House Proceeding 10-28-09 on Oct 28th, 2009 :: 2:37:45 to 2:55:45
Total video length: 4 hours 25 minutes Stream Tools: Stream Overview | Edit Time

Note: MetaVid video transcripts may contain inaccuracies, help us build a more perfect archive

Views:41 Duration: 0:18:00 Discussion

Previous speech:

Next speech:

2:37:27 to 2:37:48( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: now, in all of these -- all of these questions come back to something that for all of us is very, very personal. a health care to cake care of our own bodies. we have to live inside these bodies. so that's the situation with it and so if we're going to be

2:37:45 to 2:55:45( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Todd Tiahrt

2:37:49 to 2:38:10( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: tampering around with 18% of our economy, you think, boy oh, boy, we need to be careful and give a little bit of thought to what we're going to do. in fact, one of the things that you'd want is you'd want as many smart people as possible paying attention and giving input to what the bill should look like. there should be copies of the

2:38:11 to 2:38:32( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: bill that are available and before a bilcomes to the floor for any kind of voting it should be out for at least several days so people have some kind of chance to read the legislation. and yet we have seen over the period of the last nine months that a number of major pieces of legislation have come to this floor without time for the

2:38:33 to 2:38:54( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: members to read them. in fact, i recall not so many months ago being right here on this floor and it was almost comical, if it weren't in fact true, that was another congressman from texas, stood up and inquired to the speaker and said, is it traditional that when we're debating and voting

2:38:55 to 2:39:15( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: on a bill that there's a copy of the bill in this chamber? and the young lady who was the speaker at that time inquired of the parliamentarian and he said, well, yeah, it's customary for there to be a copy of the bill in the chamber. so pretty soon the same guy stands up again and says, another point of inquiry. i'm having a little trouble finding the bill.

2:39:16 to 2:39:36( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: and you said there's supposed to be a bill in the chamber and if you could direct me where i might find that bill? and after some talking up on the dice he was told that you find built -- dias, he was told that you find the bill up behind me, on the dias. i still can't find the bill.

2:39:37 to 2:39:57( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: the bottom line of the fact was that the clerk was still putting amendments that were passed at 3:00 in the morning, 300 pages of different amendments that were being shoved into this thousand-plus-page bill and there wasn't a copy here on the floor, we're voting on it. one of the great concerns we have is that if we're going to

2:39:58 to 2:40:20( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: go in and basically -- and tear apart the system that 100 million americans are using for health care today and recreate particular government proposal, if we're going to do that, there are an awful lot of people that want to have a chance to take a

2:40:21 to 2:40:42( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: good look at this proposal and say, is this really something that we want to be doing? and do we really want to go the root of -- route of massachusetts and tennessee and the european countries that went to a government-run system? do we really want to go there? or are there other proposals and alternatives that could be done that would be a little less radical and drastic?

2:40:43 to 2:41:03( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: as i mentioned before, the republicans have got quite a number of ideas and proposals, then don't tear the whole system to pieces but at least allow us to make some selective changes which will make health care lessential pensive and more available to many people. and i talked about what a few of

2:41:04 to 2:41:24( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: those were. one of them is tort reform, so we're not practicing defensive medicine. another one of those is the idea that you can buy your health insurance with pretax dollars, not just if you work for a big company but if you work for a small company or even self-employed. week of also talked about the idea that you medical insurance across state lines creating more competition

2:41:25 to 2:41:47( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: between insurance companies. there are other kinds of one are called socialed health plans that would allow small businesses to get together with her small businesses, pool their employees and buy health care in bulk. so in other words it's a little bit like going to sam's club or some place that bias products in large quantities in order --

2:41:48 to 2:42:09( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: bies products in large quanties in order to get a discount. that was passed by republicans, it was blocked by democrats in the senate. but that's another possible idea. certainly we believe that when you -- if you lose your job or decide to change jobs, that the insurance that you're paying for should be something that you can take with you.

2:42:10 to 2:42:32( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: we call that portability. and so when you go from one job and let's say you're going to be self-employed or a small business, you don't get in a situation where you're uninsurable. we do not support the idea of making a raid on medicare. that's what's being pro pay for about half of the --

2:42:33 to 2:42:53( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: is to take a large portionr a significant amount of dollars out of some of the medicare proposals and health -- in health care. that doesn't seem to make sense. we have a grave concern because of t what we've already tried with social security and medicare, grave concern that really was being proposed with this kind of

2:42:54 to 2:43:14( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: a government-run system, is way beyond the lims of what we can economically finance. and we don't believe that you have to take the whole thing apart just in order to make some important changes. there are other -- many other kinds of proposals that are out in general, i think it would be

2:43:15 to 2:43:36( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: safe to say that, in my home state of missouri we have a phrase, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. we have a very large part of our health care system that apet broke. so i'm not sure we want the government to take it over. selective changes in certain places where there's a problem. i, like some of the previous

2:43:37 to 2:43:57( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: speakers, i've had some experience. my body's getting a little older now that i'm 62 and had a little bit of a situation and experience with doctors and hospitals and things. in my case, i came here to congress just about nine years ago feeling fit as a still felt in my early 50's about bulletproof and everything was fine.

2:43:58 to 2:44:18( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: i thought. but i'd also had some insurance that wasn't very good employed courtesy of my own state, the state of missouri. so it had been hard for me to get to the gate keeper that th had. i came here to congress and it turns out there's a placeky get a physical and fit it into my

2:44:19 to 2:44:39( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: job of going to the different areas and they gave me the results of my physical and they said, yeah, you're fit as a fiddle except for one little detail, you have cancer. and that, of course, sor of gets your and so as it turned out, after a series of tests and different

2:44:40 to 2:45:00( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: things, within the first couple of months i was a member of congress i had a radical prostateectomy. it's the most common kind of cancer. and so i have a particular sensitivity to people who have been diagnosed with cancer and for

2:45:01 to 2:45:21( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: survive cancer. you take a look at what happens when you have government-run systems in terms of cancer care. here's some of the for men and women. here it is in the united kingdom and here it is in the united states. now these numbers can be calculated in kinds of different ways.

2:45:22 to 2:45:42( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: the point of the matter is that when you have a government-run system, one of the effects of that is you have waiting lines. and waiting lines are not good deals if you've got cancer. if you got cancer or heart disease which are the two leading killers of americans, you don't want waiting lines. you want to be able to move immediately on your situation.

2:45:43 to 2:46:04( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: and in england they have waiting lines an cancer they wait and do this test and that test and that waiting is deadly as these statistics show. your chances of survival overall in england is maybe well, these numbers show 10% better, other numbers show even

2:46:05 to 2:46:25( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: more. u.s. companies have developed half of all the new major medicines introduced worldwide over theast 20 years. why do you think that is? you think countries that have the government running all of health care are going to develop new ways of doing things? what's the incentive? why is anydy going to take the risk?

2:46:26 to 2:46:47( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: why would the government develop things? no, what happens here is that because america has stale free system of health care, our companies are developing a great number of worldwide different changes. one out of every three canadian physicians send as patient to the united states for tatment -- treatment each year.

2:46:48 to 2:47:09( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: so the canadians have a government-run system but guess where they go when you can't -- and you have to wait too long in line? you go south. you go to america to get our health care. and so the bottom line of the matter is that the quality of care in america, when you take a look at things like cancer, is

2:47:10 to 2:47:30( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: significantly better and i'm thankful for it. i had another experience which i wish i had not had last summer. my own father, he's 88 years he was going to a doctorho had the doctor retired and my father had to look for a new cardiologist.

2:47:31 to 2:47:51( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: so we fo we had heard was a pretty good he went to see the cardiologist, the cardiologist took a look at him and said, hm, let's see you on these, and these and mees medications. what else has been done lately for your heart? my dad said, well, nothing. so he said, well, we're going to get you in here tomorrow and get you a chemical stress test.

2:47:52 to 2:48:12( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: i've never heard of it. the bottom line was he didn't do very much walking on the tread mill and the doctor said, stop, that will bell we need, thank you. he said, you need to come in for an angie blast type thing. turns out at 88 years old, you're given anesthetics, they knock you out and come in

2:48:13 to 2:48:35( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: through an artery in your leg and look around inside, see what's going on. so he survived that ok and i was there at the meeting on a monday morning and the doctor said, well, the bad news is that there's nothing we can do with stints. your heart is all clogged up and you're going to have to have a bypass.

2:48:36 to 2:48:55( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: tention. we said, what are the numbers? the doctor said, well, you got about a 10% chance of a major complication at 88 from a bypass. but if you don't do it within a 50% chance you'll have a major heart attack in the next year.

2:49:02 to 2:49:22( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: . my father was home from the hospital on friday and this was last jy. he's home now and he's doing fine. that time period in the united states in st. louis took less than three weeks from his seeing

2:49:23 to 2:49:43( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: a new doctor to being home from a seven-way bypass. that's not waiting lines or government-run or socialized medicine. that's free enterprise. and that's what i have heard people on this floor running down saying american health care is lousy and no good. and i'm simply saying i don't

2:49:44 to 2:50:05( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: know about other people, but if i were in another country, i would want to come to good old u.s.a. to get health care and there are a lot of people voting with their feet to get health care. saying we are going to throw upside down and turn it over to

2:50:06 to 2:50:27( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: a government kind of run system doesn't make sense. are there changes that should be made? yes, there are. have the republicans proposed a number of chang yes, they have. are a number of those changes widely perceived by the american publics being necessary, such as tort reform? yes, they are widely perceived. are those changes part of the

2:50:28 to 2:50:48( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: democrat bill? many of them are not. there are things we can do, but i'm not sure that the government takeover and this kind of system is where we want to go. i think a lot of americans are coming to the same kind of conclusion saying, there are things we need to do. we have 100 million people that

2:50:49 to 2:51:11( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: are insured and doing reasonably well. do we want to scrap all of that for another 10 million that may not have. so to get to the bottom line, the bill that the senate has come up with is not ssimilar to ones we think may may come

2:51:12 to 2:51:33( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: out of the house. i'm a republ included in the discussion. we can guess somewhat what we are hearing in the media and what the senate has done, we can say that the proposals we are seeing are going to raise people's premiums. seniors on medicare are going to

2:51:34 to 2:51:54( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: have less money in medicare, because we have the senate version has got medicare cuts at $500 billion. i don't know if the house version is as high. one of the people who are going to pay for these higher premiums besides the average people on the street is going to be smal business people.

2:51:55 to 2:52:17( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: small business people right now are pretty important to us. small business people are people with 500 or smaller employees and we've got close to 10% unemployment. so you want those small business people -- you want those small businesses to be strong.

2:52:18 to 2:52:41( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: you want them to have extra which difficult and want new processes and inventors to be spending money to get new ideas going. an jobs going. how is it going to help? if you tax them a whole lot on energy, which we voted to do, but now you are going to tax them some more to raise premiums

2:52:42 to 2:53:02( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: and say we're going to tax you even more for you to provide health insurance for your employees. that will make them get rid of employees, not hire. when the zpwoft jumps in to a market, it reduces your choices and eventually over a period of time and even the liberal

2:53:03 to 2:53:23( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: democrats who propose the government takeover, the more liberal democrats want the government to take it over. the conservative democrats are saying if it does a little, it's ok. the people who are pushing for more, they are saying that the government option is go to go lead to the government being

2:53:24 to 2:53:44( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: more and more invo care. what that does, it reduces your health care choices. so you don't have options. you know, i can think of something a whole lot worse than some insurance agent or person working for an insurance company getting between the decisions you and your doctor need to make on health care. there is something worse, and

2:53:45 to 2:54:07( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: that is the bureaucrat. with the insurance person, worse comes to worse, you could move if it's a bureaucrat, you have no choice. the delays and the slowdowns to health care are deadly with heart disease and cancer. that's a bad thing. and then the old standard,

2:54:08 to 2:54:28( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: billions of dollars in new taxes. is that what we want to do to a struggling economy, to add billions and billions of dollars in additional taxes on an economy that struggling with a 10% unemployment rate? is this the time to b something like that? i think not. i think that these kinds of

2:54:29 to 2:54:49( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: costs say that what we need to do is take the system we have now, selectively look at certain specific problems and let's put solutions together that address those problems. but let's not try to re-engineer all of society saying, we now have this fundamental right to health care and the government

2:54:50 to 2:55:11( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: has to provide it for everybody and it sounds really good, but when you see the cost, that has led to that kind of amusing phrase, if you think health care is expensive now, just wait until it's free. this has been the effect. and these effects here are what we would predict and project if we make the mistake of following

2:55:12 to 2:55:32( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: the europeans, the soviet union before them and massachusetts and tennessee that have all played with these highly complicated government takeovers of health care. this is not the way that we think we should be going. it's interesting that the polling data suggests that the american public, when you ask

2:55:33 to 2:55:47( Edit History Discussion )

Todd Tiahrt: them what do you want to do, they say we ought to make re but they don't agree they want all done with a government system. and so that's pretty much where we are. i'm joined by a colleague,