January 8, 2009 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S195 

the Middle East and to offer my support for Israel. Israel is an important 

foundation of stability and democracy 

in the Middle East. The resolution of 

the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is important not only to the peace and security of the Middle East but also to the 

rest of the world. 

The United States and Israel share 

common principles and a strong commitment to eradicate terrorism and to 

secure a better future for the world. 

Israel has been a steadfast ally of the 

United States and, I assure you, the 

United States will stand ready to assist 

our friends, the Israelis, to promote 

peace, defeat terrorism, and prevent 

hostile countries that sponsor terrorism from obtaining nuclear weapons. 

With hopes for peace and a two-state 

solution, Israel evacuated all of its 

citizens and soldiers from Gaza in 2005, 

including the uprooting of homes, 

schools, and places of worship. Unfortunately and regrettably, following 

these actions, the Palestinians failed 

to develop fully the Gaza Strip and 

voted into power Hamas, a terrorist organization supported by Iran and 

whose true objective is to eradicate the 

state of Israel. 

Following years where terror groups 

in Gaza launched rockets at Israel, targeting the Israeli civilian population, 

it became clear that it was time for action. After Hamas failed to renew its 

self-imposed cease-fire—one it, frankly, 

never enforced fully—Israel was forced 

to take appropriate action to protect 

her citizens. To that end, Israel has responded appropriately. 

The United States-Israel alliance remains more critical than ever as Israel 

defends her people and works to end 

the threat posed from terrorist groups 

on its borders. The United States and 

Israel face an unprecedented array of 

shared threats—from Iran developing a 

nuclear program with unclear intentions and a clear track record of deceit, 

to the expanding military capabilities 

of terrorist groups such as Hamas and 

Hezbollah, which are supported by 

Iran—and security and stability in the 

Middle East, especially for our ally 

Israel, has never been more precarious. 

I do hope this conflict will soon come 

to a peaceful conclusion. Nevertheless—and let me be clear—Israel has 

every right to defend its citizens while 

taking precautions, to the extent possible, to spare the civilian population 

in Gaza and reduce collateral damage. 

I urge the people of Gaza to reject 

Hamas and surrender the terrorists’ 

rockets in the most expedient manner 

to facilitate ending this necessary action by Israel. Israel remains committed to peace talks with the Palestinian Authority, despite Hamas’s constant bombardment of Israel and its ineffective control over the Gaza Strip. 

In order to improve the prospects for 

successful and lasting peace between 

the Israelis and the Palestinians, it is 

necessary for all Palestinians to work 

toward a solution. This cannot be done 

while Hamas is allowed to rain terror 

into southern Israel. I encourage the 

Palestinian Authority in the West 

Bank to form a legitimate and authoritative body which can speak for all of 

Palestine, effectuate change, and exercise control over terrorists who reside 

in their territory. I commend President 

Abbas for taking part in the international discussions about the situation in Gaza. 

I support the necessary requirements 

of any cease-fire which Secretary Rice 

discussed before the United Nations. 

Hamas must end the rocket, mortar, 

and other attacks on Israel, and Israel 

can then cease its military offensive 

and reopen Gaza’s border crossings so 

that Palestinians can benefit from humanitarian goods and basic supplies. 

Most importantly, the smuggling of 

weapons into Gaza through hundreds of 

illegal tunnels must end. The Arab 

states in the region, especially Egypt, 

should be a part of this process, and I 

encourage the Palestinians to seek 

their guidance and support, and in return for them to offer guidance and political and financial support. 

Madam President, with that, I yield 

the floor and suggest the absence of a 

quorum. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The 

clerk will call the roll. 

The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll. 

Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 

order for the quorum call be rescinded. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without 

objection, it is so ordered. 

Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Finally, I ask 

unanimous consent to speak for 15 minutes as in morning business. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without 

objection, it is so ordered. 

f 

HEALTH CARE REFORM 

Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, today Senator Daschle has come 

before the HELP Committee for his 

confirmation hearing as our Secretary 

designate of Health and Human Services. I know that all of our colleagues 

and friends in the Senate found it moving and wonderful to see the distinguished chairman of that committee, 

Senator KENNEDY, back in his chair 

leading that hearing. We are all delighted to see him back at work in the 

Senate, and we are delighted to see 

Senator Daschle back with us in this 

exciting new capacity. 

We know every American deserves 

health care that he or she can afford. 

Senator Daschle knows that to do that 

we need basic systemic reform that 

will improve the way health care is delivered in this country. Senator 

Daschle has already brought forward 

ideas, such as the creation of a Federal 

health board, that have contributed 

enormously to the health care reform 

debate, and I hope very much he will 

pursue those ideas further at HHS. His 

nomination and President-elect 

Obama’s creation of a new White House 

Office of Health Care Reform emphasize their serious commitment to solving this bedeviling problem. Senator 

Daschle will bring distinguished, 

thoughtful leadership to the crisis in 

our Nation’s health care system. 

Health care reform is the signal challenge facing our families, our economy, 

and our Government. I wish to take a 

few minutes today to speak about this 

great challenge and the urgent need for 

action. 

We all know the system is broken. 

The evidence lies all around us—in my 

State of Rhode Island and across the 

country. When a lost job is frightening 

not just because it means lost income 

but because it means lost health care, 

our health care system is broken. When 

sudden illness strikes and insurance 

will not cover the costs, our health 

care system is broken. When families 

wait to see a doctor until it is too late 

because they have no health insurance 

to pay for the visit, our health care 

system is broken. 

We see the evidence of the broken 

system and the staggering costs of 

health care in this country. The United 

States spends 16 percent of our GDP on 

health care. That is about twice what 

our major industrialized competitor 

nations spend. The annual cost of the 

system exceeds $2 trillion, and it is expected soon to double. Family health 

emergencies have been the most common cause of personal bankruptcy, and 

businesses, large and small, struggle 

under the weight of ever-increasing 

health insurance costs. There is more 

health care than steel in Ford’s cars 

and more health care than coffee beans 

in Starbucks coffee. 

Yet for all that money, what do we 

get? We still leave 46 million Americans uninsured; 46 million wrenching 

stories of health care foregone, of personal misfortune, even lives lost. That 

doesn’t even include the experiences of 

our Nation’s underinsured or small 

business owners struggling to provide 

health insurance or the many Americans who receive poor quality health 

care. 

President-elect Obama is committed 

to reforming this broken system, and 

he has taken swift action to engage the 

American people in a national conversation about what is wrong and 

what we can do to fix it. Last month, 

he and Secretary-designate Daschle 

asked people to hold meetings in their 

communities to discuss health care reform and to share their ideas. 

In the end, there is no better way to 

understand the deep failures of our 

health care system and the very real 

pain, frustration, anxiety, and anger it 

causes than to talk to the people who 

have experienced it firsthand. Over the 

past few years—at community dinners 

that I have around our State, in my office, as I travel around—many Rhode 

Islanders have reached out to me to 

share their stories and to urge that we 

work urgently to repair this broken 

system. I wish to take a moment to 

share a few of those stories. 


rfrederick on PROD1PC67 with SENATE
S196 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE January 8, 2009 

A mother in Narragansett, RI, shared 

a story about her 20-year-old son who 

suffers from severe bipolar disorder and 

relies on therapy and expensive medications to remain a valued and productive member of his community. He is 

too old to be covered under her family 

health insurance plan, and his preexisting condition makes buying insurance on the individual market impossible—prohibitively expensive. So what 

did they do? This mother and her family came up with a surprising solution. 

They enrolled her son at the Community College of Rhode Island so he 

could participate in the student health 

insurance plan. He takes the absolute 

minimum course load in order to continue to work, but he remains a student because it is less expensive to pay 

for college tuition than it is to pay for 

individual health insurance. Any parent with a child in college knows what 

a burden this Rhode Island family is 

bearing to ensure that their son gets 

the basic treatment he needs to stay 

healthy. 

I also heard from the proud owner of 

a small bookkeeping and tax preparation business in Warwick, RI. She has 

worked tirelessly to raise five sons, go 

back to college, and finally she has become her own boss. Yet despite all her 

effort and all her success, she wrote me 

to plead for reform. She wrote this: 

I spend over 50 percent of my income just 

to have health insurance for my husband and 

myself. The premiums are over $1,000 per 

month, even with very high deductibles. My 

employees need health insurance also, but I 

am unable to provide them with any benefits 

because of the poor economic conditions. 

Her employees are like family to her, 

as with so many small businesses, and 

it breaks her heart that they are uninsured. Yet she says she simply will not 

be able to keep her doors open if she 

tried to contribute toward their benefits. 

In the midst of this economic downturn, and particularly in Rhode Island 

where the unemployment rate is one of 

the highest in the Nation, this story 

shows all too clearly how closely 

linked are the tasks of reforming our 

health care system and strengthening 

our economy. 

Our health care system manages to 

fail even those who believe themselves 

to be covered. A woman who lives in 

Woonsocket and who has health insurance and was always careful to pay her 

bills on time, assumed she would be 

covered in the event of an emergency. 

Why not? She was current. She paid 

her premiums. She had insurance. But 

not too long ago, she suddenly had to 

have her appendix removed. Despite 

having health insurance, she left that 

hospital with a $10,000 bill. She is currently working for a temp service and 

she has no idea how she can pay off this 

debt. She had recently bought her own 

home, a longtime dream and an accomplishment in which she took great 

pride. Now, because of the fine print of 

that health insurance policy, she risks 

losing the home she worked so long to 

afford. As this Rhode Islander learned 

in the hardest way possible, health insurance often ends up ensuring very 

little. 

It is on behalf of these Rhode Islanders and so many others that I urge my 

colleagues to come together to support 

health care reform that will lower 

costs and improve the quality of care 

for all Americans. We must improve 

the way we deliver health care by promoting quality, implementing health 

information technology, and investing 

in preventing disease. We must, and 

will, protect existing coverage when it 

is good, we must improve it when it is 

not, and we must guarantee health 

care for the 46 million Americans, 9 

million of whom are children who have 

no health insurance at all. 

We see ourselves now in darkening 

and tumultuous economic times. Yet 

looking beyond the immediate economic perils we face, there is a $35 trillion unfunded liability for Medicare 

that is bearing down on us. It is bearing down on us because our population 

is aging, because people get sicker as 

they age, and that makes them more 

expensive. Unless we figure out a way 

in this Chamber to stop time, unless we 

figure out a way in this Chamber to reverse the aging process, unless we figure out a way in this Chamber to make 

elders have healthier lives and bodies 

than younger people, this is inevitable. 

It is coming at us, and we have to prepare. In order to prepare, we have to 

reform the health care delivery system. 

We are committed, as Democrats, to 

making sure every American has 

health insurance coverage, but it is not 

enough just to bring everyone into the 

boat. If you had a boat in the ocean 

and people swimming around it and to 

save them you needed to bring them 

into the boat, you would do that. But if 

the boat itself was sinking, if the boat 

itself was on fire, just bringing everybody into the boat is not an adequate 

discharge of your duties. It is also important that you repair the boat, that 

you get it steaming forward, that you 

make sure it is safe for the people 

whom you bring into it. 

That means reforming our health information technology infrastructure so 

every American can count on an electronic health record, so when you go to 

see your doctor, you don’t have to fill 

out that clipboard one time after another, when at the same time you can 

sign on to Amazon and not only do 

they know who you are, they know 

what you have bought and they have 

suggestions for you based on your buying habits. There is no excuse for our 

health care system being back in the 

1950s as the rest of the economy moves 

forward into the 21st century. It requires improving the quality of health 

care and it requires investing in prevention. 

We dramatically underinvest in prevention and quality. There are market 

failures that cause those things to happen. They are repairable. In addition to 

the cost savings, it is estimated that 

100,000 Americans die every year— 

100,000 Americans die every year—because of avoidable medical errors. It is 

simply not tolerable to allow that to 

continue, particularly when it is a winwin situation, where improved quality 

of care means lower costs. 

Finally, the third leg of the reform, 

in addition to helping infrastructure 

technology and quality and prevention 

reform, is that we have to reform how 

we pay for health care to align the 

price signal that we send by those payments with what we want from health 

care. Until we do that, we will be constantly struggling uphill against our 

own financial message. 

This is all doable. This is all so doable, but it will take time. These are 

complex matters. We will have to make 

adjustments. The adjustments will 

take time. It is a dynamic environment 

which will have to make course corrections along the way. That means we 

need to start now. We do not have the 

luxury of time on our side. If we do not 

get started on a thorough-going health 

care delivery system reform now, then 

the alternative will be times that are 

even darker and more tumultuous than 

we find ourselves in right now. 

I see the very distinguished chairman 

of the Budget Committee on the floor, 

a man who is an eloquent voice on the 

dark and tumultuous times and the 

risks we face from the current fiscal 

situation, so I will gladly yield at this 

point, and I thank the Presiding Officer. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota is recognized. 

f 

CBO REPORT 

Mr. CONRAD. Madam President, first 

of all, I wish to thank Senator 

WHITEHOUSE for his contributions to 

this Chamber. He has been an outstanding Member. He serves on the 

Budget Committee with me. He has developed a special expertise on health 

care which is so badly needed. 

I wish to comment very briefly on 

the CBO report we received today in 

the Budget Committee hearing on the 

fiscal outlook. It is truly jaw-dropping. 

There is a $1.2 trillion deficit for this 

year, before any economic recovery 

package is passed. Add to the debt even 

higher: $1.6 trillion will be added to the 

debt of the country, and, again, that is 

before any cost of an economic recovery plan. 

If one factors in an economic recovery plan, we could be looking at an increase in the debt of $2 trillion this 

year alone. To put that in context, we 

have a gross debt of the United States 

of $10.6 trillion roughly today. 

So I think it is imperative that while 

we put together an economic recovery 

plan, which we must, we also are cognizant of the very serious long-term 

fiscal condition we face as a nation. 

There is a front-page story in the 

New York Times today indicating that 

the Chinese, the biggest financers of 

our debt, have a reduced appetite for 


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