Small Business Development Centers Modernization Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

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Mr. GARY G. MILLER of California. Thank you for yielding.

We have been led to believe that the AMA, the doctors, now support this health care bill that is before us today, and the board of directors was somehow coerced to come out publicly and say they do. But the AMA House of Delegates Conference is convening today in Houston, Texas. It's made up of elected representatives from across the country. These representative doctors represent members of the AMA within their region. They meet to vote on policy issues affecting their doctors. They believe this was an unauthorized vote before the delegates arrived, that the board of directors should not have taken this vote.

Today, the AMA doctors are circulating a petition requesting a vote of ``no confidence'' against the board of directors of the AMA. I repeat again, the doctors and delegates of the AMA believe this vote of their board was unauthorized, it should not have taken place prior to their convening, and there is a petition being circulated today by doctors who are extremely angry that their board would have taken this position.

There are thousands of delegates meeting today in Houston who never had an opportunity to even voice an opinion or a concern or even have the light of day shine on this issue before they convened, before their board took this decision.

I believe that AARP should be absolutely ashamed of coming out and voting for a bill that is against the interest of their people. I have over 70,000 Medicare-eligible seniors in my district; $500,000-plus dollars of cuts to Medicare. Now, many individuals in my district love the concept of Medicare Advantage. They say it's a great program, it covers things that they need covered, and there is no other opportunity for them to get this type of coverage. $170 billion in cuts to Medicare Advantage: that's not waste, fraud and abuse; that's cuts to Medicare Advantage--$23.9 billion in cuts to skilled nursing facilities, $143.6 billion in cuts to hospitals, skilled nursing rehabilitation facilities, psychiatric hospitals and hospice cares. Again, $143.6 billion in cuts to the very hospitals that Medicare recipients need to go to.

They need to look at this bill and say, Is this good for the people of this country? We were told that if we passed this huge stimulus bill, unemployment would not go above 8 percent. We are at 10.2 percent today. In reality, it's about 17.5 percent when you figure the individuals who are discouraged and have given up trying to get a job. The underemployed people who have part-time jobs that would love to have a full-time job, they are not being considered. They need to be taken into consideration. This bill destroys jobs in our Nation.

These are letters from business people within my district that I've received in this last week that say it is going to kill jobs in our communities. The Orange County Department of Education, I received a letter from them today saying many jobs in education will be eliminated. ``I firmly believe that if Congress passes the proposed health care legislation that many jobs in education will be eliminated. Passing this legislation in this form will have a tremendous impact on students, their education, and the workforce in Orange County.'' Even one franchise dealer with Pizza Hut says it will cost him $3.5 million each year, on an annual basis, $3.5 million.

You need to say, what are we doing in this country when doctors who are delegates representing other doctors are livid at this bill saying we are being accused of supporting something we do not support.

Let's see how this vote goes. Let's see if they will even allow this vote to come to fruition tomorrow as it should. But think of the people we're supposed to be helping that we're going to hurt.

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