David Weldon: “I want to just share with my colleagues here, Mr. Chairman, when I was in the Army Medical Corps, every month at the end…”

“I want to just share with my colleagues here, Mr. Chairman, when I was in the Army Medical Corps, every month at the end of the month my Secretary would bring me a stack of patients who were unable to get in to see me for an appointment, because we were too busy. We did not have enough doctors in the clinic. I would go through that stack and I would be able to see which ones were going to end up in the emergency room. I did not like it. I did not like it at all, but at least I knew the emergency room was there when they got sick. Now, today, we have closed the emergency room to them, or we have closed the whole facility. We have turned our back on these people, Mr. Chairman. I encourage everybody to vote in support of this amendment. If this is a flawed amendment, I say vote for it and let us fix it in conference, and let us move the process along. When people say, we were not promised medical care when we retired, do not believe that. Everybody said that. I spent 6 years on active duty. We heard it all the time, do your 20 and you will get health care when you retire. We have turned our backs on these people.”