I want to thank you again for convening this critical hearing.

It is clearly overdue.

I want to thank you and Ranking Member Neal for convening this important hearing. It is clearly overdue.

I applaud the subcommittee's efforts to substantively reform the extenders process.

We must provide a clear path forward for taxpayers in the short term and work to extend important tax provisions.

Job creators, whether it is a small business owner or CEO of a Fortune 500 multinational, are paralyzed by the uncertainty coming out of Washington.

I would remind my friend that he just made a good case for the fact that we still have a massive health care problem in the country and it has not been adequately addressed by the passage of a health care law and so we have much more work…

Too often in Washington, officials make decisions about health care policy based on abstract theories and budgetary scores.

In 1986, Congress created the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund and the harbor maintenance tax, a dedicated user fee, to provide a steady revenue source for the Army Corps of Engineers to carry out the dredging of our critical navigation…

I would ask the gentleman if he would close for us. The CHAIR. The gentleman from Michigan is recognized for 1 minute.

I want to thank my colleague and friend from North Carolina for yielding time to me. I rise in support of the rule and of the underlying bill. I am very pleased that the rule has allowed one of my amendments to go forward, a very important…

I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton), the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

I have an amendment at the desk. The CHAIR. The Clerk will designate the amendment. The text of the amendment is as follows: At the end of the bill, add the following (and conform the table of contents of the bill accordingly): TITLE…

I think it is a personal responsibility, and so things that we can do to promote that type of ownership of your own health care destiny are really important.

The increasing cost of health care is hurting both businesses and workers.

the individual mandate is really in effect about making insurance companies whole.

So now we have talked about a number of provisions in the health law which, as you have stated, will raise costs for employers.

we can be introducing a whole variety of inflationary effects we haven't even begun to think of.

we are seeing multiple problems with the establishment of exchanges, which seem to be falling behind.

Finally, is it fair to say that there has been no change in IRS practice with regard to what triggers audits and so forth with regard to tax exempt organizations as a whole?

This broader question of the complexity of the Tax Code should give impetus to all of us to look at fundamental tax reform.

I thank the chairman of the full committee for yielding time to me. I had a great career as a cardiac surgeon in treating thousands of Medicare patients in my career. And my career ended prematurely because of a disability. But I learned…

We won't control costs by cutting Medicare provider reimbursements below the cost of providing care. And if left on the books, IPAB will endanger the lives of seniors and delay access to providers. It's very clear. This undermines the…

We have a severe shortage of physicians in this country today, and it's getting worse, worse by the month and by the year. And as a physician who stays close to the physician community around this country, I am hearing all kinds of stories…

We have a severe shortage in cardiothoracic surgeons, in neurosurgeons, other key specialists that are very essential for the care of Medicare patients, and it's getting worse. We need both primary care and specialty physicians to deal…