally the unsavory deal making that took

place in the Senate where Nebraska, Florida, and Louisiana

obtained special benefits that do not apply to the other

States and those special benefits provided to those States at

the expense of the residents of all other States. I simply

cannot support legislation that contains those unwarranted

giveaways to a select few States at the expense of others.

That was a Democratic Member of the House of Representatives.

But others are keeping quiet. They are still on the fence. That is why this week's vote promises to be even uglier than the last one, because this bill goes beyond things such as the ``Cornhusker kickback'' and the ``Louisiana purchase'' and the ``Gator aid.''

I was disappointed to see the White House reverse itself over the weekend and endorse many of these sweetheart deals after the President said he would try to have them removed. Apparently, they determined that removing the deals might jeopardize efforts to pass the bill. So now the White House says it won't object to all of the special deals, just some of them. The White House says it won't object to all the special deals, just some of them. What that means, of course, is that some Senators and House Members are getting special deals on top of special deals.

But that is not all the White House is willing to do to jam this bill through. According to press reports, it is also promising to raise campaign cash for House Members who vote for the House bill. We read in one of the papers today that the White House is openly signaling that those lawmakers will go to the top of the list for fundraisers and Presidential visits ahead of the November elections. So if press accounts are accurate, lawmakers who support the bill are being told they get repaid with Presidential visits and big-money fundraisers from the President or the Vice President--vote for the bill and you get a special visit for your reelection campaign.

We also read this morning in the Politico Pulse that the drug lobbyists were here in the Capitol over the weekend huddling with Democratic staffers to make sure their interests would be protected in the final bill.

This is precisely the kind of thing Americans rebelled against after the last vote on this bill. This debate should be about the substance of a bill that would restructure one-sixth of our economy and the direction Americans want to go in as a country, not how much money such-and-such Senator or Congressman needs in order to vote for it.

It is especially disappointing that this particular White House is supporting all this. After the ``Cornhusker kickback'' and the other special deals, the administration had an opportunity to distance itself from this process, to hit the reset button, and to work toward a bill Americans could be proud of. Unfortunately, in its desperation to force this bill through, the White House is reverting to the anything-goes approach, and the result is predictable: Americans won't like this bill any more than they liked the last one. They have issued their verdict about this bill and this process. They don't like either one. And once again, the only people who don't seem to get it are the Democrats here in Washington.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, let me first say to my good friend from Nevada how good it is to hear such a positive report on Landra's recovery. We are all grateful that hopefully she will be home sometime soon and on her way to a speedy recovery.

Mr. President, my members are here and ready to talk. We are going to be talking about health care, which is the most important issue in the country. We are fully prepared to discuss it throughout.

Mr. President, as I just indicated, we are here. We have been notified by the other side that they wish to have a lengthy discussion. We are here and prepared to do that and fully intend to talk about what we view as the flaws in the health care proposal that will be voted on in the House apparently sometime later this week. Therefore, I object.

My good friend, the majority leader, left out one thing, which is this is the second time he has done what is called filling the tree. What that means to the constituents we represent on this side of the aisle is, we got to offer no amendments, no amendments whatsoever, to this bill. This is the second time and the 27th time the majority leader has filled the tree, thereby denying to the minority an opportunity to offer any amendments at all.

We can argue, I guess, about the relative merits of this bill. What we do know for sure is that $47 billion of it is not paid for. So it adds that much additional money to the deficit. We also note, for sure, the one kind of jobs this administration has been able to produce is government jobs.

As a result of the spending binge we have been on for the last year, we have added 120,000 government jobs. In America, if you work for the government, you make an average of $70,000 a year. If you work in the private sector, you make an average of $40,000 a year. We have had a job boon all right--with the government. Of course, the stimulus package principally benefitted State governments, which were very happy to have the money so they did not have to pare back their employment.

So we are interested in talking about jobs all right, but health care is what the majority has been trying to ram through the Congress over the last year. It is the big issue this week. I am sure Members on my side of the aisle who will speak tonight will indeed talk about jobs, but we also fully intend to talk about the health care bill that will be voted on over in the House that cuts Medicare by $\1/2\ trillion, that raises $\1/2\ trillion in new taxes, and is replete with special deals. We now understand the fix-it bill--the second bill that will come after the health care bill--will not fix all the special deals; maybe only one of the special deals. So we will have on opportunity----

I believe I have the floor.

We will have an opportunity to discuss all these things, and what I would suggest to the majority leader, if he wants to maximize the time, we could simply agree to vote on this bill at 9 a.m. on Wednesday and then go back to the FAA bill, upon which we have made substantial progress. That would be another way to advance the ball, which I would suggest.

As you can see, we are all in the mood for a spirited debate, and I know the junior Senator from Florida is on the floor and anxious to begin the discussion.

Mr. President, if I could respond to the majority leader's suggestion, it may very well be worth talking about. As I understand the suggestion, it is that we lock in a time for a vote certain, such as the one I suggested, at 9 a.m. on this bill, and we resume consideration of the FAA bill between now--tomorrow--and then.

I think that is a matter worth talking about. Why don't we put in a quorum call and have that discussion.

Madam President, as Democratic leaders in Congress continue to insist that we are at some make-or-break moment in the health care debate, and that for some reason we need to pass a bill that raises taxes, raises premiums, and cuts Medicare, I would like to call attention to a notice we received just yesterday from the Congressional Budget Office informing us that they plan to issue a cost estimate today for the Senate-passed health care bill.

In other words, sometime today the CBO will release its final cost estimate on the health spending bill the majority passed on Christmas Eve. This is March 11. We passed that bill on Christmas Eve. We are now getting a cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office.

So our friends on the other side--every single one of them--voted for this enormous bill, a bill affecting the cost and quality of health care for every single man, woman, and child in America without knowing the full cost to the taxpayers.

Well, excuse me for noting the obvious, but this is no way to legislate on an issue of this importance. Month after month, we were told it was urgent to pass that bill--so urgent, apparently, that Democrats in Congress could not even wait to find out the effect the bill would have on the cost to the American people.

Now we are being told the same thing. Democratic leaders are telling their members they have to vote on this latest version of the same bill by Easter--the latest version of the same bill by Easter. When are we going to find out how much that one costs, Columbus Day?

Americans are not in any rush to pass this or any other 2,700-page bill that poses as reform but actually raises the cost of health care. Members of Congress should not be deceived by these theatrical attempts to create a sense of urgency about this legislation. The least that lawmakers can do is find out how much these bills will cost the taxpayers before they schedule a vote. They cannot have it both ways. They cannot say they are concerned about how much these bills cost and not even ask to see the pricetag.

The fact is, anybody who even considers voting for these health spending bills does not have lower costs as a priority because we know these bills are going to drive costs up, not down.

Madam President, I rise today to pay tribute to a young man from McDowell, KY, who bravely served his country. LCpl Jonathan B. Thornsberry was tragically killed during combat operations in Iraq back on October 25, 2006. He was 22 years old. He left behind a family and friends who love him and remember that today, March 11, is his birthday.

For his heroic service with the U.S. Marines, Lance Corporal Thornsberry received several medals, awards, and decorations, including the National Defense Service Medal and the Purple Heart.

The man called ``Jon-Jon'' by family and friends was following a family tradition when he elected to wear America's uniform. His brother, father, and grandfather all served in the military.

``It was just something he wanted to do,'' Jonathan's brother Jeff recalls of why Jonathan signed up. ``It was a decision he made.'' Jonathan's parents, Jackie and Judy, remember their son saying, ``We have to go over there. If we don't go over there, they will be here.''

Jonathan grew up in Floyd County where he attended McDowell Elementary School and South Floyd High School. He played catcher on his high school baseball team. Everybody remembers how good he was, and South Floyd High has retired his old No. 13 in his memory.

The name of the McDowell Elementary School's sports team is the Daredevils. Jonathan certainly fit that description growing up, as he liked to play in the mountains, go four-wheeling, and go hunting. This is not to say he did not have any sense of responsibility.

Once when he was just 4 or 5 years old, Jonathan and his father were hunting when they climbed too high on a mountain. ``We need to go down. Mommy will be worried about us,'' Jonathan said.

Jonathan was very close to his father, and the two of them worked together in the coal mines before Jonathan joined the Marines. Jonathan was also a father himself. He and his wife Toni Renee have a daughter, Haylee Jo. Haylee Jo recently turned 5 years old, and she likes to tell people she has her daddy's green eyes.

Jonathan was also close to his aunt, Edia Hamilton, better known in the family as Aunt Edia Girl. She would always buy candy for her favorite nephew even though she was on a fixed income.

Jonathan graduated from South Floyd High School in 2002, and after working alongside his father in the coal mines enlisted in the Marines in January 2004. He was assigned to the Marine Forces Reserve's 3rd Battalion, 24th Regiment, 4th Marine Division, based out of Johnson City, TN.

After training in California, Jonathan was deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2006. His family recalls he left California on September 26, and just 1 month later his life was tragically lost.

A few days before his death, Jonathan called his mother Judy to wish her a happy birthday, but she was at the grocery store and missed his call. Jonathan did get to talk to his wife Toni. Toni and Judy talked later, and Judy remembers they shared an uneasy feeling.

``I could feel God all around me that morning and I should have known something,'' Judy says. ``I [could] feel God protecting me from the harshness of this.'' Later that day they received the horrible news.

Funeral services were held at the Little Rosa Church in McDowell, where Jonathan's two favorite songs, ``The Old Ship of Zion'' and ``Amazing Grace,'' were played. Tributes to him were held in Frankfort and back at South Floyd High School.

Today, on Jonathan's birthday, Madam President, our thoughts are with the many loved ones he has left behind. We are thinking of his wife Toni Renee; his daughter Haylee Jo; his parents Jackie and Judy; his brother and sister-in-law, Jeff and Angela; his grandmother, Alice Moore Lawson; his nephews, Thomas and Jack; his nieces, Evelyn Grace and Julia Ann; his aunt, Edia Hamilton; and many more family members and friends.

One year after Jonathan's death, his family, friends, and fellow marines gathered to remember him at a service in Pikeville City Park. Friends recalled him as the ``type of guy who would give you the shirt off his back.'' Another remembered the last time he saw Jonathan and what they talked about.

His wife Toni talked about how much she had lost. ``We loved each other from the moment we laid eyes on each other,'' she said. Then she read a poem that got across how her husband was a man who did not ask for much.

``If you have a place for me, Lord, it needn't be so grand,'' she read.

A place of honor will be kept in the Senate for LCpl Jonathan B. Thornsberry, who sacrificed everything for his country. Today, on his birthday, I know my colleagues will join me in paying tribute to his service.

Madam President, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, the American people are looking at what is going on in Washington right now and they are wondering what the White House and Democratic leaders in Congress could possibly be thinking. The fact that we are still even talking about a health care bill that raises costs, increases premiums, and increases government spending is a complete mystery to most people. Americans have issued their verdict on this bill. They don't want it. It is that simple.

That is to say nothing of the process. The process that Democratic leaders have used to try to pass this bill is viewed even less favorably than the bill itself. So even if Americans supported the bill--which they clearly don't--they would still want the process cleaned up. Americans expect lawmakers to be completely up front and transparent about any changes they are thinking about making to the health care system.

Americans also expect a level playing field. That means union leaders don't get special deals that nonunion members don't. It means the people of Nebraska don't get a free ride bought and paid for by the rest of the country. Even Nebraskans are telling us they don't want that kind of special treatment. It means if you are a senior citizen, you don't have to move to Florida to keep your health care plan. It means that Louisianans don't get a windfall of Federal money because one of their Senators was willing to vote for a bill most Americans overwhelmingly oppose.

These are just some of the things Americans don't like about the way Democratic leaders are trying to push their bill through Congress and past the public. But they didn't much like the way the bill was put together either. They didn't like the fact that members of both parties spent endless hours negotiating and in committee meetings, only to see Democratic leaders write their own bill behind closed doors. These are the kinds of things Americans have been complaining about at townhall meetings and in statewide elections for months and months. These are the kinds of things the people of Massachusetts were saying in January. Americans can't believe that after all this--after a year of protests and all of the statewide elections--Democratic leaders are still stubbornly pushing the same bill and the same process.

Democratic leaders knew the public didn't support their bill, so they tried to jam it through on a party-line vote. When they had trouble with that strategy, they went for the kickbacks and special deals. As a result, they lost their 60-vote majority. So they came up with another strategy. They tried to get around the normal routes. They decided they would try to jam it through with a bare partisan majority, something that has never been done before on legislation of this magnitude.

Some in the media are blaming the resistance the administration and Democratic leaders have faced on the White House messaging machine. That is absolutely absurd. Americans aren't rejecting this bill because they don't understand it. They are rejecting it because they know exactly what is in it.

Democratic leaders continue to deceive themselves. I saw the Speaker said yesterday Congress needs to pass this bill so Americans can see what is in it. Let me say that again. The Speaker said Congress needs to pass this bill so Americans can find out what is in it. That is like telling somebody they have to buy a house so they can walk through it.

The White House seems to be throwing out every idea it has, hoping something will stick. The President is expected to highlight fraud and abuse in a speech today. I am glad the administration wants to use the enforcement power of the government to find and prosecute fraud, but that is something we can and should be doing already--right now. Do we need to pass a $2.5 trillion spending bill, raise taxes, and slash Medicare to go after fraud and abuse? I think not.

Finding waste, fraud, and abuse is one of the areas where we have agreement. Senators Grassley, Coburn, Cornyn, LeMieux, and others have been leading this effort for quite some time. Tackling fraud and abuse is one of the issues that can and should form the basis of a bipartisan, step-by-step approach to health care reform, not as a hook--not as a hook--to drag this monstrous bill over the finish line.

On the contrary, Democratic leaders should leave this bill on the field. Then we can talk about passing commonsense ideas such as tackling fraud and abuse on their own, one by one.

The fact is, this whole debate has devolved into a little bit of a farce, and it might actually be funny if the stakes were not so high. Americans don't know how else to say it. They don't want this bill. The American people do not want this bill. They want the process cleaned up as well.

How much longer do Americans have to wait before Democratic leaders will give up this partisan quest and agree to start over, to work together, out in the open, on the kind of commonsense reforms Americans want? That is the question Americans are asking, and we owe them an answer.

The American people aren't an obstacle to be circumvented. This is their health care system, not ours. It is time to end this partisan effort, listen to the people, and start over.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, the debate over health care has been going on for a long time now. It is easy to lose sight of where we started, so I would just like to remind people today of what this debate was supposed to be about.

It was supposed to be about cost. This debate was supposed to be about bringing the cost of health care down, about keeping health care costs from bankrupting families and government. So if you are looking for a reason as to why Americans overwhelmingly oppose this bill and why Democrats are having such a hard time rounding up votes within their own party for this bill, it is because no one believes this bill will lower the cost of health care. It is that simple.

When you hear people talk about the cost of health care, they usually are referring to three things: the overall health care expenses Americans will have to shoulder if this bill passes, overall spending by the Federal Government on health care if this bill passes, and the amount of money people will have to spend on health insurance premiums if this bill passes. On all three counts, the bill the White House and its allies in Congress want us to vote for would drive costs up actually. The administration's own scorekeeper at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says overall health spending will go up by more than $200 billion under this bill--overall health care spending up $200 billion under this bill, according to the administration. The independent Congressional Budget Office says Federal spending on health care will increase by about $200 billion over the next 10 years. CBO also says health insurance premiums for millions of Americans across the country will go up 10 to 13 percent as a result of all the new government mandates contained in this bill--and continue to rise at the current unsustainable rate for nearly everyone else, despite more than $2 trillion in new government spending.

Another thing Americans are rightly concerned about is the debt. It is completely out of control. Some say this

bill lowers the debt, but let me remind my colleagues that the extenders bill we will be voting on today--the bill we will be voting on today--will add more to the debt than even the White House claims its health spending bill will save. Let me say that again. The bill we are going to pass today, the extenders bill, will add more to the debt--will add more to the debt--than even the White House claims its health spending bill will save.

So if cost is what you are concerned about, then you cannot vote for this bill. It is that simple. Americans have it figured out, and that is why they are asking themselves why anyone in Congress would even think about voting for this bill. This should not even be a tough call.

Let's start over and work together on a step-by-step solutions process that focuses on cost, that actually lowers costs, not the other way around. Let's put together a bill Americans will support.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.