E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 111 CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION Vol. 155 WASHINGTON, MONDAY, JULY 27, 2009 No. 114 House of Representatives The House met at 12:30 p.m. and was tion is shaping up. A simple amend- cost less than $1 billion in 1992. Five called to order by the Speaker pro tem- ment to the legislation that would years later the results were in: $17 bil- pore (Ms. EDWARDS of Maryland). have guaranteed that no bureaucrat lion, which is an incomprehensible 17- f will make any decisions or interfere fold increase over the estimate just 5 with any decision between a doctor and years earlier. DESIGNATION OF SPEAKER PRO a patient was rejected by the Demo- You get the idea. Government pro- TEMPORE crats in control of the Energy and grams have a tendency to take on a life The SPEAKER pro tempore laid be- Commerce Committee. That doesn’t of their own and cost taxpayers way fore the House the following commu- bode well for government staying out more than was originally estimated or nication from the Speaker: of health care decisions. envisioned. While I’m willing to allow WASHINGTON, DC, President Obama also said that the for some margin of error in estimated July 27, 2009. plan will not add to the government’s costs—they are estimates after all— I hereby appoint the Honorable DONNA F. deficit. Of course we all know that the what concerns me is that we are start- EDWARDS to act as Speaker pro tempore on Congressional Budget Office has been ing out with estimates for huge deficits this day. throwing water on that idea for weeks. with this health care plan. At the same NANCY PELOSI, They’ve already estimated that the time, we are paying for it out of the Speaker of the House of Representatives. current plan will add $239 billion to our pockets of America’s job creators, the f deficit over the next 10 years. small businesses. If the current pro- MORNING-HOUR DEBATE And that deficit number is based on a posal becomes law, are we going to be provision in the plan that starts col- coming back to these small business The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursu- lecting taxes before the health care with another tax increase in 5 or 10 ant to the order of the House of Janu- component kicks in, essentially offset- years? ary 6, 2009, the Chair will now recog- ting a significant deficit with taxes We need health care reform that puts nize Members from lists submitted by collected before the bills start arriving. patients first and that won’t destroy the majority and minority leaders for That means that after 10 years we will the small businesses that are a pillar of morning-hour debate. have a new structural deficit as the our economy. Republicans have a bet- The Chair will alternate recognition costs of this plan far outstrip the puni- ter solution that won’t put the govern- between the parties, with each party tive taxes on small businesses. ment in charge of people’s health care, limited to 30 minutes and each Mem- But what really concerns me about that will make sure that we bring down ber, other than the majority and mi- this plan is Washington’s history of un- the cost of health care for all Ameri- nority leaders and the minority whip, derestimating costs of expensive plans cans and ensure affordable access for limited to 5 minutes. like this. all Americans. f If you look at this chart, based on re- We should be considering the Repub- search from Congress’ Joint Economic HEALTH CARE REFORM THAT lican plan and not this job-destroying Committee, you will notice that over Democrat plan. PUTS PATIENTS FIRST the years congressional estimates of The SPEAKER pro tempore. The the cost of health care programs were f Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from extremely unreliable. North Carolina (Ms. FOXX) for 5 min- For instance, when Congress was con- ADVANCE CARE PLANNING utes. sidering Medicare part A, the hospital The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, Presi- insurance component, Congress esti- Chair recognizes the gentleman from dent Obama recently held a televised mated it would cost $9 billion by 1990. Oregon (Mr. BLUMENAUER) for 5 min- press conference to discuss health care Actual cost in 1990? $67 billion, seven utes. reform. As Republican JOHN BOEHNER times more than Congress estimated. Mr. BLUMENAUER. Madam Speaker, noted last week, several of President And the 1967 estimate for the entire we in Congress and the new adminis- Obama’s points may not accurately re- Medicare program in 1990 was $12 bil- tration have been given a gift of serv- flect the health care legislation before lion. Actual cost? $111 billion, almost ing in a time of opportunity to solve the House. 10 times the original estimate. some of the long-festering problems The President said that the govern- Later, in 1987, Congress estimated with the American health care system. ment will stay out of health care deci- that Medicaid’s disproportionate share One opportunity to achieve true reform sions. But that isn’t how the legisla- of hospital payments to States would is to provide greater value to patients b This symbol represents the time of day during the House proceedings, e.g., b 1407 is 2:07 p.m. Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor. H8811 . VerDate Nov 24 2008 04:44 Jul 28, 2009 Jkt 079060 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 7634 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\A27JY7.000 H27JYPT1 rfrederick on DSKD9S0YB1PROD with HOUSE H8812 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE July 27, 2009 when they are most vulnerable, when lies in this difficult end-of-life situa- former director of Goldman Sachs. loved ones are facing the last few tion and how we needed to do better. Friedman actually resigned from his weeks of life. Madam Speaker, there are lots of position as chairman earlier this year Today, these patients have a wide va- areas where we can disagree as we’re after a controversy erupted over his riety of treatment options available. dealing with health care reform. By all purchase of Goldman Sachs stock dur- We can test them, hook them up to ma- means, let’s debate and argue over ing his time in his position as the New chines, poke them with needles, per- areas of genuine disagreement, but York Fed chairman. form all sorts of heroic measures, and let’s not attack this long-overdue as- And, in yet another conflict-of-inter- where appropriate, we can accomplish sistance to families facing the difficult est scenario, let us not forget that amazing results with virtually no cost situation at the end of life. Let’s not Timothy Geithner, who was then presi- to older citizens. Yet, when it comes attack it. Let’s embrace it. American dent of the New York Fed, he decided time to help people understand what families deserve no less. to give $30 billion of taxpayers’ funds their choices are, to have their ques- f to J.P. Morgan’s acquisition of Bear tions answered, to be able to shape THE NEW YORK FED: A HOPE- Stearns, but Jamie Dimon of J.P. Mor- treatment for what their values and in- LESSLY CONFLICTED REGU- gan Chase was on the board of the New terests might be, we fail them utterly. York Fed. H.R. 3200, health care reform, does LATOR have a simple solution to empower peo- The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Alarmingly, Madam Speaker, the ple and their families. Yet, this care- Chair recognizes the gentleman from Obama administration is now pro- fully crafted provision has been at- Florida (Mr. STEARNS) for 5 minutes. posing we give more power to the Fed- tacked by some opponents of reform, Mr. STEARNS. Madam Speaker, I eral Reserve and, in turn, this same for example, Betsy McCaughey in The rise today to address the increasingly New York Federal Reserve. Let us first Wall Street Journal claiming wildly troublesome issue of conflicts of inter- consider that the New York Fed is that somehow this would be manda- est within our financial regulatory sys- dominated by the banks it is sup- tory, that it would be done by a gov- tem and the potential long-term harm posedly regulating, and let us not for- ernment assigned physician, with the this could render on American tax- get these regulated banks hold the ma- threat of coercing senior citizens. payers. jority of seats on the New York Fed A simple reading of the provision To be specific, conflicts of interest board. abound at the Federal Reserve Bank of shows that that’s simply not the case. Former president of the Federal Re- New York, the entity that has been at Like all other Medicare provisions, it serve Bank of St. Louis, William Poole, the forefront of our Federal Govern- would be voluntary. It would by the he recently stated that employees at ment’s efforts to respond to the worst physician of one’s choice. There’s noth- the New York Fed ‘‘play a very valu- financial crisis our country has faced ing mandatory about it. able role, day in, day out, with detailed in decades. The New York Fed is, of It has led the American Association contacts with the big financial firms.’’ of Retired People to issue a statement course, intimately intertwined with about this opinion piece in The Wall the Federal Reserve and the Treasury With such close proximity to large fi- Street Journal.