Senate Proceeding 10-06-09 on Oct 6th, 2009 :: 0:10:25 to 0:22:05
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0:10:21 to 0:10:41( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: to you and to your thank y i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator's time has the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: thank you, mr. president. i would like to join my distinguished colleague from tennessee in discussing health care which as the distinguished presiding officer knows has been the subject for several weeks now in the finance committee and

0:10:25 to 0:22:05( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: John Cornyn

0:10:42 to 0:11:02( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: across the entire country for the lastew months. currently, we're waiting for the congressional budget office to come back to the finance committee and tell us what the preliminary costs estimate is of the finance committeeill as voted with amendments that were passed in the finance committee.

0:11:03 to 0:11:24( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: and soon, if we can believe the reports, the majority leader will bring to the floor a so-called merged bill from the two senate committees, the health, education, and labor pensions committee and the finance committee, and then we will be asked to offer amendments and vote on that bill. and while we're waing for the

0:11:25 to 0:11:45( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: process to unfold, i think it's very important to carefully ask the questions that the american people, my constituents in texas are asking me, questions i?? believe senators should ask themselves as we debate health care reform here in the senate. and the first question, mr. president, i would like to

0:11:46 to 0:12:08( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: propose is will we have a transparent debate? will we have a transparent debate? the american people want transparency. i can't tell you how many of them have contacted me from my state and elsewhere who have said we want to read the bill language. amazingly enough, many of them

0:12:09 to 0:12:31( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: have cited back to me pages -- references, either from the house bills or the health committee bill or otherwise and said what does this mean or i have concerns about that. the second question is will congress actually listen to the concerns of our constituents once they learn more about what's in these bills? in other words, question is will we know what is in the bill before we are

0:12:32 to 0:12:52( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: required to vote on it, and secondly, will we know how much it's going to cost before we vote on it, both in the committee and here on the floor of the senate. you will gust, 2008 -- it seems like a long time ago, but it's just almost yesterday -- president obama pledged that our debates

0:12:53 to 0:13:15( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: on health care reform would be transparent. i applauded him for it at the time. he even said the negotiations should take place on c-sn so anybody and everybody who cared about it could see it. i rember on january 20 of this year, sitting up there near the dais when our new president spoke, and he said things that i

0:13:16 to 0:13:36( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: agreed with like we need greater transparency in government. he said transparency promotes accountability and it promotes public confidence in what we do here. i would say that the converse is also true, that secrecy breeds suspicion and ultimately promotes cynicism about what we do here.

0:13:37 to 0:13:57( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: that's why this is such an important issue. unfortunately, those americans who have been counting on a transparent process in washington have been disappointed so far. we have seen special deals negotiated by the white house with lobbyists which have not been disclosed to the american people, some of which we've learned about, some of which we

0:13:58 to 0:14:18( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: may not yet know about. for example, one deal is the deal with the pharmaceutical industry. holding their exposure under this legislation to $80 billion. and that deal was reinforced last week by a v finance committee. but, mr. president, i wasn't a party to that deal. i'm sure the presiding officer was not.

0:14:19 to 0:14:40( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: i wonder how many other deals have been cut between the white house and various interest groups that we don't know about. we learned also about a deal cut with some of the hospitals -- some but not all of the hospitals. a congressional budget office score on an amendment last week had to be redone because it was $11 billion off because the

0:14:41 to 0:15:02( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: congressional budget o nonpartisan office that's charged with telling us how much this bill will cost, did not know about this hold harmless agreem association. because they will not necessarily be reflected in the bill language. and only the white house,

0:15:03 to 0:15:25( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: presumably, and the party special interest groups who cut the deals know about them. but i think it's important that the american people know about them so they can evaluate if we're doing our job here. you know, i've heard it time and time again, and particularly since the passage of the stimulus bill that w got roughly 11:00 on a thursday night and were required to vote

0:15:26 to 0:15:46( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: on less -- in less than 24 hours. my constituents are saying, is it asking too much to have you read the bill before you vote on it? now, i voted no on that bill for a lot of reasons. but i didn't have the time, nor i suspect do many members of congress have the time to read it before we were ruired to vote on it.

0:15:47 to 0:16:09( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: we don't set the vote schedule, the majority leader does. and i think that's another reason why they want us to slow down, let's find out what's in the bill, let's let the american people read what's in the bill, tell us how much it's going to cost an let's have a good, old-fashioned debate about what's in the best the american people.

0:16:10 to 0:16:31( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: now, the third special deal that was disclosed and had to do with medicaid. you rember the majority leader from nevada said, well, the cuts -- the unfunded mandateor medicaid is too much for my state to absorb. lo and behold, a new deal was cut with new language that would

0:16:32 to 0:16:52( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: give four states a better deal than they would have had in the original proposal by the chairman of the finance committee, senator baucus. and one of those four and behold happen to be the state represented by our distinguished majority leader. well, i think the examples reveal why transparency is so important.

0:16:53 to 0:17:13( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: and now, as the distinguished senator from tennessee pointed out, we're going to have this mysterious merger of the finance committee proposal with the "help" committee -- the health, education, labor and pension bills behind closed doors, presumably- i've read reports it's occurring now, maybe even

0:17:14 to 0:17:35( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: as we speak in the conference room of the majority leader, without any of us being present. and i think it's indeed, a dangerous way powers to do -- way for us to do business. as the distinguished presiding officer know, the first offered

0:17:36 to 0:17:57( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: was by the senator from kentucky. his amendment would have required a 72-hour waiting period before we would vote on the finance committee bill. during those 72 hours, we would actually, hopefully, legislative text, not jt conceptual language, available to us and available to the

0:17:58 to 0:18:19( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: american people so they could read it. and we would amendment, on a score, that is a cost, of the congressional budgetffice, telling us how much medicare was going to be cut, how much taxes would be raised and how the bill would be paid for. now, that seemed like an imminently reasonable amendment to me. but, unfortunately, a majority

0:18:20 to 0:18:41( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: did not carry the dayn committee and it failed. i hope we come back to that issue, perhaps as even one of the first amendments as we take up this bill on the floor. because i think it is incredibly important to public confidence, to accountability, to try to do

0:18:42 to 0:19:02( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: something about cynicism that crept into the public's perception of what we're doing here that resulted in respondents of asup polled of 16%. we need to restore confidence in what we're doing and i think

0:19:03 to 0:19:24( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: transparency will help. otherwise what are we left with? we're left with people wondering whether there's some reason why we don't want the public to read the bill. mayb don't think the public should read the language because maybe they don't intend to read the lang some have said that the language is just simply too complicated.

0:19:25 to 0:19:45( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: that an averageerson can't understand it if they read it. and even that some wouldn't be able to understand it if they read it before they vote on it. i would just ask us all to take a deep breath and one step back and think about the consequences of that. if some staffers, the one writing the language, and members of congress -- members

0:19:46 to 0:20:07( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: of committees, members of the senate don't read it and then perhaps it is not written in understandable language, so we know what the impact will be, how does that promote public confidence? i think it's something that ought to give us pause and we ought to reconsider as we reflectn what the message is that that sends. if we think about this, mr.

0:20:08 to 0:20:28( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: president -- mr. ask unanimous consent for two additional minutes fl. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: mr. president, i would ask for my colleagues to think about what we're doing here. one-sixth of the economy's going to be affected by our decision on these health care proposals. it will literally -- what we do on these bills will affect the

0:20:29 to 0:20:49( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: life of every man, woman, and child in the united states of america. all 300 mi so i don't think it's too much to ask that we slow this down, that we get the text -- the actual bill language. we know how much it's going to cost and we st it online so the american people can read it

0:20:50 to 0:21:12( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: and give us their reaction. i mean, we are called representatives for a reason. we represent constituents. and i'm proud to represent 24 million texans. and i guarantee you they w know what's in this bill, how it's going to impact they'll and their family. and so i think it's very important that we answer this question in the affirmative.

0:21:13 to 0:21:34( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: that question, again, is: will this be a transparent debate? that's the first question i have, but not the last that i'll be appearing back on the floor in the coming days to ask. i think these are the kinds of questions that deserve a candid answer. and i hope, mr. the interest of bipartisan good faith we will somehow find a way

0:21:35 to 0:21:56( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: to come together and help make this a more transparent process. i yield the floor. mr. president, i the quorum call be reflected equally king away from the time on both sides and i would now not quorum.

0:21:57 to 0:22:05( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: the presiding officer: without objection.