Date: 2003-11-21
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman for yielding me time. I think he makes a very important point. We thought we had an agreement. In fact. we had the word of the Speaker of the House there would be a 3day layover period for this legislation so Members and interested parties could read this legislation to discover exactly what is in it. The Republicans make a great deal out of the fact that this bill will provide for competition. We know it will not provide for price competition on pharmaceuticals. because it specifically prohibits price competition. It does not let the Secretary of Health and Human Services negotiate lower prices. lower costs. for senio:- citizens in the Medicare program. But. interestingly enough. Mr. Speaker. and maybe every Member of Congress will want to read the bill very closely. the gentleman on the other side says what we do here is we promote competition. We are going to put in place private health plans that are going to compete with Medicare. and people are going to get better services. more services. at a lower cost. Now. that is an interesting notion of competition. I dont know where the free market is. but they decided now in this bill that they are going to have to give these plans almost a 30 percent increase. more than they pay for Medicare. to try to make these plans run. But this competition is such a good idea. and it is pushed by the Republicans. The victims are going to be the senior citizens. but the Republicans are saying this competition is a great idea. Well. I want to tell my Republican friends in the House who have not read the bill. pick up the Wall Street Journal today. See what your Senators have done. This is a great bill for competition. It is so good. it is so good. that Senator GORDON SMITH of Oregon. Senator KYL of Arizona. Senator SPECTER. and there is one other Senator whose name I cannot pick out of the story here. have decided it is so good. they have excluded their areas in their States from the competition. They say. "Oh. no. you are not going to do this in my area. You are not going to do this with my senior citizens." The Senators apparently are a little closer to the process here. and they have read the bill. They said. "You know. we had one of these demonstrations a number of years ago. and it blew up in our face. both in terms of cost and in terms of services to the senior citizens." So. Senators. you know how they make their deals over there. we cannot do this over here because of the Committee on Rules. they got in there in the last minute and said. "Exclude my area in Pennsylvania. exclude my area in Arizona. exclude my area in Oregon. I am not having any of this competition for my senior citizens. Just those luckyduckies over there in the House that have one of these competition plans lands on their congressional district. Then we will see how it goes." That is why you want to read the bill. That is why you want to be able to have a 3day layover period to protect the rights of every Member of this House and the constituents and the people that they represent in their congressional districts. But the arrogance of this leadership. the arrogance of the Speaker. the arrogance of the Committee on Rules just constantly suggests that democracy means very little to them. the rights of each and every Member mean very little to them. They now have the power. the Republicans have the power. and. with that power. slowly has come arrogance. And they have decided that there is no reason for debate. there is no reason for us to be able to try to tell the American people what is in this bill before we vote on it so maybe they can participate. They want to run the Congress like AARP runs their organization. one person at the top makes a decision. and 30 million people out there are put in jeopardy. That is not the democratic process. That is not the democratic process. I cannot wait to see the Constitution you guys want to write in Iraq. If this is what you are doing to the Peoples House on the most important piece of social legislation in this country. you want to shut (lown debate. you do not want to give people time to read it. If you cannot read the bill. my colleagues in the House. read the Wall Street Journal. Read the Wall Street Journal. because maybe you. too. can scramble up to the Committee on Rules in the next hour and get an exemption from competition like those wonderful. powerful Senators have done. Do not read the bill. read the Wall Street Journal.