Pete Domenici: “I rise today, I say to the Senate and my fellow Senators, to congratulate a very, very courageous employee of the U.S.…”

“I rise today, I say to the Senate and my fellow Senators, to congratulate a very, very courageous employee of the U.S. Government, the Director of the Congressional Budget Office, Dr. Reischauer. Frankly, he has been under enormous pressure on the issue of whether the President's health care plan created a very large Government operation, a new large Government program, fueled by taxes, spent by an instrumentality of the Government, or not. For that, indeed, was the issue. The issue is whether saying to the employers of America: You will pay, from payroll of your employees, somewhere between 3.5 and 7.9 percent, depending upon what the regional alliances say you owe. However, you will all get the same coverage. Clearly indicating we are using money from different employers differently: Some to buy theirs, some to pay for part of others, and run all the money through an alliance which is a total creature of the Federal Government, which does not exist today, which will grow up in the sovereign States like mushrooms and all of a sudden these very large instrumentalities of the Government--agencies, bureaucracies--will be running the health care system.”