Floor Statements

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

I thank my friend from Pennsylvania (Mr. Thompson) for yielding some time to me.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to tell you and the American people a labor statistic that just came out from CBO last week in testimony before the U.S. House. The CBO director said that the ObamaCare Washington bureaucrat-run socialized medicine health care bill that's being considered here in the U.S. House is going to cost Americans 750,000 jobs. I think it is a minimum that 750,000 jobs are going to be lost. We keep hearing various figures in ObamaCare of the cost of $1 trillion, $1.5 trillion, $2 trillion. The CBO has not released off- budget figures. We're just getting a paltry amount of those off-budget figures.

This is going to be extremely, extremely costly to the American people. The CBO last week also said that this is not going to lower the cost of health care delivery. Mr. Speaker, I am a medical doctor. I have practiced medicine for over 3\1/2\ decades. What's fixing to happen to the American people, Mr. Speaker--and you need to understand that the ObamaCare bill is going to insert a Washington bureaucrat between them and their doctors. This Washington bureaucrat is going to make decisions for them. It's not going to be made by the patient or the patient's family, not by the doctor, but by a Washington bureaucrat who is going to ration their care.

That Washington bureaucrat is going to tell all patients in this country, whether in private insurance or public insurance, whether they can have a procedure, such as a surgery, that's very needed. This Washington bureaucrat is going to tell the American people, the patients, whether they can have an MRI that's desperately needed to evaluate a cough, a pain in their chest, pain in their knee, pain in their low back.

A Washington bureaucrat is going to make those decisions, Mr. Speaker; and I hope the American people are listening today so that they can understand what's going to happen if we have ObamaCare. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is going to give us more and more bleak news if this goes into law about how people's incomes are going to go down, literally go down because the health care commissioner, or health czar, as Mr. Scalise was talking about, is going to dictate their health care policy plan to them, even if it's privately paid for, privately administered.

There are not going to be any more private insurance plans because the health care commissioner is going to dictate all the plans in this country, every single one of them. We hear over and over, if you like your private health insurance plan, keep it. But, Mr. Speaker, not one single person in this country, unless they're extremely wealthy--and I mean extremely wealthy--is going to be able to keep their private health care plan. The reason for that is because most people are dependent upon their employer to provide their health insurance. But a government bureaucrat is going to tell every single employer in this country what kind of health care plan, what kind of limits, what kind of coverage, what doctor, everything that plan offers.

So the plan that they have today is going to be obsolete. It's not going to be available anymore. What's even more unfortunate is every single employee, worker that does not accept the government-mandated plan is going to be fined by the Federal Government, fined for not accepting a government-mandated plan.

Now, Mr. Speaker, that's not freedom. That's socialism. We, in this Congress, are going to dictate to employers, employees, to those that are buying their own insurance what kind of health care insurance they have; and it's going to be disastrous. The cost is going to skyrocket. The CBO has already said it's going to cost millions of others jobs. People are going to have long waiting times to get the surgery that they need, MRIs, and maybe even plain x rays.

Mr. Speaker, folks in Canada and Great Britain are coming to this country now to get health care because we have the best health care in the world. We're not going to have anyplace to go because our quality of health care is going to be destroyed by the ObamaCare plan. Mr. Speaker, the American people need to understand where we're headed. I hope the American people will rise up and tell their Members of Congress in the House and the Senate ``no'' to ObamaCare.

Republicans are offering many alternatives that will literally lower the cost of health insurance, literally lower the cost of medicines in the drugstore, literally empower the doctor-patient relationship into how health care decisions are made, and will stop the government from dictating things. Mr. Speaker, practicing medicine, I've seen how government intrusion into my practices has increased the cost to my patients.

Two good examples: Congress passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, HIPAA. That act has cost the health care industry billions of dollars and has not paid for the first aspirin to treat the headaches it has created, and it was totally unneeded legislation. Congress passed CLIA, the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act. It ran up the cost of just simple labs that I used to do in my office to extraordinarily higher costs to patients, thus increasing the cost of the insurance to every person.

We are being offered an expansion of Medicare or an expansion of Medicaid. We already see tremendous problems in both of those programs. Mr. Speaker, ObamaCare is going to expand those; and we're going to have more fraud, more abuse, more waste, higher costs because of government intrusion into the health care system. Mr. Speaker, ObamaCare is going to put the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics into overtime, providing more statistics, more job losses, lower wages, more people out of work and higher costs for all goods and services in this country. They're going to give us data in the future of a poor economy.

Stealing our grandchildren's future has to stop, and I hope the American people will stand up and say ``no'' to the cap-and-tax or tax- and-trade bill that's in the Senate and ObamaCare.

Will the gentleman yield?

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

I thank my friend, Judge Poe, for yielding a couple of minutes to me.

Mr. Speaker, I want to rise in absolute support of this bill. The Korean war has been called the Forgotten War. The Vietnam war is the war of forgotten veterans. I served in the Marine Corps. I actually had a commission in the Navy and, later on, in the Air Force. As one who believes in the Constitution as our Founding Fathers meant it when they wrote it, I know that national defense is the number one issue that this Congress should focus upon more so than anything else, and we ought to give--it is right to give; it is due to give--recognition to these brave men and women who were engaged in the conflict in Korea.

We signed an armistice with the Koreans, and technically, we're still at war there. We still have veterans who are missing in action from many wars. We still have veterans who are stationed all over this world in an effort to maintain freedom in America. So it's absolutely critical that we recognize our veterans, not only from the Korean war but from all wars, whether it's World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Iraqi Freedom, or the war that's ongoing in Afghanistan.

I hope that America will pause and will thank the service men and women who have put on a uniform, who have given their time, their efforts, their limbs, their eyes, their lives to protect freedom in America.

So I congratulate the Members who have brought this very important legislation to the floor. I thank my friend Mr. Rangel from New York for his service to the Nation. I thank all members of the military for serving this Nation. I very ardently support this.

I appreciate, Judge Poe, your yielding me some time.

Madam Speaker, I'm a medical doctor. I used to do a radio program called ``House Calls with Dr. Paul,'' where I tried to explain medical problems to people so that they could understand them.

As a Member of Congress, I am here this morning to try to explain this health care bill in ways that Americans can understand it. America needs to decide whether they want a health care system where they make the decisions in conjunction with their doctor or some Washington bureaucrat makes those decisions.

They need to make the decision whether they want a health care system where they have to wait long periods of time for surgeries and for tests, for MRIs and x-rays, where people who have cancer can't get the life-saving treatments that they desperately need, which is what we've been seeing from the other side.

We have solutions. Republicans have introduced numerous bills; and numerous bills will be introduced that will solve the health care problems, lower the cost of premiums, lower the cost of medicine, hospital bills and doctors' bills. The American people need to decide and demand a market-based health care system.

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

Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of my amendment, which eliminates funding for the climate czar, their deputy, and staff salaries for the Council on Environmental Quality.

For too long the executive branch has skirted Senate confirmation proceedings and congressional oversight by appointing officials to oversee vast parts of the Federal Government. Administrations from both parties have been guilty of this practice. It's time for it to stop.

Mr. Chairman, we do not need and should not have czars. The last time I checked, only pre-Communist Russia had czars, and we are most certainly not Russia. But the word czar aptly describes the kind of power that these positions hold in our Federal Government. And the current administration has no fewer than 30 czars.

Unfortunately, the Rules Committee, as has been their practice, did not allow an amendment to eliminate all of these positions.

The CEQ was mandated by Congress 40 years ago. While their chairman is Senate confirmed and their members are various agency heads, the veil of secrecy by which this council operates is totally unacceptable, and it should be unacceptable to every Member of this House. It's no small secret that the council's actions are overtly political and lacking a proper legislative check, and it didn't just happen overnight. The previous administration's CEQ had its fair share of problems as well.

I have no problem with this administration, or any administration for that matter, seeking advice from outside experts on the important issues of the day. In fact, that's how it should be. But the recent actions by the council with regards to the Army Corps of Engineers as well as their so-called oversight on the projects from the Democrats' nonstimulus bill, to name just two, have forced me to resort to defunding their operations. Obviously, I would have preferred to remedy this problem through the normal committee process, but that option has not been afforded Members of the minority of this Congress.

Attempting to fix these issues in the appropriations process is less than desirable, but that's all that's afforded the minority right now, and that should be unacceptable to the American people.

I urge my colleagues to wake up and reclaim our constitutional footing as the check on the executive branch and vote ``yes'' on my amendment.

I reserve the balance of my time.

How much time do I have left?

This is about transparency and accountability. This administration has appointed more czars than pre-Communist Russia has appointed, and this one that we're trying to defund is just one of many.

Congress has no oversight. This is totally unacceptable. It should be unacceptable to you guys, too, Mr. Chairman, as well as every Member of this House. It should be unacceptable that we have czars appointed in what's supposed to be a free society, in a democratic Republic, representative government. Congress has the authority and responsibility to oversee the administration, and we're not doing our job, frankly, and it's about time for us to do our job.

If I can have your time.

I reclaim the balance of my time.

The thing is, this administration has given all of these czars tremendous amounts of power outside the purview of what they should have under the Constitution of the United States, and this particular czar doesn't look at scientific facts that there are thousands of scientists that say that there is minimal, if any, human effect on global temperatures.

We have an administration who has loaded up this council with people who are carrying out a political process, and it's been politicized, and it should be totally unacceptable. It is to me. It should be to all us of us.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Speaker, Americans are hurting because of the high cost of health care. I am a medical doctor. We need to fix the system. It is affecting everybody. It is health care financing that is the problem. Why are health care expenses so high?

In my rural south Georgia medical practice, I had a lab. Congress passed a bill called CLIA, the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act, that shut down my lab. Prior to being shut down, if a patient came to see me with a red, sore throat and running a fever, I would do a CBC, a complete blood count, to see if they had a bacterial infection and thus needed antibiotics, or a viral infection where antibiotics are not going

to help. I charged $12 to do the test in 5 minutes. CLIA shut my lab down. I had to send patients across the way to the hospital, 2 to 3 hours at $75.

It is government intrusion into the health care system that has caused this high cost. We have got to get the government out of it. This public option is going to force everybody from their private insurance over to a public insurance where the system is already broken, where we are having rationing of care and where a government bureaucrat is going to make health care decisions for you. The American people need to stand up and say ``no'' to this public option.

I rise today in support of the veterans of this country.

Mr. Speaker, I served in the United States Marine Corps. I'm also an original intent constitutionalist, and I believe very firmly that most Americans understand that a national defense, a strong national defense, and thus, supporting our military men and women as well as the veterans, is critically important. It's important for the veterans, the retirees, those who are on disability. It's extremely important to them.

It is also important to our current active duty troops for us to support veterans, because how are we going to get people to stay in the military to be senior NCOs, senior officers or flag officers if we do not fulfill the promises that we make to the men and women who come into the military to begin with? And thus, it is also important in the recruiting process. How are we going to recruit good men and women to come into the military, make it a career, if we don't fulfill the promises that we have made to them as they enlist or are commissioned in the military?

Mr. Speaker, we have broken promises to the veterans. We have broken many promises. In my district, I have two stellar VA hospitals, the Charlie Norwood Veterans Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia. I also have a veterans clinic just outside of Athens, Georgia, that gives stellar care to our veterans. But veterans are denied the health care, educational needs and other things that they have been promised, and it's a travesty. We have to stop denying the veterans the promises that we have made them, and it's absolutely critical for our national defense.

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

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this bill, and I agree with my good friend Jimmy Duncan from Tennessee. We need more people in this country serving this Nation.

As I spoke earlier, I think we are doing a tremendous disservice to our

veterans in this country by not fulfilling the promises that we've made to them. The way that we can get more people into the military, the way that we can get more folks, good people, who will be willing to serve our Nation, is to be able to fulfill the promises that we give them on enlistment or on a commissioning.

We are not doing that. We are not fulfilling those promises. We are not giving those people the kind of health care that they so desperately need, and we are certainly not helping their spouses, because we are not giving them the health care financing that they need either.

So, Mr. Speaker, I rise today not only in support of this bill to name this facility in Knoxville after this hero, but we have to remember the heroes in Iraq and in Afghanistan today, those heroes I see at the VA hospital in Augusta, Georgia--the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center--those heroes I see at the Eisenhower Medical Center in Fort Gordon, Georgia, those heroes who have lost a leg or an arm, those heroes who want to go back to their units in theater to continue to fight for our freedom.

We cannot turn our backs upon those heroes, just like we cannot turn our backs upon the past heroes. I think it's a travesty the way this government has treated our veterans. We're not doing them right. It verges on criminal because we have broken our promises, and we need to fulfill those promises, and I'll do everything I can as a Member of Congress in supporting the veterans in my 10th Congressional District in Georgia. As a physician, I understand their medical needs. I'll do everything I can as the Congressman from the 10th Congressional District of Georgia to make sure that our veterans have all of the promises made to them fulfilled. This government has broken promises. It continues to break promises. It has got to stop, and I'll do everything I can to fulfill those promises.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman, my good friend, Mr. Hastings, for yielding some time on this issue, and I greatly appreciate the people of the Mariana Islands wanting to control their own property. And I congratulate them on the introduction of this legislation, and I certainly support it. And I think it's very laudable that we are bringing this forward, and I very much support it.

I think States and territories should control their own property. We have too much Federal control of State property and Federal property, and I am glad to see this legislation. And I congratulate you and my friends on the other side for bringing this forward.

I am also concerned about the submersion though of the American taxpayer in just a sea of debt. We have created more debt in this Congress, this administration has proposed more debt over the next 5 years than has been created by every single Presidency since George Washington all the way through George W. Bush. And the American people are drowning in a sea of debt, and we are creating more and more debt for those people. We are robbing our children and our grandchildren of their future. The American people are going to live at a lower standard than we live today because of the debt that we are creating, and I am very concerned about that.

We have got to stop the spending. It's egregious. It's absolutely outrageous the amount of money that's being spent by this Congress. And we see bill after bill, a nonstimulus bill, an omnibus bill, a Wall Street bailout that our previous administration brought to us and that this Congress and this administration continued and spent the other half.

We have a health care bill that's being introduced just today that is going to create more debt, and it's going to destroy the health care system and put a Washington bureaucrat between patients and their doctor. And Washington bureaucrats are going to be making health care decisions for their patients. And the American people need to stand up and say ``no.'' It's going to overwhelm them, a tremendous sea of debt that's being created by this Congress, and it has to stop.

And, Mr. Speaker, I just hope that the American people will understand what's going on here and will rise up, call their Congressman, call their two U.S. Senators and say ``no'' to this health care bill that's being introduced today. ``No'' to the tax and cap, so- called cap-and-trade bill that's nothing but a revenue bill that's not about the environment. Say ``no'' to that. ``No'' to this continued tsunami of spending that's going on here.

We've got a spending addiction here in Congress. I'm an addictionologist. I've practiced addiction medicine in my family practice. In addiction medicine, we say where there is not denial there is not an addiction. Congress has an addiction, a spending addiction, and they are denying it. We are denying it, and the spending has to stop.

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

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