Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, the American people need to know what this debate is all about. On one hand, it is a complete takeover of the health care system that the Democratic Party is proposing. On the other hand, Republicans have offered alternatives to let the patients make decisions. In fact, I offered H.R. 3889, which is totally private, doesn't raise taxes or anything else.

Their plan will destroy the economy. It will put 5.5 million people out of work. It is going to destroy the doctor-patient relationship. Government bureaucrats will be making decisions for every patient. The American people need to understand: This is about a government takeover of the whole health care system. They need to call their congressman and say ``no'' to the Nancy Pelosi steamroller of socialism.

Mr. Speaker, I am a physician. I practiced medicine in Georgia for almost four decades. In health care, us providers try to do no harm. But, Mr. Speaker, this Pelosi health care takeover is going to destroy the quality of health care.

It is going to actually destroy poor people, and particularly Medicare recipients, from even having a doctor, because the cuts in Medicare are going to mean that doctors just can't afford to continue to see them, even though they want to.

It is going to destroy State budgets because of the increase in the Medicaid recipients that are going to be forced on to the State budgets, which means that it is going to hurt teachers and all the goods and services within the State.

It is going to destroy every family's budget because of the increased cost for everybody in this country, because all goods and services are going to go up because of the increased taxes on all the business.

It is going to destroy jobs. It has been estimated that 5.5 million jobs are going to be lost. But, most of all, it is going to destroy our economy.

We need to destroy this bill.

Madam Speaker, on rollcall No. 832--H.R. 1168, the Veterans

Retraining Act of 2009, on rollcall No. 833--H. Res. 291, Recognizing the crucial role of assistance dogs in helping wounded veterans live more independent lives, and on rollcall No. 834--S. 509, A bill to authorize a major medical facility project at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Walla Walla, Washington, had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. Speaker, God tells us in Hosea 4:6, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

Thank you, Chris Smith. I greatly appreciate all your leadership on this.

Madam Speaker, I'm a medical doctor. I've practiced medicine in Georgia for almost four decades. The very first bill I introduced in Congress, the first bill I will ever introduce in every Congress, as long as the Lord continues to send me up here, is one called the Sanctity of Human Life Act. It defines life beginning at fertilization.

As a medical doctor, I know that that's when my life and all of our lives begin. Madam Speaker, God cannot continue to bless America while we are killing 4,000 babies every day through abortion. He just cannot and will not because He is a holy, righteous God.

He tells us in Jeremiah that He knows us before we are ever knit together in our mother's womb. We have to stop abortion. We have to stop this bill that is going to continue to fund abortions with taxpayers' dollars. The future of our America depends upon it. Right to life is absolutely the central part of liberty and freedom in America.

Madam Speaker, we cannot lose that right.

I thank the gentleman, Dr. Gingrey. I did house calls full time prior to coming to Congress in 2007, and I actually still make house calls.

I appreciate the people coming here today and getting in the house call business. They made a house call on the people's House, and I congratulate them on doing so because their voices were heard. The Constitution of the United States. I carry it in my pocket all the time. I believe in this document, as it was intended by our Founding Fathers. It starts out with three very powerful words.

Thank you.

The Constitution starts out with three extremely powerful words ``We the People.'' We the People are speaking, and they don't want a government takeover of their health care system. In Hosea 4:6, God says, ``My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.'' Mr. Speaker, the Doctors Caucus and Dr. Gingrey have been trying to educate the people about the onerous effects of a government takeover of health care. I just want to mention a few of those things.

Dr. Boozman, my good friend from Arkansas, was already mentioning the increased taxes and the attacks on small business. But this bill, if it's passed into law, is going to destroy our economy. It's going to destroy our economy because it's going to spend--right now CBO, with their zombie economics, is going to spend over $1 trillion. I call it zombie economics because you have to be a dead person walking around to believe the accounting procedures that CBO went about utilizing in evaluating this bill. But this bill has been scored by CBO as costing over $1 trillion. When Medicare was passed into law 40-some-odd years ago, CBO, when they evaluated it then, they missed the mark. In fact, Medicare, in the first decade, cost almost 10 times what CBO scored it, and that's exactly what's going to happen with this one. I think 10 times will be a conservative estimate of what the CBO is scoring it. It's going to destroy our economy.

The second thing it is going to do is it's going to destroy the State's budget. In Georgia, as the gentleman from Georgia, Dr. Gingrey, knows, we have a balanced budget amendment to our State Constitution. Well, this bill shifts a lot of cost in unfunded mandates to the State because it expands Medicaid. Georgia is already struggling to meet its balanced budget amendments and is already cutting services in the State of Georgia. This bill, for the State of Georgia, from everything I can tell, is going to increase the cost to Medicaid to the State of Georgia $1 billion. We don't have that kind of money. The State of Georgia is going to have to cut its services markedly or increase taxes.

Mr. Speaker, the Governors all over this country should be contacting every single Member of Congress in their delegation and telling them to vote ``no'' on this Pelosi bill that is going to take over the health care system. It's going to destroy States' budgets. It's going to destroy everybody's home budgets because taxes are going to go up on all goods and services, particularly health care services. But there is going to be taxes on every single small business and large business in this country, which means that those taxes are going to be passed through at an increased cost for every good and service in this country. So everybody, including the middle class, the poor people, those on limited income, the elderly are going to have to pay more for everything that they buy, for every service that they contract for. So it's going to destroy everybody's home budgets.

It's going to destroy our children's futures. It's going to destroy their futures because Congress is borrowing and spending dollars that our children and our grandchildren are going to have to pay for. So we're stealing their future.

Scripture says in the Ten Commandments, ``Thou shalt not steal,'' and I call on this House to stop stealing our children's and our grandchildren's futures.

Would the gentleman yield?

Well, I appreciate that, Dr. Boozman. I practiced medicine for a few years in Blakely, Georgia, a town of 5,000 people. We had a small community hospital there. I moved from there to Americus, Georgia, which has 17,000 people; 25,000 in Sumter County, Georgia, both down in rural southwest Georgia.

We had a regional hospital in Sumter County, an excellent regional hospital. At the time I was there, we had a little over 30 doctors in Americus, Georgia. We had just about any specialty, except for neurosurgery and neurology, in that community.

Then from there, the Lord moved me to Oconee County, just outside of Athens, Georgia, where I still live today. Athens is a town of a little over 100,000 people. There are two hospitals in Athens, Georgia. St. Mary's, I am on the foundation board. I have worked with St. Mary's Hospital. It's a Catholic hospital. I have worked with them for years, trying to help provide care for indigents and people that don't have insurance and to help that hospital be viable. But we also have Athens Regional Hospital.

Now that I am a Member of Congress, I represent the northeast corner of the State of Georgia, and we have a lot of small community hospitals scattered through my congressional district in Hart County and Elbert County and Thomson, which is McDuffie County, and a lot of these, and I can go on. There are many small rural hospitals.

Now, back to something I just said earlier in Hosea 4:6: My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. What it's going to do if the Pelosi bill, this one right here in front of me, is passed into law, small rural community hospitals all over this country are going to close down. Small communities are going to have all those people who work there be jobless. They are going to be put out of work.

Folks are going to have to drive miles and miles to those regional hospitals to get the health care that they so ably deserve. This is not a health care bill. This is a health insurance bill to set up--in fact, the President himself has said he wants to establish socialized medicine where the Federal Government is the only insurer. This bill is the step that they need to put that into place.

That's exactly why the progressives, I call them Marxists, because that's really their philosophy is Marxism or communism, socialism, is based upon, this bill is a step to go to that socialized medicine. But not only the health care markets and small community hospitals are going to be put out of a job. The President's economic adviser has said 5.5 million people are going to lose their job, so it's going to destroy jobs all over America.

Mr. Speaker, if the American people could see this document and understand how onerous it is, they would say ``no,'' and they should. This is the Republican alternative that's going to be considered on and voted on Saturday. Look at the difference in the size.

The Republican Party is the Party of Know, k-n-o-w, know. We know how to lower the cost of health insurance for everybody in this country and let the doctor-patient relationship be how health care decisions are made. This bill is going to put a bureaucrat from Washington D.C., making health care decisions for every single person in this country.

Some people may say that that's a racist comment you just made.

First thing, they are not immigrants. They are aliens, they are law breakers, they are criminals, and they need to go home. We certainly should not give them taxpayer subsidies, not only health care but a lot of the taxpayer subsidies, and they are getting them today. In spite of being against the law getting Medicaid, SCHIP, they are getting those things today because they have fraudulent Social Security numbers, fraudulent driver's licenses. They are criminals. They need to go home.

I want to tell you, I have been accused of being a racist by saying things like that. But I also volunteer as a medical doctor at a clinic called Mercy Clinic in Athens, Georgia, and the vast majority of people that come to that are illegal aliens, people who have no insurance. I have devoted my time, and there are 40-some-odd doctors in our community that devoted our time to go take care of sick people who need our help.

I have a heart for them, but I also believe in the law.

They lie. They lie.

Yes, they are going to pay higher taxes. Everybody in this country is going to pay higher taxes, from the extremely rich to the poorest people; but most of those taxes will come on the backs of the small businesses. That is the reason that the President's own economic adviser has said that 5.5 million jobs in America are going to be destroyed. People are going to be put out of work because of that tax burden that is placed on small businesses.

This whole bill, this Pelosi health care takeover, is going to destroy

America. It is going to destroy everything we have in America.

Let me tell you a little story. Recently, I was talking to one of the Blue Dog Democrats, and I asked him to show me in this document where Nancy Pelosi has the constitutional authority to take over the health care system in America. He could not because this is unconstitutional.

Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

The motion was agreed to; accordingly (at 10 o'clock and 6 minutes p.m.), the House adjourned until tomorrow, Friday, November 6, 2009, at 9 a.m.

Mr. Speaker, our previous speaker went through a long list of Republican districts insinuating that Republicans wanted these people to die, it seemed to me.

I'm a medical doctor. I've practiced medicine for almost four decades. I literally have given away hundreds of thousands of dollars of my own services with no compensation whatsoever to people who don't have health insurance. I'm joined tonight by my good friend and colleague, in fact, one of my mentors, Dr. Phil Gingrey, who is an OB/ GYN from Marietta, Georgia, and he and all the other physicians in this body on our side are very, very concerned about the future of our patients and about where we are going as a Nation.

You see, Mr. Speaker, Republicans have offered 53 bills, fixing to be 54 bills with the Republican Conference's bill, that will literally lower the cost of health care, make it more affordable for all Americans.

Our bill will not put people out of work like the Pelosi health insurance bill that we are going to be voting on very shortly. In fact, it's been estimated by the experts, in fact, Barack Obama's own economic adviser, that 5.5 million people are going to lose their jobs because of the Pelosi health care bill. Mr. Speaker, 5.5 million Americans are going to lose their job that they have today because the Democrats want to force down the throats of the American people a health insurance bill that's not about health care, Mr. Speaker. It's about power. It's about control. It's about taking over one-sixth of our economy.

There are many solutions that Democrats and Republicans alike could embrace. In fact, I've challenged many times one on one and I've challenged publicly and I challenge today Democrats to take a bill that I will give them--they can put their name on it, take credit for it-- that will do four things: One is across-State purchasing for individuals and businesses to be able to buy insurance wherever they can find it cheaper in whatever State. The second issue is to have association pools where individuals can come together in an association, and that association can offer anybody that is affiliated with it a health care insurance package or multiple insurance packages that they would have their choice of purchasing. The third thing is to have some stimulation of the States to develop some high-risk pools. In fact, there are several States that have already done this, and they've been very successful in covering patients with preexisting conditions and high-risk medical conditions. And the fourth thing is to have a 100 percent deductibility for all health care expenses for everybody in this country.

Right now businesses get to deduct their health insurance that they provide, the costs anyway. They deduct the costs of the health insurance that they provide to their employees. The employees can get that health insurance as a tax-free benefit, and whatever they pay into it is not taxed. But a small business man or woman, an individual has to pay taxes on their money. They have to buy it with after-tax dollars. That makes it so expensive for individuals and small businesses to be able to buy insurance.

But if a Democrat will pick up that bill and convince Ms. Pelosi to allow us to have a debate on this floor, I will just about guarantee that 177, and I think that's what we have now on our side, 177 Republicans will cosponsor and vote for that bill and the majority of Democrats will vote for that bill and we will pass it into law.

It will make health care affordable for everybody. It won't raise taxes. It will not increase the deficit. It will not do anything to harm our economy. And we could pass that bill. We could pass that bill this week.

I challenge Democrats to take the bill. I will give them the language. I'll give them the bill. All they have to do is write their name into it. I will be the

first Republican cosponsor. They'll drop it in the hopper, and we will have health care insurance financing reform that will make sense on an economic basis. It will put market-based principles into the health care financing system.

You see, Mr. Speaker, we hear people talk, particularly on the Democratic side, about health care as if it's one big monolithic theme, that if people don't have health insurance, they don't have health care. That's hogwash. It's just balderdash. It's hogwash from the first order. It's not true.

I've treated those people. I'm also on the foundation board for St. Mary's Hospital in Athens, Georgia. St. Mary's Hospital is a Catholic East Hospital, and in that hospital the doctors, the nurses, physical therapy people, all the allied health personnel, the hospital itself, treat people without insurance.

You go to any emergency room in this country, Mr. Speaker, and it's filled with people that do not have insurance. In fact, every single individual in this country can walk into any emergency room in this country with an emergency condition and can be seen and treated. Everyone. Every single person in this country has access to health care today.

Not everybody owns insurance, that's true. Why? Insurance has become very, very expensive. I don't think there is a single person, Mr. Speaker, in this body that doesn't want to do something to help people to be able to afford insurance.

But we're going to destroy our economy. We're going to destroy our economy because we are going to spend a trillion, $1\1/2\ trillion, $2 trillion, $3 trillion on this government takeover of the health care industry in America. It's going to destroy our economy. It's going to increase the debt, Mr. Speaker, markedly increase the debt.

When President Obama came and spoke in the Speaker's podium to a joint session of Congress, Senate and House Members were here. I was sitting right back there that night. Mr. Speaker, the only person who spoke the truth that night was Joe Wilson. Joe Wilson spoke the truth that night. Mr. Speaker, the Pelosi health care bill is going to be disastrous.

When I graduated from medical school, I took the Hippocratic Oath. It said, ``do no harm.'' Mr. Speaker, the Pelosi health insurance bill is going to do a lot of harm. In fact, people on Medicare right now today are going to be denied lifesaving treatments, lifesaving procedures.

Medicare already today rations care. It tells me and my colleagues when we can put patients in the hospital, how long they can stay there, what services they'll pay for.

Mr. Speaker, we're going to have more rationing of care under the Pelosi health insurance bill. Why? The Pelosi health insurance bill is going to destroy Medicare Advantage, which there are millions of Medicare recipients on Medicare Advantage today. It's going to destroy Medicare Advantage, and it's going to move those people into the regular Medicare system. We're going to put more people on Medicare. Plus we're cutting the dollars spent on Medicare by $500 billion. Five hundred billion, a half a trillion dollars is going to be cut out of Medicare.

You're going to put more people on and cut the financing of Medicare.

What does that mean? They're going to have to ration care. And, in fact, the bill itself says that the health care czar--it's called a commissioner in the bill--can establish waiting lists and rationing of care. The bill itself says that. And it's going to absolutely be done. Plus right now today, also, Mr. Speaker, you have doctors all over the country that cannot afford to see Medicare patients anymore. They want to, they're trying to, but they can't afford to, because Medicare today pays doctors and pays hospitals less than it costs them to give the service. I repeat that. Medicare pays doctors and hospitals less today than it costs to deliver the service.

Now if we cut $500 billion out of Medicare and we put more people on Medicare, what's going to be the result? Not only is it going to be rationing of care and long waiting lines, Mr. Speaker, rural hospitals all over this country are going to go out of business. The long-term result is going to be, we'll have just a few big regional hospitals that are going to be extremely expensive for everybody; and small rural hospitals, small rural communities, even mid size rural communities, are going to be without hospitals, without doctors, without health care in their community.

That's what the Pelosi bill is going to do. This is not about health care with the Pelosi insurance bill. It's about power and control, and it's going to destroy America.

Yes, I will be glad to yield. I welcome my good friend from Michigan, Mr. Pete Hoekstra, who has been a great spokesman about these issues.

That's the Republican bill.

Reclaiming my time, I want to bring up a point just to re-approach something that you brought up that I think the American people need to understand, Mr. Speaker. In that humongous bill that the gentleman from Michigan has his hands on right there, the Pelosi health insurance bill, in that bill it says that by 2013, no one can sell private insurance to individuals or businesses.

Remember when we heard from the President that if you have health insurance and you like it, you can keep it? That's a bald-faced lie, because the bill itself says that after 2013, no one--no one--can sell private insurance to individuals and small businesses.

That's right.

I will reclaim my time.

Our previous speaker was just saying that he wanted universal health care. The President himself has said he wants universal health care. Many of the Democrats have said they want universal health care. What does that mean? That means that the government runs all the health care, the socialized medicine, one single insurance company in America, and that's the Federal Government.

I now want to yield to my dear friend, Dr. Phil Gingrey, an OB-GYN,

graduate of the Medical College of Georgia. We were there at the same time, my medical school alma mater and his, too. Unfortunately, he went to the North Avenue Trade School, Georgia Tech, where I went to the University of Georgia. Dr. Gingrey has been a leader on this issue here, and I will yield to the gentleman.

Reclaiming my time, the Republican alternative that the Democrats say we don't have, but we do, CBO has already scored our alternative. Actually we've got 54 alternatives, but this is one. This is one that the conference, Mr. Boehner and the whole Republican Conference, is introducing; and CBO has literally scored the Republican alternative that the Democrats deny we have, and it's that small bill right there on the desk in front of the gentleman from Michigan.

Say that again, please.

Please repeat that.

I thank my friend, Dr. Gingrey from Georgia, for bringing that up. If you wouldn't mind, let's talk about some of the specifics, along with Mr. Hoekstra.

But I want to yield to my good friend, Steve King from Iowa, who has been very diligent in trying to bring information. In Hosea 4:6 we read, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

The American people really don't have the knowledge about this health care bill that Nancy Pelosi has presented that's going to really destroy our economy. It's going to destroy jobs. It's going to destroy a lot of things. Mr. King from Iowa has been very vigilant in trying to inform the American people and I thank you, sir, for your effort. I will be glad to yield to you, sir.

Let me reclaim my time because you have hit something that we need to flesh out here a little bit. Comparative effectiveness research, now Dr. Gingrey and I know, as medical doctors, we look at comparative effectiveness for different treatment modalities. For instance, for prostate surgery, does surgery work better than chemotherapy or radiation therapy, or does the combination of one or both or all three work best? That is the kind of comparative effectiveness we do in medicine.

But what this comparative effectiveness research is going to do, it is going to look at how to spend these limited dollars that the Federal Government is going to take away from small business and individuals through increased taxes on the middle class, increased taxes on small business that is going to rob people of their jobs, they are going to take the effectiveness of spending those dollars on a young person versus an old person. And the old person is going to get the short end of that stick. That is the reason why seniors all over this country are fearful. And they should be, rightfully so, because they are going to be denied treatments. They are going to have rationing of care.

I see Mr. Hoekstra is chomping at the bit. He wants to jump in here. I yield to Mr. Hoekstra.

I will yield to Mr. King because he and Michele Bachmann have been right at the beginning of the discussion about the house call on Congress. I am excited about that. As a medical doctor, I made house calls full time. I went to see my patients at their home, at work, wherever they needed to me to come. I did that from 2002 until 2007 I was elected to Congress, so for 5 years I was doing house calls full time trying to take care of the needs of my patients. We are asking people to make a house call on this House. It is absolutely critical.

I yield to Mr. King.

I will reclaim my time here. I have been trying to gear up people all over the country, trying to light grass fires with grass root support against the Pelosi health care bill. In fact, I carry a copy of the Constitution in my pocket.

This is not only the full text of the Constitution, but it is every single amendment that has ever been made to the Constitution, plus it has the entire text of the Declaration of Independence in this little book.

Well, I point out, too, with this document, the beginning of this document starts with three very powerful words, ``We the People.'' It is time for America to take this country back, to take their freedom back, to fight for liberty. And that's what this House call on Congress

is all about is for the people to come here and take America back, to make sure that they have good quality health care continuing, and lower the cost of insurance so that people can afford insurance.

We have been joined tonight by another good friend of ours, a freshman Member that came in with me. He was elected in a special election when I was in the last Congress, so he is serving his second term now as I am, Mr. Steve Scalise from New Orleans, Louisiana. But he has been actively trying to inform the people about how awful this is.

I thank you for joining us, and I yield to you, Mr. Scalise.

I will reclaim my time, and then I will yield to you, Mr. King, in just a moment.

Frankly, if you look at that document, the small one that you just dropped down, the Constitution of the United States, you won't find any constitutional authority in that document--none--where the Federal Government has the authority, where we in Congress have the authority to take over the health care system of America. There is absolutely zero constitutional authority for that big bill, none.

But I also want to remind the people in America that this is not about health care. That bill is really not about health care either. It's about power and control, and it's about health insurance. It is creating a big government insurance company that is going to be subsidized by taxpayers. The bill itself is going to pay for abortions--taxpayers are going to be paying for abortions. The bill itself is going to give taxpayer-funded free health insurance to illegal aliens in this country.

We have tried, as Republicans, to change those in that humongous, outrageous bill. The Democrats have over and over again blocked every attempt we've put forward to try to make at least a little modicum of sense to that bill, and they blocked it over and over again.

It's about power. It's about control. It's about establishing a government insurance program that's going to take people's choices away. It's going to take their liberty away. It's going to take jobs away. It's going to take money away.

I yield to Mr. King.

In fact, I will reclaim my time.

Mr. Speaker, a lot of people in this country may be saying, I can't do it. Congressman King from Iowa suggests that, but I can't come to Washington tomorrow. They may ask what could they do.

What I've told people, Mr. Speaker--to many people, I've told them, What you can do is you can contact your Congressmen at home. You can contact their district offices. You can go to the U.S. Senators' State offices. You can visit them. I suggest that people at home go at noon tomorrow to their Congressmen's offices and say ``no'' to the Pelosi health insurance bill, ``no'' to the government takeover of health insurance.

Maybe you're working and can't do that, Mr. Speaker. What I suggest to folks is that they get on the telephone and call their Congressmen's offices here in Washington. Call the Congressmen's offices in their districts. Email them. Fax them. Contact them somehow.

I've reminded people over and over again that former U.S. Senator Everett Dirksen said, when he feels the heat, he sees the light. When he feels the heat, he sees the light. Now, what is he saying there?

What he's saying is that, when he's going in one direction and he gets all of these phone calls, letters, faxes, emails--there weren't emails when Everett Dirksen was around, but when he gets these contacts from his constituents--because Members of Congress want to be reelected usually, and those contacts say, Buster, you're heading in the wrong direction. Suddenly, they start seeing the light and saying, Maybe I ought to listen to the people who've elected me, and maybe I ought to go in a different direction.

So it's important for the American people, Mr. Speaker, to contact their Members of Congress and to tell their Congressmen that they do not want a government takeover of their health insurance, that they don't want the destruction of the health care system in America. It's absolutely critical, Mr. Speaker, for the American people to get actively engaged in taking America back and in making sure that we don't destroy their health care insurance and the health care system.

Mr. Hoekstra is sitting there, just jumping around, wanting to speak, so I'll yield to Mr. Hoekstra.

I'll reclaim my time.

In fact, those unelected bureaucrats are going to stand right between every patient in this country and their doctors. In fact, it's unelected bureaucrats appointed by the President who are going to be part of this health care czar panel, as I call it. The commissioner will be appointed and will go through confirmation by the Senate, but the panel will not. They're going to make decisions about every single health care insurance policy in this country.

So, Mr. Speaker, the American people need to understand very clearly: if they have insurance today that they like, they can forget it because it's going to be thrown out. The health

care czar is going to establish every single health insurance policy in America.

The President, himself, has said his desire, his ultimate goal, is to completely take over the whole of the health care system and to put it into one single health insurance program, administered by government bureaucrats who are going to make decisions for every single American person. The doctor won't be making the medical decisions. The patient won't be making the medical decisions. The families won't be making the medical decisions. It's going to be a government bureaucrat who's going to be making those.

The American people need to understand that, Mr. Speaker. Are they going to sit back and idly let this happen? Right now, it's slated to happen Saturday night. Saturday night we're supposed to vote on that monstrosity, on what I'm calling a dead, rotten, stinking fish that Nancy Pelosi is trying to force down the throats of the American people. The American people need to say ``no,'' Mr. Speaker.

I yield to Mr. King.

Mr. King, I thank you for this effort to get this house call on the U.S. House of Representatives. It is absolutely critical that the American people, Mr. Speaker, understand what is happening here this week and particularly is scheduled to happen Saturday night. It is going to kill 5.5 million jobs if we pass the Pelosi health insurance bill, it is going to kill our economy, and it is going to kill our children and grandchildren's future, because we are stealing with this outrageous spending that the Democrats have been doing under the leadership of Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. We are stealing our grandchildren's future. Their standard of living is going to be less than ours today if we continue down this road.

We have to take America back, Mr. Speaker, and it is up to we people, the American citizens, the good citizens, freedom-loving citizens, who want to work, take care of their families' needs, and want the Federal Government out of their hair. That is what we are trying to do as Republicans. But the Democrats are trying to socialize this country.

Mr. Hoekstra, some people may have joined us since you first started speaking. There are two stacks of paper right there before you, and I want you to please tell the Speaker so that he can pass on to the American people what those two stacks of paper represent.

That is not a stack.

The Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence.

Reclaiming my time, let's make it clear. That is the Republican alternative that the Democrats keep saying we don't have.

It is a loss of jobs, it is a loss of everything that has made America great.

I want to thank my friends, Steve King from Iowa, Pete Hoekstra from Michigan and Dr. Phil Gingrey from Georgia. This has been I hope an instructive evening for the listeners and for the Speaker, because we cannot let this bill pass. It is going to destroy freedom. It is a steamroller of socialism being driven by Nancy Pelosi. The American people need to put a stop sign in front of that steamroller of socialism.

Mr. Speaker, when I graduated from medical school at the Medical College of Georgia, I swore to do no harm. Mr. Speaker, the Pelosi health care insurance bill will destroy America. It will destroy the quality of care for everyone. It will destroy jobs. In fact, experts tell us 5.5 million people will lose their jobs. It will destroy private insurance. In fact, it is estimated 114 million people will be forced off their private insurance under a government policy.

Mr. Speaker, it is going to destroy our economy and cost over $1 trillion. It will destroy our States' budgets, and it is going to destroy our own home budgets for everyone through higher taxes and through higher private insurance premiums. It will destroy our children's and grandchildren's future.

Mr. Speaker, we the people in America must demand that we destroy the Pelosi health care insurance bill.

Dr. Gingrey, I appreciate greatly your doing this Special Order tonight, and I appreciate your yielding me some time.

When I spoke on the floor this morning in 1-minutes, I started off my speech by saying when I graduated from the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, Georgia, and got my MD degree, we in the medical college all swore to the Hippocratic Oath. One of the clauses in the Hippocratic Oath was ``I will do no harm.''

The Nancy Pelosi health care insurance bill, it is not about health care. It is about insurance, and, actually, it is about power. It is not even about health care. But the Nancy Pelosi health care insurance bill will actually do a tremendous amount of harm for me and all of our medical colleagues who continue to practice medicine, so it is going to destroy the quality of care.

It is also going to destroy the Federal budget. Dr. Gingrey, as you were talking about, it is going to spend over $1 trillion in what I am describing as voodoo economics or zombie economics that CBO utilized in scoring this bill, because they made some assumptions that are just totally untenable. They are just not going to happen. Since they are projecting the growth of Medicare is going to be half of what it has been historically, that is not going to happen. They haven't counted into the scoring a lot of issues that are going to balloon the costs to the American people.

So the Pelosi health care insurance bill is going to destroy our economy, and it is going to create a tremendous debt. It is going to destroy people's private health care plans that they have today. If you continue to buy private health insurance, the American public's premiums are going to double and triple. So it is going to destroy the budgets of families all across America.

It is going to destroy the State budgets, because it is going to have a tremendous unfunded mandate on the States because of the large expansion of Medicaid; thus, the States are going to have to go get that money from somebody, and they are going to increase taxes. They are going to have to. They have no other choice but to increase taxes.

Well, in increasing the Medicaid rolls that the State government has to fund, the Federal Government is going to help by giving money to the States, but the States are going to have to come up with the matching.

Just in our State of Georgia, it is estimated the State of Georgia is going to have an extra $1 billion that Georgians are going to have to come up with in increased taxes just for this Federal mandate on our State alone. It is billions and billions of dollars on every State in this country, so it is a huge burden on the States.

So it is an unfair taxation that is pushed off on the States, and every person, even the middle class, who our President said he was going to protect, the middle class is going to be burdened with a tremendous tax burden because of the mandates.

Some of them aren't direct taxes. As I have already mentioned, their health insurance premiums are going to really double or triple. That is really a tax, because it is a cost shifting from the private insurance.

No, sir. Well, thank you, Dr. Gingrey. The States are prohibited from printing money under the Constitution. Actually, we should be preventing the Federal Reserve from printing money like they are doing, and the Congress has the authority to do that, if we just take that power back from the Federal Reserve, and I, as an original intent constitutionalist, think we should do that.

It is our prerogative as Members of Congress to manage the money instead of the Federal Reserve, and it shouldn't be the Federal Reserve doing it. We should be doing that here in Congress.

But the States can't do that, so they are going to have this tremendous economic burden. Our Governor, Sonny Perdue, is struggling trying to make the budget come out in black ink in our State. Because we have a balanced budget amendment to our State constitution, the State of Georgia cannot spend more money than it brings in, technically, under our constitution.

So if we as a Federal Government put a tremendous burden of $1 billion on the State of Georgia, which is already struggling, already furloughing workers, they are not replacing workers, State services are being cut, teachers' salaries and furloughs and cuts are being put in place, and we add $1 billion to the State of Georgia, an economic burden, that money has got to come from somewhere.

The Federal Government is not going to give it to Georgia. It is not going to give it to Louisiana. It is not going to give it to Texas, New York, Vermont, or Minnesota. The States are going to have to come up with those dollars, and the only way they can do that is

through higher taxes, as well as cutting more services than what they are doing now.

You take States like Michigan, where the unemployment is so high, raising taxes is going to further wreck their economy. So this is going to destroy the American economy as well as the States' economies.

We are going to be destroying lives with this bill, because this bill, the way it is written today, is going to allow taxpayers' dollars to pay for abortions. Now, the Democrats have put some mumbo-jumbo language in there, and it is really a ruse. What they have done is they say private funds can be utilized to pay for abortions through the public insurance system. They call it the public option. But it is not an option; it is a mandate.

It is actually something that the leadership of the Democratic Party, from the President to many of the leadership in their own party, have said that this is just a step to a single party payer health insurance program. So it is going to destroy private insurance here in America too.

So what this Nancy Pelosi health insurance bill is going to do is destroy everything that is good, and good with our health care system. And what is most important, it is going to destroy the quality of care our seniors are getting, because they are going to get the short shrift of all of this.

They are going to draw the short straw, because the Democrats put something in the bill, something that is called comparative effectiveness research in the stimulus bill, and now they have set up a panel that is going to use that comparative effectiveness to determine how best to spend the dollars. And when you have limited dollars, they are going to decide is it better to spend the money on a well person who is 25 versus a sick person who is 70.

So the seniors' health care provision is going to be destroyed. We are going to have more people pushed, because Medicare Advantage is going to be destroyed, we are going to have move people pushed off on the Medicare system, which is going to further increase the burden on the current Medicare system. So we are going to have further rationing of care, particularly for the seniors. So they are going to be told they can't get tests, they can't get surgeries, they can't get medications that they need, and it is going to be absolutely disastrous for seniors.

Thank you, Dr. Gingrey. The pay-fors are through higher taxes, particularly on small business, as well as individuals who are considered rich. We are supposed to be treated equal under the law, but a lot of our colleagues on the other side don't think that is factual any more, that we need to be treated unequally under the law, which is totally unconstitutional and is against the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, basically.

But what it does is this is going to destroy jobs because of the mandates upon small business. There are a lot of taxes and a lot of fees, and there are even fees and taxes on individuals who don't take their employer-offered health insurance. So it is going to force everybody in this country basically to take whatever insurance is dictated by the health care czar panel here in Washington.

So taxes, the only way they get to any semblance of controlling the amount of money that this bill calls for, which is way over $1 trillion--and, in fact, I think that is going to be very low. When we saw Medicare presented, the Congressional Budget Office miscalculated. Their calculation was almost one-tenth of what the true cost was over the decade following passage of Medicare, and I think that is what we are going to see with the Pelosi health insurance bill, too.

But there are tremendous taxes on everybody in this country. And it is going to be a tax on the middle class, because they have got to tax durable medical equipment. That is going to go up. They are going to tax the Cadillac insurance plans. So that means people who have good insurance, privately provided today, that is going to go up. There are going to be taxes on small businesses.

Right now, the bill says if an individual makes over $500,000 or a couple over $1 million a year, that is adjusted gross income, that they are going to have a big tax on them. Well, a lot of those people are actually small business men and women, and that is their adjusted gross.

They are filing their personal income tax return as a Sub S corporation or as a limited liability partnership, like a lot of physicians, accountants, and lawyers have. Small businesses, they are going to be taxed, taxed, taxed, and that is the reason that the experts say 5.5 million jobs are going to be destroyed. People are going to lose their job because of this Nancy Pelosi health insurance plan.

Will the gentleman yield?

Thank you for yielding, Dr. Gingrey.

What I wanted to bring up, Dr. Fleming, is that during the August break I went up to Canada and talked to folks about their universal health care system. And the American public need to understand what their situation is up there. I found women in their 40s and 50s who've never been told that they needed a pap smear, never been told they needed one. Never had one. Why? Because the doctors won't take the time to counsel with them and won't take time to do the pap smear because doctors have to rush people through the office so quickly just to see the capitated amount just to make a decent living.

The average time spent, I was told by many, many patients up there, was 5 minutes with a doctor, 5 minutes. I was told that if you have high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol, you have to make three appointments to see the doctor and they'll just give you medicines for those three things one at a time. You can't go counsel with your doctor for any period of time.

But most importantly, and back to the reason I asked you to yield a moment or two, is that in Canada they pay a tremendous amount of taxes. Even the lowest income people pay a tremendous amount of taxes to pay for their health care system. They have a provincial and national sales tax just to pay for their health care of 7 percent in British Columbia, where I was, a 7 percent sales tax just to pay for national health insurance. Plus on top of that, they have an income tax. I was told by a guy making under $50,000 a year, he said he paid 60 percent of his income, 60 percent of his income was paid in taxes to help pay for their national health insurance program.

Will the gentleman yield?

I just wanted to come back to the point that I just was making so that the Speaker himself can understand and the American people who are listening here can understand that the lowest income workers who are trying to make a living, struggling today to make a living and make ends meet, maybe they do or don't have insurance today, they're going to pay a heavy, dear price in increased taxes by this bill, the Pelosi health care bill.

It is going to destroy their own personal budgets because of this bill if it ever gets passed into law.

I want to remind, Mr. Speaker, if I can speak out to the American public, I would tell them that the Republicans are the Party of Know, K-N-O-W, because we know how to lower the cost of health care. We have 53 bills that have been introduced. Some of them are comprehensive, such as my bill, H.R. 3889, which is totally private, doesn't increase taxes for anybody. It doesn't put mandates on anybody or anywhere and totally looks to the private sector and will lower the cost of health care. We have many Republican bills that will help lower the cost for everybody if our bills could just be heard on the floor.

But the American people need to demand that the Pelosi bill be defeated, destroyed, so we can go back to the drawing board, we can go back to the table and work in a bipartisan way and have Democratic and Republican ideas, and we can find something that is right for America that will lower the cost of health care.

The Pelosi health care bill will skyrocket the health care costs for everybody, skyrocket taxes, and we have to stop it.

Dr. Gingrey, thank you so much for yielding.

This is the health care czar. The President said, if you have insurance and you like it, you can keep it. Nothing could be further from the truth; it's a boldfaced lie. The reason it's a boldfaced lie is because this bill requires the health care czar and his panel--this dude is going to be confirmed by the Senate, but the panel is going to be appointed by the President with no confirmation--they're going to be making health care decisions for everybody. And everybody, even private health insurance plans, have to be approved by the boss. So if you have health care insurance today and you like it, forget it because it's going away unless the boss says it's okay.

So the Democratic health care plan, the health insurance bill that Nancy Pelosi has given us, you can have anything that you want if the boss approves it. And I thank Dr. Gingrey because this is his slide here.

You bet.

Mr. Speaker, Americans are growing tired of having to speculate about what is in a 1,000-plus page bill that is still being drafted in secret behind closed doors. The American people want transparency in this process, and they want real bipartisan reform. They want a step-by-step approach.

Why don't we work together out in the sunshine and add even a few of the elements Republicans have presented in our 53 health care alternatives?

One of these alternatives is my OPTION Act, H.R. 3889, that among other things would, number one, make the purchase of health insurance more affordable to more people. It would allow transparency in health care pricing; make all health care-related expenses tax deductible for everybody; and allow for individuals to keep their health insurance once they leave their jobs or shop across State lines.

We must bring health care reform back from the partisan abyss and give the American people real bipartisan health care reform.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

Energy independence and innovation are essential to America's national as well as economic security. Current rising energy costs only reinforce this critical need. Last summer's record-breaking prices of fuel exposed the consequences of the failure to have a comprehensive national energy strategy, one that makes America energy independent.

Many believe the debate is oil and gas versus wind, solar, and renewable sources of energy. That assumption is absolutely false. We need all of the sources of fuel that we know about, both current and any possible ones that we can develop in the future.

Today's bill focuses on one of those sources of very much needed energy, solar energy. The technological advances in solar-generated energy are growing every day. Specifically, during committee markup, our friend and colleague, Dr. Ehlers, shared with us an ingenious new technology that may only be a year away from the market, a solar shingle.

These new shingles, which are being developed by the private sector, will be able to produce more than enough energy to power almost any modern home. I hope they get on the market very quickly. These shingles have dual purposes--the protection of the home on the roof and providing a clean energy source to the home. Further, the costs to the consumer would eventually be comparable to regular wood

shingles. This is the marketplace at its best.

Despite my strong support of these innovative and cleaner technologies, this Congress must recognize a simple fact: We do not have enough money to do all the programs that we would all like to do.

In order to balance the noble goals of this legislation with the overwhelming pressures placed on the budget, I offer this amendment which would freeze the amount of money authorized in this bill to $250 million a year for 3 years.

In this fiscal year's Energy and Water appropriations bill, $225 million was appropriated for solar energy programs. This is in addition to the $117 million that was appropriated in the so-called stimulus--I call it the ``nonstimulus'' bill--earlier this year.

This is more than Congress can and should be doing for solar and other renewable resources, reduce and streamline regulatory burden in developing and building green technologies, actions which would not expand or increase our debt.

I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense, economically responsible amendment and reduce the burden of adding to the debt which will be passed along to our children and grandchildren.

Mr. Chairman, we have to stop the outrageous spending that this Congress is doing, and my amendment will help to do that.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to my good friend, Mr. Hall from Texas.

Mr. Chairman, if the philosophy is that government has to supply all the money for all the research and development in this country, particularly for energy resources or anything else, then it makes sense to pour more and more money into this kind of development, but we are stealing our grandchildren's future. They are going to live at a lower standard.

Mr. Chairman, we just simply have to stop the spending and control what we are doing. We cannot spend ourselves into economic prosperity. It's going to cost jobs in this country. We are going to go into an economic slump and a downturn if we don't stop spending money here in Congress.

So my amendment will certainly continue to fund solar energy, which we desperately need; but the private sector, Mr. Chairman, can do that also. Government is not the only source of funds. The private sector is already developing things, as I stated in my opening statement for these shingles.

We have to stop robbing our grandchildren's future.

And with that, Mr. Chairman, I urge all Members on both sides to support my amendment. It's a commonsense, fiscally responsible amendment.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Akin, as you know, I've practiced medicine. I am a family doctor. I've done general practice for almost four decades.

The problem with defensive medicine, overutilization of testing and services in the health care industry is a huge part of the expenditure. Patients are actually demanding these things, and doctors are complying with that because of the possibility of a medical malpractice suit being filed against the doctors.

So something needs to change because we are overutilizing tests, we're overutilizing services.

In fact, I was talking to the administrator of one of my local hospitals in my district recently. And the day I was talking to him, just that day the lady who runs the CAT scan unit at their hospital was asking for some more help at night, and he couldn't understand why she would need more help. And the lady said, Well, we've run 10 CAT scans through the night through the emergency room. He said, Well, how many of those were positive? Zero. How many were really indicative? If you look at the medical indication for those, it's zero.

So the overutilization of very expensive testing is rampant within the system. So you're exactly right. If we do something to stop the doctors from having to practice this medicine--

Absolutely. It is a tremendous risk.

Absolutely.

Let me give you a good example of that exactly.

I've worked in emergency rooms many times throughout my career and sometimes was even a full-time emergency room director.

But if a patient comes in with a headache that they've never had before, comes in with a severe headache and--well, maybe, it's not even a severe headache. Maybe it's in the front part of their face and it's typical of a sinus infection. A doctor has a tremendous pressure on them to get a CAT scan or a CT of the head, or both, because if they don't and several years later that patient is found to have something such as a brain tumor, they could come back and sue the doctor for failing to diagnose, even though frequently in these cases the patient's history and the physical examination will not indicate any medical need, any medical indication of a brain tumor. But the doctor has to do that to prevent the suit.

It doesn't cost the doctor anything. It doesn't cost the patient anything either. It costs the whole system.

The patients will come and say, I'd like to have an

MRI on my head or a CAT scan on my head or belly or something, and their attitude is it doesn't cost them anything. It doesn't cost them anything. It costs the insurance company.

Just like a lot of people think the government can provide all of this free health care and the government just pays for it. Well, where does the money come from?

Absolutely.

Will the gentleman yield?

Let me add to your discussion about this one particular case.

The doctor is going to give them that counsel anyway with or without the CAT scan or MRI or whatever it was. The doctor--it's incumbent upon them to do so because the doctor, if they do ever develop trouble--and they may very well--a good physician is going to give that sort of counsel anyway. And if their level of consciousness starts going down, if the pupils become different sizes, if the headache lasts for longer than 24 hours, the vomiting lasts for 24 hours, these are the types of things that we tell patients anyway.

So doing this expensive radiological study is not medically indicated. The doctor is going to give that counsel anyway.

Mr. Akin, if you'd yield?

The American people should look at what the real purpose behind H.R. 3200 is, and we can see what their real purpose is by going to people like the President, Barack Obama, and the leadership in this House. They have said that the public option is the way to go to a single-payer health care system administered by government bureaucrats. Socialized medicine. That's their stated purpose.

That's their stated purpose. That's their end goal, and the public option is the way to get there. And it's going to cost jobs. It's going to cost millions of people their jobs because it's going to put a high tax on small business.

Plus the seniors are not going to be able to get the care that they need because they put in there a cost- effectiveness research that was in the stimulus bill, and there's a cost-effectiveness decision panel that is created with this atrocity there that's going to make medical decisions according to patient's age.

And when they make the decision according to the patient's age, they're going to compare spending $100 here or $100 there, and they're going to spend $100 on a 40-year-old and not an 80-year-old.

Well, it's factual.

Mr. Akin, you're a young pup. I'm 63, but I've practiced medicine for almost four decades, and I already see the rationing

that Medicare and Medicaid puts into place today. And what the Democratic bills will do is going to ration care much, much, more. Seniors are not going to get the care that they need and deserve, and thus it's going to be detrimental to their health.

Well, you are exactly right. The reason that the survival rates--these are 5-year survival rates for people with cancer. Women with breast cancer, you look at your chart, which is accurate. This comes from independent data. Five-year survival rate for cancer. Actually, for breast cancer, it's over 90 percent, where in Great Britain it's much less than that. But all cancers for women on your chart is 66.3 percent for women, 5-year survival rate, and in the United Kingdom, 52.7 percent. Why is that? The reason it's that way is because they have delayed diagnosis because of the ration of care because of the constraints.

You don't get that evaluation, so you have delayed diagnosis. So people have late diagnosis, and then their treatment outcomes are not as good.

So, as a physician, I can tell you that ObamaCare is going to cause people to have to wait for all treatments, wait for the diagnosis, and they're going to have poor outcomes. So it's going to hurt everybody.

Well, that's correct. There is going to be a greater percentage of people that are going to die because of it.

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to come and talk about health care tonight. I expect other physicians to come and discuss this extremely important issue to the American people.

We keep hearing over and over again from our Democratic colleagues that Republicans have no alternatives. Well, we have got a bunch of binders here. Each one of those contains a Republican alternative to ObamaCare that the Democrats are proposing.

As the staff brings these forward, every single folder is a Republican plan. Every single folder is a different Republican plan. Every single folder offers suggestions and solutions to the cost of health care for all Americans.

Almost every one of those folders, if not every one of them, we could get bipartisan agreement on, if any of these

bills would ever see the light of the day. Let me repeat that. I believe that we could get bipartisan agreement on most, if not all, of these Republican bills that will affect health care costs for every single American and will offer some solutions to Americans' concern about the rising cost of health care.

It's untenable that health care costs are rising like they are today. It's unsustainable the way health care costs are rising like they are today. But we ask why. Well, there are many reasons why.

I have practiced medicine in Georgia for almost four decades now. I am a general practitioner, a family doctor. I have seen in my medical practice the marked amount of government intrusion and how it runs up the cost of health care.

I will give you a good example, Mr. Speaker. When I was practicing in rural south Georgia, I had a small automated lab with quality control to make sure that the results I got from my lab were accurate, because I wanted to give good quality care to my patients.

Well, Congress passed a bill called CLIA, the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act, which outlawed mine as well as every doctor's lab in the country. Prior to CLIA, if a patient came in to see me with a fever, red sore throat, white patches on the throat, coughing, runny nose, headaches, aching all over, I would do a CBC, or a complete blood count, to see if they had a bacterial infection which needs an antibiotic treatment, or a viral infection, which is not helped by antibiotics. The patient doesn't need to expend the money on those antibiotics and doesn't need the exposure with the possible side effects and the consequences of being on the antibiotics.

I could do that test, CBC, in 5 minutes. It cost 12 bucks. CLIA shut my lab down. I had to send patients over to the hospital across the way. It took 2 to 3 hours and cost $75 for one test. The test goes from 5 minutes, 12 bucks, to 2 to 3 hours, $75, for one test.

Now, the American people, if they look at the math there and just extend it over the course of everything that comes into play in the health care financing in this country, would see that the health care insurance costs went up for everybody because of that one government intrusion into my office and my ability to give the kind of quality care that I am trained to do and that I want to do.

Another example, Congress not long ago passed HIPAA, the Health Insurance Affordability and Accessibility Act. The HIPAA bill has cost the health care industry billions and billions of dollars, billions of dollars. That's passed on down through the insurance companies and through pricing to the consumers.

It has to be, because people have to make a living. It has cost the health care industry billions of dollars and has not paid for the first aspirin to treat the headaches that it has created. It's government intrusion into health care. That's what's caused a marked rise in the cost of care.

Mr. Speaker, let me tell you something else where this bill that is being written in darkness or in secrecy now by the Speaker, we don't even have the bill that we are going to see here on floor, if we ever see one, because it's being written in secrecy.

Democrats nor Republicans can see the proceedings. We can't put any of our ideas into the writing of that bill. It's being hidden from all of us. It's being hidden from the public view, and that is not right.

We have been promised transparency by this Speaker, but we have had everything but transparency and fairness. Both of those things were promised, but we are not getting them.

The bill that Speaker Pelosi is going to present at some time, whenever she takes a notion to do so and gets it finished, that she is writing in secret currently, is going to have a tremendous amount of more intrusion into people's lives. Experts tell us that it's going to cost millions of people their jobs.

In fact, in my home district of Georgia, I have talked to small businessmen and women that tell me if the mandates that we already know in H.R. 3200 are put in place or the mandates that the Senate bills-- that are already being written in secrecy also on their side--but the mandates that we know that they want to include in those bills will cost millions of people their work and put people out of work. Why? Because they are mandates on small business that small business is going to have to either not hire people or they are going to have to let people go.

In fact, I have talked to small businessmen and women, and they tell me that with the 8 percent mandate that's in the House bill that's going to fall upon them if they don't supply health insurance for their employees, it's going to put that business out of business. Millions of people in this country are going to lose their job with ObamaCare. The American people need to understand that, Mr. Speaker.

Not only that, it's going to be extremely expensive. We don't know what the ultimate cost is because we haven't seen the bill. Nobody can see it except for the few handpicked minions of the Speaker and the majority leader of the Senate. We don't know how much it's going to cost, $1 trillion, $2 trillion, $3 trillion.

We know this, Mr. Speaker: When Medicare was brought into being, the cost estimates of Medicare missed the mark terribly. Medicare has cost many, many times over what it was projected to cost by the Congressional Budget Office. I think that's exactly what we are going to see with us today.

Congress, Mr. Speaker, is spending money that it doesn't have. We hear people over and over again say, well, government will provide free health care for me. There is nothing that's free, Mr. Speaker, and health care is not going to be free. Who is going to pay for it?

Mr. Speaker, our children and our grandchildren are going to pay for it. It's going to cost them their livelihood. It's going to cost them their standard of life, their standard of living, because they are going to live at a lower standard than we do today because of this outrageous spending that this Congress and this President have been doing since January.

It's got to stop, Mr. Speaker. The American people need to understand exactly what ObamaCare is going to mean to them. It's going to cost jobs. It's going to cost our children's future. And seniors need to know that it's going to cost them tremendously.

In the nonstimulus bill, and I call it a nonstimulus bill because where are the jobs? The President promised us that if we passed his stimulus package, we would not reach an 8 percent unemployment. Well, it's approaching 10 percent. In my district in Georgia, in many counties, it's nearing 14 percent. In many communities around this country, it's even higher than that. I have already said that ObamaCare is going to put more people out of work. We are going to have more joblessness throughout this Nation.

We cannot continue to spend. You cannot spend yourself into prosperity. It's impossible. And that's exactly what we seem to be doing. In fact, the President came to the Republican Conference when he wanted us to vote on his stimulus package, and he said he wanted bipartisanship, which is laudable. But then he went on to say he wanted bipartisanship but we needed it and must vote for his bill. He didn't want any input from us.

He's said that his door is open for Republican ideas on health care, but he won't listen to us. We've tried and tried, but he doesn't listen, because with the President, with the Speaker and the majority leader, it's their way or no way.

In the nonstimulus bill, there was funding for what is called comparative effectiveness research. And in medicine, as a doctor, what we'll do is look at comparative effectiveness of different treatment programs. We will decide, for instance, for prostate cancer if surgery alone is more effective than radiation therapy alone or chemotherapy alone. And we will compare the effectiveness of those treatment modalities, those treatment options, or maybe surgery plus radiation, surgery plus chemotherapy, surgery plus all three. This is what we do in health care. This is what we do in medicine today. We compare the effectiveness of treatments: one medicine for high cholesterol versus another medicine for high cholesterol; one medicine for diabetes versus another; one medicine for high blood pressure versus another. We do

this comparative effectiveness. But that's not what the Democrats put into the stimulus bill with their comparative effectiveness research. And in the new bureaucracy created by ObamaCare here in the House, there is a comparative effectiveness panel that is going to make decisions about seniors and what they can get in the way of treatments, medicines, surgeries, everything. And it's going to be age related. So they are going to use an age-related cost comparative effectiveness of looking at spending dollars, not treatment outcomes, not whether one treatment saves lives over another, but how to best spend the limited dollars that the Federal Government has.

We don't have unlimited dollars, Mr. Speaker, and we cannot continue to print dollars like we're doing today. It's got to stop. We've got to stop printing money. We've got to stop borrowing from our children's future. We've got to stop this outrageous spending, Mr. Speaker, and we've got to give people choices.

Republicans have offered many bills. Over 40 Republican bills, alternatives to ObamaCare, to H.R. 3200, have been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. Each folder contains a separate bill. Republicans are offering folks in this country options, options to lowering the cost of health care, options to make sure that patients have the ability to choose their own doctor, and that in that doctor- patient relationship, that's how health care decisions are made, not by some bureaucrat that H.R. 3200, ObamaCare, is going to put between the patient and their doctor.

In fact, just today, I introduced my own bill. It's in this stack, one of them. Mine is a little over 100 pages. By the way, I have read my own bill. I doubt Nancy Pelosi ever read her own bill. But I read my own bill. We call it the OPTION Act. The OPTION Act stands for ``Offering Patients True and Individualized Options Now Act.'' My bill will make the purchase of health care more affordable to more people because it drastically expands the individual markets available for all of us and gives us many options.

Right now, most people in this country only have one option, and that's the insurance that their employer provides to them. About 85 percent of America has that one option. Medicare and Medicaid patients only have those two government options, one each. Also my bill increases pooling options. What my bill will do is it will allow what we call associations to be formed, if they are not already there, to offer health insurance to their members. For instance, I'm a Rotarian. Rotary International could have one or more health insurance plans that they offer to all Rotarians and Rotarian families around the country. I'm also an alumnus of the University of Georgia. We can have a UGA health care option that people could buy into. I'm a hunter. I'm a fisherman. We could have a hunters' option and a fisherman's option. We could have a bricklayers' option and a carpet layers' option. This will increase the options and thus increase the marketplace for all Americans. And the more options you put on the marketplace, the lower the cost is going to be. Plus, it will help to drive down some of these outrageous salaries that the insurance companies are offering their executives.

Mine will lower the overreaching cost of health care for everyone through the tax system, because what my bill will do is give 100 percent tax deductibility--let me repeat that--100 percent tax deductibility for everybody for every health care expense. And this is above a standard deduction. So it will allow an income tax deduction on all health care premium costs for everybody. It will allow individuals to make tax deductions to any health care expense, including their expenses that are funded through a health savings account.

My bill markedly expands the health savings account and gives people the ownership of that where they can turn their health savings account into their estate so that their beneficiaries, their family, will receive the benefits. In fact, it even creates a Medicare health savings account and allows Medicare patients to buy health insurance, private health insurance, on top of the health savings account. It gives them ownership. It will be funded through Medicare. But it will be such that they will own that, and that will go into their estates, too, if they don't spend all the funds.

The AARP can, for instance, sell them supplemental insurance on top of their Medicare health savings accounts, and all the insurance companies will be able to continue to do business. But it creates a marked amount of market forces in the health care field.

My bill will also repeal and reform the barriers that currently exist for physicians to donate their services to people who don't have health insurance or can't afford to pay for their health care. And many others things are in my bill, H.R. 3889, the patient OPTION Act.

Republicans offered many alternatives. The American people, Mr. Speaker, need to know that what they hear from our Democratic colleagues, that Republicans don't have a plan, is absolutely false. It's trying to mislead the American people. And the American people should call them on that and say shame on you for making these outrageous statements because they know it's not factual.

We have many plans. I have been joined tonight by several other physician colleagues here in Congress. We are offering many alternatives. Another family doctor is a freshman who has been very vocal in this from Shreveport, Louisiana, Dr. John Fleming.

I welcome you, Dr. Fleming, to this discussion tonight. I know you have a lot to say, and I will yield to you.

I want to reclaim my time just 1 second because there's an extremely important point, Dr. Fleming, you just made, and I think the American people need to understand that. So I would like for you, if you would please, to repeat the statement that you just said, and then I want to ask you a question about that statement, if you would. Please repeat that statement.

The physician reimbursement rate is the point I wanted you to really focus upon, Dr. Fleming. I know you've talked to a lot of doctors in Louisiana, just like I've talked to a lot of our physician colleagues from Georgia, and really from all over the country. The doctors' reimbursement rate is what doctors are paid. That is now below what it costs them to deliver the care. I think most physicians would agree with that, wouldn't you?

Then if doctors are cut more, that's through Medicare and Medicaid today, if doctors' payments are cut even more, what's going to happen to a senior's doctor who is out there trying to take care of folks now and being underpaid by Medicare? What do you think is going to happen? What is the doctor's response going to be? What does it have to be?

That is right, and that is what the Cost Effectiveness Panel is going to tell seniors is you just can't get that surgery, you just can't get that test you need. But doctors are going to quit seeing Medicare patients is what is going to happen. I have talked to a lot of physicians. So seniors particularly are going to lose, because they are not going to get the medical services that they need to keep them healthy and keep them living, plus they are going to lose their doctor that they have trust in today.

In fact, in some communities, some patients have difficulty finding a doctor who will take Medicare, and a lot of communities, even in my own community, patients are having a hard time finding a doctor that will take Medicaid, or PeachCare, which is the Georgia SCHIP, State Child Health Insurance Program payment.

Doctors are going to be forced to abandon their acceptance of these patients. They want to see these patients, but they are not going to be able to do so because of the economic squeeze upon the doctors. Right now doctors are being paid less than what it costs them to actually give the service.

That is not fair either to the private side.

That is the reason we know that millions of people are going to lose their private health insurance, because they are going to be forced off of it and forced into this so-called public option, this government, bureaucrat-run, socialized health care system. And we already see we have several government, bureaucrat-run health care systems, Medicare being probably the most notable one, which is already rationing care.

It tells me as a doctor and you as a doctor when we can put a patient in the hospital or not and how long they can stay there or not, whether they can get a medication or other types of treatments or not. And they want to put everybody in that kind of system? I think not. That is not what is in the best interests of the American people. The American people need to understand this.

We have also been joined by another good friend of mine, also from Louisiana. We are blessed in the Republican Conference with three excellent physicians from the State of Louisiana. Dr. Bill Cassidy is a gastroenterologist, and he has been working in a public hospital for years and taking care of patients that have had problems with health insurance.

Dr. Bill Cassidy is one of the sages of the freshman class and an excellent physician from Louisiana. We are blessed to have him here tonight, and we are blessed to have you, Dr. Cassidy, in the Congress to help us discuss the issues about health care finance reform.

This whole discussion is not about health care reform. We have got the best health care system in the world. Some of the Democrats will refute that statement, but, factually, people come from all over the world for our health care because it is the best in the world.

Dr. Cassidy, thank you for joining us tonight. I will be glad to yield to you for a while.

Tell me it is not so. It is going to go up? The health care costs are going to go up?

That is outstanding.

Let's go back to something we said with both of you, Dr. Fleming as well as Dr. Cassidy. H.R. 3200, the Pelosi-ObamaCare bill, is going to raise overall costs of health care in this country. It is not going to lower the cost; it is going to raise the cost. Not only do we have this administration estimate that it is going to increase the cost, but even CBO said it is going to increase the cost. CBO said it is not going to cover everybody.

Absolutely. So it is going to cost more money for everybody, and it is going to cost jobs. Millions of people are going to be put out of work by the ObamaCare bill. And we have got all these bills. Every folder has a different bill that the Republicans have introduced, many, many alternatives, that will lower the cost, let me repeat that, lower the cost for everybody and get more people on insurance.

We have also been joined tonight by another good friend, a freshman from Tennessee who has been very eloquent in telling us about the Tennessee experiment that is exactly the same experiment, the same program that Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama and Harry Reid are trying to force upon the American public called TennCare. It didn't work in Tennessee and it is not going to work here. In fact, one of the definitions of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

We have already done it, haven't we, Dr. Roe?

Let me interrupt you and just say that we hear that over and over again. We hear claims from the Democrats that the Republicans don't have a plan. Look at all these bills. Every folder has a Republican bill in it. I have my own there. Many other Members, all these are Republican plans, Republican bills to help rein in the costs and give people more options.

Yes, sir.

Reclaiming my time, as a family doctor, it's always been a problem for me to get patients to comply with these wellness suggestions that I make that Dr. Roe is taking about. I talked to a hospital administrator in my district Monday, and he told me that their health insurance plan for their employees has a $2,500 deductible. But what they put in place was, if a patient smoked, they would pay a $2,500 deductible. If they have high blood pressure, they pay a $2,500 deductible. Diabetes, if they didn't lose weight and control their sugar, they had a $2,500 deductible for everybody.

But if you don't smoke, they'd give you a $500 credit. If you controlled your blood pressure, they'd give you another $500 credit. If you controlled your blood sugar, another $500 credit. If you lose weight, another one. And people could actually, by doing these things that we all suggest to our patients to make them healthier, and make them less liable to expend health care dollars, people could actually get credits so they had no deductible. And if an employee didn't have those problems, then they didn't have the deductible because they were already under control, their blood pressure was controlled, their sugar was controlled, et cetera.

So going back to what Dr. Roe said, it was an excellent way of getting their employees to help take care of themselves and lower the cost for them as a company, plus it lowered the cost for all of their employees too. We've also been joined by my good friend, Roy Blunt from Missouri; and we welcome you, Mr. Blunt, anytime for, not only this Doctors Caucus Special Order, but you've got--you're very sage on these issues and I yield to you, sir.

Mr. Blunt, I want to point out here we have all these folders here on the desk. Each one contains a Republican bill to help reform the health care financing. Every single one of these, these are all Republican bills that have been introduced in this House of Representatives. Not one will see the light of day if Nancy Pelosi wants to bury them as she has thus far. Every single one of these is a plan that I think we could get a lot of Democrats, if they would ever have the ability to look at them and consider them.

But it's unfortunate that this leadership is saying it's either the Obama way or no way. And then they come and literally lie about us not having a bill. Just this morning during Special Orders, Democrats came in and said we don't have a bill. Here they are. The American people need to understand that.

Thank you, Mr. Blunt. I appreciate it and appreciate your chairing the task force to look at the health care from the Republican Conference side. We've also been joined by my dear friend and colleague, one of my mentors actually, Dr. Phil Gingrey, OB- GYN from Georgia. He grew up in Augusta, Georgia, that I represent. He was slightly ahead of me in medical school at the Medical College of Georgia, and we're just very honored to have you, Dr. Gingrey. I yield to you, sir.

I want to go back to Dr. Roe for a minute because we've got about 5 more minutes.

In Tennessee, you all put in a government-run health care program, just exactly the same kind of thing that Nancy Pelosi's offering us here in H.R. 3200, or whatever she's writing. We know those things.

Bottom line, very quickly in 30 seconds, did it work, or did it fail, and what was the outcome?

Thank you, Dr. Roe.

TennCare failed?

ObamaCare is going to fail. It's going to wreck our economy, it's going to put people out of work, and seniors are going to be hurt the most by ObamaCare.

We've got just a minute left.

I would like to go back to Dr. Fleming.

You're exactly right, Dr. Fleming. We'll pay more for less, we'll get poor quality care. It's going to destroy the quality of health care in this country.

CBO says it's not going to cover everybody, and we hear our Democratic colleagues say they want to cover everybody, but it's not going to. And it's going to hurt everybody. And it's really going to hurt the middle class.

When the President came and spoke to the joint session of Congress a couple of weeks ago, only one person told the truth, and that was Joe Wilson. Joe Wilson is the only person who told the truth.

The ObamaCare bill is going to give free health insurance to illegal aliens, it's going to pay for abortions, it's going to do a lot of things that people don't like. But the bottom line is people are going to be out of work that are working today. It's going to hurt our economy. It's going to hurt the elderly, because they're going to have their health care services cut, and they're not going to be able to get their services from the doctor or from the hospital that they need and deserve because of ObamaCare. And the American people need to understand these things. Millions of people are going to lose a job and be out on the street, and it's going to hurt our economy.

So the American people need to understand these things and rise up and say ``no'' to ObamaCare. Let us have a bipartisan debate on all of these Republican plans so that we can find commonsense market-based solutions for health care.