Ed Markey: “the Schumer amendment is really the did-it-really-work amendment. Are all the promises which are being made by the…”

“the Schumer amendment is really the did-it-really-work amendment. Are all the promises which are being made by the proponents of this reform going to come to pass? In other words, consumers out there are being told that they will see lower doctor bills, that they will see lower costs for products because insurance rates are going to go down? Now I remember back in 1988 in the Committee on Commerce when we had hearings. In that particular hearing we actually had insurance executives, and I asked them, ``Will insurance rates go down?'' They said, ``No, no, no.'' Well, if that is the ostensible guise for all of this, let us have a determination 5 years later whether or not the promise, like Reaganomics, of cutting taxes and actually having more revenues is going to work here in insurance product liability as well, and if it cannot withstand the crucible of scrutiny 5 years from today, and insurance companies are retaining windfall profits as----”