Michael Burgess: “I thank the gentleman for yielding. As was so eloquently put forward by Mr. Rehberg, the chairman of the Subcommittee on…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. As was so eloquently put forward by Mr. Rehberg, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Health and Human Services Appropriations just a moment ago, this is a temporary limiting amendment on the appropriations for implementation of the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act. "Bait and switch," that term was used by the other side just a moment ago in their arguments. Bait and switch. Think back to where we were just a little over a year ago in this House of Representatives when the Democrats' version of a health care bill passed. Where is that bill today? Somewhere in the dustbin out in the halls outside the office the former Speaker now occupies. Bait and switch. What happened on Christmas Eve of last year of 2009? The Senate passed a bill, a bill that was never intended to become law. It was a placeholder. It was a vehicle to simply get the Senators home for Christmas Eve ahead of a snowstorm so that then everyone can come back to the Capitol in January 2010 and work on the bill that would ultimately become President Obama's health care reform. But it didn't happen. The Democrats lost an election in Massachusetts for the Senate seat, and that changed the paradigm, that changed the narrative, that changed the debate. And then what happened? The House took up the bill passed by the Senate, conveniently, a bill that had been passed by the House of Representatives the summer before as a housing bill, H.R. 3590.…”