On the recordMarch 16, 2010
I rise today to speak on this health care reform bill that is purportedly going through the House right now. I just have to speak on it because it is so obvious that the American people do not want this bill, and yet now the Democrats seem to be pushing it through the House with these elaborate procedures. So I want to talk about it, as I know many others on this floor are doing and have done, because really the only way we can bring to the attention of the American people what is going on here is to talk about it--both process as well as substance. The health care bill that passed this Senate last December, on Christmas Eve, was passed really under a cloud, and the American people immediately saw that big cloud on the horizon, for sure. The bill has been bandied around so much that the American people have finally come to the conclusion that what was passed was not in the best interest of America. So we are still debating this legislation, and the reason is the American people don't want this bill. Why do they not want it? They know it will do great harm to our economy--one-sixth of the whole economy of our country--and it is not going to significantly change the course of our Nation's spending on health care, nor is it going to add to its quality. The Senate bill is a failure in terms of resolving the concerns Americans have with our current health care system.
