David Schweikert: “I thank the gentleman for letting me come and engage in this discussion, and I may want to ask a couple questions. And…”

“I thank the gentleman for letting me come and engage in this discussion, and I may want to ask a couple questions. And we had my doctor friend from Kansas here a couple minutes ago. A quick thought experiment: What is the greatest economic threat to our society? It is actually our inability to have enough resources to pay for the promises. So we have made promises in Social Security. But Medicare, if you actually look at the 30-year window--and, look, I'm on Ways and Means--thanks for letting me intrude--but we have made the promises in Medicare really, really difficult. We are talking potentially $103 trillion of deficit, if you add in Social Security and Medicare, but it is mostly healthcare costs. Well, it turns out, you can reduce the unfunded liabilities in Medicare by 30 percent by just a cure, just a cure for diabetes. I will argue the mechanisms in this H.R. 3, this sort of Democrat takeover of the pricing mechanisms and the capitalization of the next generation of healthcare, does incredible violence to the future. Madam Speaker, I don't know if Congressman Carter saw this, but remember, this is a reference pricing bill. The underlying secret is the efficiencies that are actually being claimed in this bill, they are hiding behind something that is really dark, and I don't think they have explained it. So let's say you are in Great Britain. And what is a year of your life worth?…”