W. Todd Akin

Let me ask a question. We have two of you who are medical doctors here, one who's a judge, one's a former medical professional. I'm an engineer by training, and now we're Congressmen. And one of the things that we have to do and we should…

Now I've got a question: Do you think that the guy that came up with the idea that if we add people that are uninsured to the health care situation it's going to save money maybe was the same guy that said the economy will get better if…

I have never heard Republicans say, We want to reduce or relax what health insurance companies are doing. We've been railing on the fact that we don't want them to get somebody who is not a medical person between a doctor and a patient…

That makes it awfully awkward, because let's say that some of these bills were scored. You know this well, some of these bills would save a lot of money. And somebody is going to ask: We have a President who wants to spend a trillion…

And yet they have still not scored your bill that has been sitting there since last summer.

But the problem is, it's one thing with lip service to say that you like the doctor-patient relationship. It's another thing to try to substitute a bureaucrat in between that relationship. And that's what we've been objecting to all the…

So you have got one choice. It is a little bit like Henry Ford's automobile. You can get any color you want as long as it's black. In this case, you can get any health insurance you want as long as it's the government policy.

Then using your logic, the one-size-fits-all then has to change existing policies. And when you change those policies, then you don't have the same policy that you were promised you could keep. Am I getting the drift of this right?

So if we had the summary of the summary of the summary, would that be 3,000 pages?

I just appreciate your discipline, and having worked through specifically and exactly what the bill says. Because it is easy to say that this bill isn't going to cost a dime because somebody can say it isn't going to cost a dime. Well…

Well, I think we have had a chance to take a look tonight at what I started out by saying that we are standing as Americans on the edge of an abyss. I recall standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon and seeing a thousand feet of open space…

It forces individuals to purchase government-approved health insurance. Let's talk about that for a minute. Yeah, the old Democrat plan forced you, it forces everybody in America to buy something. And the President's new version forces you…

You are right. The thing about legislation, because it affects so many people, it is so expensive and what you sometimes create can never be taken back, it is absolutely crucial that we get this thing right the first time. We would be far…

Missouri has enacted the same thing. We've had the same experience. It's dropped the cost of health care.

So we have got not tort reform but reverse tort reform, where the States that have enacted tort reform and have reduced the cost of health care accordingly are now going to be told that they're going to have to reverse that legislation so…

It paints a vivid picture. And as much as you and I have always railed against insurance companies making health care decisions, that's not quite so bad, because if you don't like the insurance company, you can change to a different…

It seems to me the study has already occurred. Various States have done it, tried it, and it saved a lot of money. What more do we need to study on it?

One little ``may'' sitting in there. And the American public picks up on that and says, well, maybe you're not that sure that this bill is such a good thing. It doesn't seem like it's good for you guys. I think you have really been pretty…

I am a cancer survivor myself. If you take a look at cancer survival rates in England, you find they tend to be about 20 percent worse than they are in America. Why is that? Well, you have explained it very accurately, and that is cancer…

Well, actually, you got to the point that I was going to ask. I know that you are not only an attorney, but you have also served as a judge, as well as a Congressman that we've come to respect. And so what I was going to ask is, is it…

So what you are really talking about is a mandate, isn't it? This is a mandate that says that you've got to buy the government product.

Right. So we don't have to create unemployment and deal with health care. It's just that this approach is going to create unemployment. Now let's take a look at how that works. There's a number of ways that unemployment is going to be…

I really appreciate your highlighting this question of unemployment because I really think that a whole lot of Americans would think we were more effective and that they would have more respect for Congress if we were dealing with the fact…

Well, but it is something that needs to be dealt with. If we just kind of run through that, I think people can understand. You are a doctor. You have somebody who is ill, and you think, well, I am pretty sure this is what is wrong with…

I couldn't agree with you more, and I do think that is a fundamental question. And when people talk about compromise, I would picture people on the outside of Congress saying, why can't those people just get together, solve a problem, bury…