Senate Proceeding on Nov 19th, 2009 :: 6:11:20 to 6:29:35
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6:11:01 to 6:11:21( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: quorum call: mr. grassley: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa is recognized. mr. grassley: i ask that the calling of the quorum be suspended. objection, so ordered. mr. grassley: before i address the issue of health care reform,

6:11:20 to 6:29:35( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Chuck Grassley

6:11:22 to 6:11:42( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: i would ask consent for dyess, a detailee on my staff, van mr. e be granted floor privileges during the debate of h.r. 3590. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. grassley: we've been waiting

6:11:43 to 6:12:03( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: for many weeks while the democratic leadership worked behind closed doors to write a new health care reform bill. rather than trying to consensus for a bill that could get broad-based support, they toiled in secret. but at long last this new health

6:12:04 to 6:12:25( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: care reform plan is finally public. they've come forward -- at last to reveal legislative language for a health care reform bill that the democrats intend to bring to the floor. we know where we know the changes that they

6:12:26 to 6:12:48( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: made along the way. those in this chamber will recall that we worked for months in the senate finance committee on health care reform. senator baucus and i worked very carefully in committee to try to develop a bipartisan reform plan. health care, as everybody knows,

6:12:49 to 6:13:09( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: is one-sixth of the economy. if that economic fact is obscure to people, $1 out of every $6 in the united states is spent on health care. we are, of course, to spend upwards of $33 billion in health

6:13:10 to 6:13:30( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: care in this -- $33 trillion in health care in this country over the next decade. already our health care system is on an unsustainable path. oururrent health care entitlement programs, at least the two medicare and medicaid, are both on financial footing.

6:13:31 to 6:13:52( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: not only are both programs in jeopardy financially, but the magnitude of real threat to the federal budget. starting in 2008, medicare programs began spending of the hospital insurance trust

6:13:53 to 6:14:13( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: fund than it is taking in. that deficit spending that the trust fund is the beginning of the end of medicare unless congress steps in and does something to m fund. the medicare trustees

6:14:14 to 6:14:35( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: warning us for years that the hospital insurance fund, the trust fund, that is, is going to go broke they now predict that that year of going broke is 2017. to keep medicare going for future retirees means finding a

6:14:36 to 6:14:57( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: way to bridge the gap for th the $75 trillion of unfunded liability. and this must be done in a manner that does notorsen the health care quality or access for beneficiaries. and likewise, the medicaid

6:14:58 to 6:15:18( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: program which serves 59 million low-income pregnant women, as ll as children and the families, is on a very shaky financial ground. now, we accountability office reporting to congress that states, meaning the 50 states, are reaching a

6:15:19 to 6:15:41( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: cris with their part of the medicaid program. the government accountability office, their models predict that state spending will grow faster than state revenues for at least the next ten years. the impact of declining revenues

6:15:42 to 6:16:02( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: is very clear, so i would quote what the government accountability office has said about this situation. since most states and local governments are required to balance their operating budgets, the declining fiscal conditions shown in our simulations suggest

6:16:03 to 6:16:23( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: that without governments would need to make substantial policy changes to avoid growing fiscal imbalances and -- from the government accountability office. this, too, is the crisis facing the medicaid program today.

6:16:24 to 6:16:44( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: so both of the two major federal health care programs are in very seriousrouble. these are major problems with some of the most significant implications to our entire country more people that live here.

6:16:45 to 6:17:08( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: and if reforms to health care are not done carefully -- and i say carefully because i'm not saying they shouldn't be done -- if they aren't done carefully, this is going to make the situation far wor and anyone listening would have no -- would have no doubt of the

6:17:09 to 6:17:29( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: ability of congress to make it worse. these dire economic implications are not the only thing with health care reform. besides the significant economic implicatns of health reform, this is a bill that affects everyone in another very

6:17:30 to 6:17:51( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: important way. it affects everyone's health by changing the way we get health care in this country. it touches the lives of every family, child, every student, in plain language. it affects everybody.

6:17:52 to 6:18:12( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: the 306 million people that live here now and the many more people that are going to be living here in the future. and it makes changes to health care that will be very nearly impossible to undo.

6:18:13 to 6:18:36( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: the reform that these bills contemplate will make long-lasting changes to our health care system. these are changes all of us will have to live with for decad to me. so health reform presents this chamber with a bill that has significant economic implications at a time when all

6:18:37 to 6:18:57( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: eyes are focused on the economy, so focused on the economy that it almost reminds me of how president clinton got elected on that campaign slogan "it's the economy, stupid." and it's a bill, this health care reform bill is a bill that will make permanent changes to

6:18:58 to 6:19:18( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: our system of health care. for all of these reasons, it makes it all the more important that these changes, changes of this magnitude be done with chamber and across the country.

6:19:19 to 6:19:41( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: and this was something, this broad-based support was something that senator baucus and i focused on in our work in the finance committee as we were trying to bring forth a bill that would be bipartisan. so i refer to that finance committee. we believe strongly that a bill of such significance should be

6:19:42 to 6:20:02( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: done with a broad-based support. in other words, health life or death issues for every american, and it affects one out of every america. because it is so big, that's the basis for that statement, broad-based support.

6:20:03 to 6:20:23( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: under the leadership of senator baucus, chairman of the finance committee, we started last year with a bipartisan health reform summit. we held 20 hearings. we held three public forums this year on options for financing, coverage, delivery system

6:20:24 to 6:20:44( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: reform. we invited across the country. we invited anyone to submit input to the committee on those options, and we received over 600 sets of comments on opposition -- on option papers. senator baucusnd i developed

6:20:45 to 6:21:05( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: the broad out lines of what we believed would be good reform package. that broad out line reflected the input that -- that we had a very open and public process. we took that out line and we sat down with four other leaders on

6:21:06 to 6:21:26( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: the issue of health care in this very chamber. that group soon became known as the group of six, and that group began meeting in june to take that framework and finish the important details. we met for untold hours. we consulted with experts at the

6:21:27 to 6:21:48( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: congressional budget office and the joint committee on taxation. we invested a tremendous amount of time and effort to develop a bipartisan package. and then what happens around here too often, people get impatient. in this case, the democratic leaders got impatient.

6:21:49 to 6:22:09( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: they wanted the reform bill to be finished faster. they were more concerned with health reform getting done right now rather than getting done right. we said the process the time it needed. we said we were not going to be

6:22:10 to 6:22:30( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: bound by arbitrary we wanted to get the job done right. but when september 1 rolled around, they were not willing to give the group of six any more time. so as a result, the democratic leaders pulled the plug on that

6:22:31 to 6:22:52( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: bipartisan work, and the hope for a bill with broad bipartisan support ended at that point. committee reported out a bill that did not have that broad bipartisan support, and that's the support that we had hoped for earlier in the year.

6:22:53 to 6:23:13( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: the bigger and far more liberal agenda driven by the white house and the democratic leadership went beyondhere the true consensus on reform exists. now, the next step in this process has been to merge together the bills from the

6:23:14 to 6:23:36( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: "help" committee, health, education, labor, and pension committee, and the finance committee, and that job fell to the democratic leader and the chairman of the two committees, but then ultimately their leader even excluded the chairman from the process. that process began october 2. so the rest of the senate has

6:23:37 to 6:23:57( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: been waiting ever sincehat time, waiting to see what would emerge from behind those doors just across the hall here. but then people started to complain about how long it was taking to develop the bill. when that happened, lo and

6:23:58 to 6:24:19( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: behold, we started to hear from the democratic leader what the group of six had been saying. that leader, too, started saying that he was not going to be bound by any artificial time line. he, too, started saying that he

6:24:20 to 6:24:40( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: was going to take whatever time time -- i'm going to need -- i ask unanimous consent to have five more minutes. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. grassley: that leader, too, started saying that he was not going to be bound by any artificial time line. he, too, started saying he was going to take whatever time he needed. imagine our shock and dismay when we heard this?

6:24:41 to 6:25:03( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: all the impatience we heard about how long our bipartisan process was criticism we took. so they pulled the plug on that effort out of impatience, and my suspicion is that only now is there a realization of it is to assemble comprehensive health care reform

6:25:04 to 6:25:26( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: plan, and merged bill is before us. now we know what is in it. the bill has undergone -- the bill has undergone many changes since the democrats decided to do a partisan bill, and they are not positive. they have moved more and more to

6:25:27 to 6:25:48( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: not just a partisan agenda. they have moved to an extreme agenda. it's an agenda so extreme that they're having difficulty finding votes just among democratic ranks. they have 60-vote control of this body. they have an overwhelming majority in the house, and yet they're trying to blame

6:25:49 to 6:26:09( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: republicans for slowing down the process. surely, they don't expect 100 nators to get this done faster than it took a leader behind closed doors to get the bill done to put together the two bills between the finance

6:26:10 to 6:26:32( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: committee and the "help" committee, what we have before us -- or will eventually have before us. but it's not republicans who are slowing this down. it's not because of republicans that it took so long to merge these two senate bills. it's not because of that it took the house so long after july to finally vote on is bill. the reasons for difficulties is

6:26:33 to 6:26:53( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: that their left wing is driving the health reform agenda so far to the extreme it is so far to the left that they're having trouble getting everyone on their side to support that agenda. in the other body, 39 democrats voted against speaker plan, and you can be sure tha we would have senate much sooner than now if

6:26:54 to 6:27:15( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: all of the democrats were lined up behind but this is where we are now let's look at what has been produced, what changes have been made to produce the merged bill. i will highlight a few of the changes i find most disturbing. as i highlight these issues, it

6:27:16 to 6:27:36( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: will be clear that this bill already sliding rapidly down the slippery slope to more and more government control of health care. it still has the biggest expansion of medicaid since the program was created in 1965. it still imposes an unprecedented and intrusive federal mandate for coverage backed by the enforcement

6:27:37 to 6:27:57( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: authority of the internal revenu it still increases the size of the government by $2.5 trillion when fully implemented. it's gotten even more expensive since the finance committee started. it still gives the secretary of health and human services the power to set prices and define benefits for private health plans.

6:27:58 to 6:28:18( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: that's a lot of government power in washington for people's -- over people's lives. it still caused health care premiums for millions to go up. as i said when this process started, the bill that was released by the finance committee was an incomplete but comprehensive good-faith attempt to reach bipartisa

6:28:19 to 6:28:39( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: but ever bill has moved farther and farther away from that approach on several key issues. now we can see bill continues its march left ward. it continues to take shape into an extreme agenda, driven by the far left.

6:28:40 to 6:29:00( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: this far left partisa precisely what my party feared would occur at later stages in the legislative process. today we still see that these fear were legitimate and justified. nevertheless, i still hold out hope.

6:29:01 to 6:29:21( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: at some point, at some point the doorway for bipartisanship will again open. i hope that at some point the white house and leadership will want to correct the mistakes that they made by ending our collaborative bipartan work of three months during the summer. i hope at some point they will want to let that burn work

6:29:22 to 6:29:35( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: again. -- let that bipartisan work begin again. and then they need to go back that effort and give it the time need to get it right rather than getting it done right now. but it is clear that today is not the day that that is going