Howard Griffith

I would also have to point out that, with everything that we've gotten to so far, it appears that their numbers have not been right. They told us that they could produce a long-term care insurance plan, and they backed out of that because…

I would say to the gentleman that it was very interesting when you talked about the cost of the insurance, and while he said overall that he thought the rates were going to go down, my recollection was--and correct me if I'm wrong--that…

I would ask you in that regard, if someone sees these premium increases that we've been talking about and they decide that they don't want to buy the insurance, what then happens from the IRS's standpoint, or from the government's…

And I would further ask the gentleman if it makes him a little nervous that the folks who are going to be trying to get out there and get records and make sure that folks are doing what they're supposed to, either paying the tax or buying…

If the gentleman will yield further, perhaps for a colloquy, I would ask the gentleman if he suspects that this is because up to this point in time this has always been a State- driven market and, therefore, there are some differences…

And I also notice that the report says, from the data that was obtained from the insurance companies, that my home State of Virginia is going to have a 31 percent premium increase in the small group; again, not talking about the large…

I thank the gentleman for yielding for a question. I am looking at the report that you have referenced that people can go look at online for themselves, and I notice that your home State of Texas has a projected 23 percent premium…

I believe it is going to make a majority of Americans losers in the health care arena.

So if the Canadians, the Bostonians, and the Swiss who worked this up to help in other countries decided that it might be helpful in rural parts of the United States, they would have to come to you first, and instead of costing $8, it…

In regard to the questions, the list of examples that Mr. Waxman listed out, while the FDA does not currently have any plans, do you believe that the FDA could if it so chose to do so regulate those examples down the road if it had a…

At that point, coal does become competitive again. And then the question becomes, you know, who wants to use it and are they going to be allowed to use it by regulations?

I think that Mr. Dingell's comments in regard to the circumstances are always changing is one of the reasons that I feel so strongly that we ought not to throw coal out, or treat coal as if it were a bad word, because long-term, we know we…

It would be ill-advised for our country to completely eliminate coal as an energy source in light of the fact that we have the world's greatest supply of coal.

It is always better to have multiple sources available to supply the electricity for the American citizen, isn't that true?

Well, let us just say you are at the right place to get those legal restrictions changed, and if you need something that helps catch the bad guys but makes it easier on the health care providers, we would be glad to oblige.

If we can't get it straightened out, we may have to look at a different system because that is not fair to the medical providers.

I would say, I don't come from a medical background. I was a country lawyer, and most of the time when people lose, if it is close, they don't appeal, and I understand that.

One of the problems that they are having is, they feel like these independent contractors are taking the money and saying wait a minute, we are not going to release this unless you go through the process, push it to the end, and then if…

So this is of great concern in my area because we have railroads, coal and utility companies.

That retirement of coal power plants by 2016, we are going to be retiring 27 gigawatts.

We are allowing the Chinese to grow their economy while retarding our economy by not using our clean coal technology.

It also will cause our electric rates to go up by 10 to 20 percent in most of the country.

I think you also reported that just the mercury utility MACT rules would cost about $21 billion a year and 183,000 jobs a year.

A lot of what we have been doing has been ignoring coal and its potential as a major resource in this country.

I think we have to use all of our energy resources to develop a plan long term.