Service Members Home Ownership Tax Act Of 2009 - Motion To Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. BEGICH. Mr. President, I thank Senator Stabenow for her leadership. Last night, I had the honor of presiding while she spoke. I heard her first comment after she heard the other side describe the bill, saying it is so big they cannot read it, but they had great detail, for some reason. She even said she wouldn't support a bill as they described it. I agree with her. After hearing the last hour and what they described, I wouldn't support it either.

But that is not what this bill is about. This bill is about saving lives and saving money, protecting Medicare and stopping insurance companies and their abuse. I sat here for a few days--and I preside quite a bit, and I enjoy the opportunity to watch. I see the props brought out by our opponents. They always bring out the bill. It is almost always taller than they are. It is interesting that the prop is not realistic. The American public should know that. They make it look like it is such a large bill that they are incapable of studying it and reading it in a fashion--something that drives one-sixth of our economy. I learned one thing. In the last 11 months, I have gotten so many different books on different issues, and it is amazing. I took the bill--one of the pages out, page 114, and I was curious and thought, if we converted this into a regular book page similar to the ones we read on a regular basis--or all the books I get that people want me to read--I said, how big would it be? Well, it is just about as big as the book I have here. It is not hard. If you want to do it--and former Senator Martinez, who left us recently, I took his book, and it is an easy read. Maybe you would have to read it twice. It is not as they describe--like it is some complicated, huge document that is bigger and taller than they are. It is not a fair representation of what we are doing.

As you know, we have lots of pages here who work hard every day. I know they were surprised when I grabbed one of their textbooks for just one subject matter that they are required to study in order to be proficient. If you converted it into bill language, it would be four times the size of that document that they stack next to them. We ask our young people to be well educated, to learn the topics, and understand what they are referring to when they are tested. It is a simple thing.

I encourage our colleagues on the other side to not be so extreme in the way they display the bill. It is not accurate. I think it is important to recognize that. This book is short. Probably people cannot see this book because it is so low on this table.

The other thing, as a new Member, I am learning the elements of the process here. I heard some colleagues on the other side talk about the process. The motion to proceed is a simple issue. It is an issue of are we going to debate this in earnest. Are we going to put ideas on the table rather than just talk about it and talk about it? We tried this a few weeks ago on the Medicare fix. The idea was a motion to proceed so we could move forward and debate how we were going to pay for it. The Medicare fix is critical to Alaskans. We have Alaskan seniors who want to make sure the reimbursement rate is the right one to ensure long-term coverage. But they didn't want to move on the motion to proceed. Therefore, we never debated how to pay for it. We couldn't get there with the amendments that many of my colleagues on the Democratic side were anxious to put forward. That is where it is.

To the American public and for folks listening to this forum here, it is important we keep to the facts, and they are very simple. This bill saves lives, money, protects Medicare, and stops insurance abuses. It is proconsumer, pro-patient. It creates more affordable access to health care. It strengthens Medicare, as I said. It is fiscally responsible. We have a long way to go. I hear, again, my colleagues on the other side say rush, rush, rush or, as the Senator from Michigan said, they always want to wait, wait, wait. The fact is, we are going to have weeks of debate, and there are items I will bring forward to improve this, similar to many of my colleagues on both sides who will bring forth amendments. That is what we should let happen in the process--debate it, discuss it, and end up with a product that will improve the health care system of this country. That is the goal.

When I hear, on the other side, that somehow this bill will be rationing, delaying, and denying care--I don't know about you, but I get letters every single day about people who have been denied care by their insurance company, who have been rationed out because they have preexisting conditions. They cannot get coverage because of the delay of the private insurance companies and the techniques being utilized.

It is important to know the debate on this side of the aisle on this bill is about ensuring that we will no longer have insurance companies denying or dropping coverage. We are asking insurance companies in this bill not to place limits on your coverage and ration your care. As I said, there will be no discrimination for preexisting conditions, and there will be preventive care, making sure people can access their health care and their insurance.

As was said by Senator Stabenow, who clearly understands the job issues because of the struggle in her State, there is a report--I will cite a few things, and I know Senator Merkley from Oregon has many items, because as we have sat here as freshmen talking about health care, I know he has more to share from the small business perspective.

My wife has been a small businessperson for many decades. A report was done by the Small Business Majority, working with MIT. Here is the basic data. The largest employers in this country are small businesspeople. Small businesses will pay $2.4 trillion over the next 10 years for health care costs for their workers. With minor reform, I believe that is what we are offering, at minimum. It will save them as much as $855 billion. That is not me or a bunch of politicians coming up with this; it is people in the small business community working with folks to do the research who determined this. That means more small business can employ people and raise capital, expand employment, create new jobs. As described earlier, it saves real money for small businesspeople.

I can tell you my brother-in-law who owns and manages one of my wife's operations has diabetes, a preexisting condition, and he has a $15,000 deductible. He pays an enormous amount each month, with no preventive care or chronic maintenance. It is a program that will not do much for him until he ends up in a hospital in a severe condition.

This bill is not just about making sure the insurance companies are held accountable and do the right thing for people who buy and have insurance today; it is also about creating jobs and making sure the private sector continues to grow.

The last thing I will mention right now--and we talked about this--is protecting Medicare. This bill protects Medicare. Why I know this is because I have looked at that component of the bill and, most recently, I had to explain this to my mother who is on Medicare; she is 71 years old. She discussed this with me just this week, as I visited her at her home in Carson City, NV. She described her sister, my Aunt Audrey, who has a disease. She is in the doughnut hole, where she has to pay for prescription drugs that she had no idea she would have to pay for. Today, this bill is trying to rectify and fix that problem and make sure seniors who are struggling out there don't end up having enormous out-of-pocket expenses. This issue around Medicare is not real. What we are trying to do is solve the problem and make sure to extend its length of stability but making sure seniors get more. They have earned it and they deserve it. This bill moves it forward.

Again, I wish to reemphasize the point that this bill reduces the deficit. It has a positive impact for this generation and future generations--$127 billion in the first 10 years, $650 billion in the next 10 years. That is what it does.

You will hear all kinds of numbers--and I am sure people who watch this get confused, as I do at times, listening to all these numbers they throw out. But that is the fact. That is not decided by us as Democrats or Republicans; that is the independent office of CBO that made that determination. They determined that is the positive impact to the deficit.

We need to push aside all the debate and rhetoric that is out there that is not factual and focus on what is right. Again, as we move forward on health care and insurance reform, there will be a lot of stuff put on the table. There will be items I will put on the table to work to improve health care and to protect Alaskans--yes, I will be parochial at times--but also look to the greater picture for America. This will be a great debate. It won't end Saturday at 8 o'clock; it will continue on and on, probably to some folks' dismay because it will be longer than people want.

The fact is, we will debate this issue. We will struggle with it. We will struggle with it within our own caucus of what the right decision is. But when done, our focus is the American people, improving the system--the status quo is not acceptable--and ensuring that we save lives, save money, improve Medicare, and hold our insurance companies accountable for their actions.

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