Debbie Dingell: “my colleagues have recalled that there was no conference on this important legislation. Instead, my Republican…”

“my colleagues have recalled that there was no conference on this important legislation. Instead, my Republican colleagues met behind closed doors with a bevy of lobbyists for the health insurance companies and the pharmaceutical houses. Democratic Members were entirely excluded from this. This is a product of special-interest lobbying, and the stench of special interest hangs over the Chamber as we consider it today. The bill was brought to the floor in the dead of night; and a couple of hours later, the Members of this body voted on it without ever having seen it, or without a copy of it ever having been printed. The Congressional Budget Office now tells us what went on behind those closed doors in those secret meetings. Special interests and their lobbyists, who were well represented, won. Everybody else was excluded, and everybody else lost. The conferees made important decisions on health care, because the House and the Senate took very different approaches to the issue. The Senate decided not to harm Medicaid beneficiaries, instead cutting overpayments to Medicare HMOs and reducing unjustified payments to drug companies. Our Republican colleagues heard the concerns of these special interests and instead chose to raise costs and to cut services to working families, to the poor, the elderly, the disabled, and children covered by Medicaid. Now, here are the specifics, and you can see them on this chart right here.…”