Frank Pallone

I think it is grossly unfair after they have depended upon that to say all of a sudden now the age is going to be higher. Because we know that in fact what is happening is that many people in that near elderly group, as you mentioned, are…

That should not be the result of what we do when we reform Medicare, is wind up with senior citizens being forced to either turn to their kids or do without, because not everyone has kids. My mother has four kids. We all live in Seattle…

The truth is that the health of our environment is in jeopardy at the hands of the Republican majority in the Congress. The truth is that the Democrats and the Clinton-Gore administration are the true protectors of the environment for this…

I mean, some of us might have liked to go to Saint Patrick's Day parades on the West Coast, but the gentleman would have had to give us 2 days to do it. In any case, I do not see great sensitivity in last week's schedule. I hope, after we…

We have got to have a whole change of attitude in terms of what Congress is going to do in terms of its commitment to public education. They obviously still do not have it when they are taking pride in the fact that they did not get the…

A lot of this money where as you say is not really money but the tax breaks for the local towns would actually benefit the school systems because they would be able to upgrade communications, technology systems, put in computers, and that…

Because we have heard Republicans say many times on the floor in the last few days how the Federal Government should not be spending money on education infrastructure, yet it is okay to spend money on transportation infrastructure. There…

I know that the gentlewoman has been a leader in pointing out the need to upgrade, if you will, schools so that they have computers and high-tech equipment and that type of thing. Just give us a little information on how important that is…

I believe it was Mr. Armey, the second-ranking member, who said Social Security is not a system that ought to be in existence or that we ought to have a part of. We need to remember some of those things. In terms of public education, what…

I honestly believe, and I will say this now, that I think that the opportunity does exist over the next few days to get a number of our Republican colleagues to join us on this and to defeat this effort to try to spend the alleged surplus…

Because I think that if we do not get our point across now that this is a problem and this passes, then what is to stop it, you know, if the lesson is not learned?

Well, I think you are pointing out another point as well tonight, and I appreciate your bringing it up, and that is that to some extent, I think to a large extent, this is just being done by the Republicans for political purposes because…

Sure. And then the last thing I wanted to say, and I think is sort of the true irony, is that the Republicans, of course, during this balanced budget debate over the last few years posed themselves as the conservatives. And the bottom line…

So the likely result is then of course, the other thing that I was going to say is that, and again following up on your point, is that the economy is good now. It is the best it has been for a while. If it were to turn around and not be so…

I have to say the Democrats are united behind a strong and bold agenda which addresses the real challenges that face working families. There are two main areas which I think need to be prioritized. One is the idea of saving Social Security…

These are not isolated instances. We are getting these kinds of problems on a daily basis in our districts, and that is why it is so important that we pass the Patients' Bill of Rights.

We need to get as many Members as possible on this discharge petition because, if we can get a majority on the discharge petition by the time we come back or soon after that in the weeks that follow, we can finally bring the Patient Bill…

Can I just ask you one more thing about the health marts, because I was not sure I understood. You said that your concern is that ERISA exemptions would be expanded beyond what they already are now to cover health marts? In other words, we…

Did not the AMA, which has been the biggest supporter of this medical malpractice reform, even say at one point that they did not want to deal with it this year in the context of the patient protections for the exact reason that you just…

Again, I may be being cynical, but I think the reality is that when we put most of those patient protections in the Medicare legislation... these are not really anything radical, these are not anything unusual, we have already adopted them…

Before my colleague finishes, though, again, I assume that the cost of this care that she received was very expensive and that is another reason why they are denying it.

Could I ask the gentleman this? The bottom line is that if we have this liability provision, and the HMOs know that they could be liable, I would think the consequence would be that they would be a lot more careful about what they deny and…

And we would be bringing the unethical ones up to the same standards as the ethical ones in the long run. That is what the effect would be.

I would wonder whether or not that is even constitutional if someone ever wanted to take it up to the Supreme Court. It seems to violate the First Amendment not to be able to speak out in your profession.

But this is obviously the reason why they are excluding it, because they do not want to incur that cost. There is no question, I would say.