American People Want Democratic Solutions

Floor Speech

Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, many in the media and some of our Republican colleagues are trying to raise the specter of 1994 when we are talking about health care reform saying, oh, the Democrats are going to lose control of the House if they pass health care reform just like they lost the House after trying to get HillaryCare through.

Well, there are a few differences between 1994 and 2009. For one, in 1994, 11,000 people weren't losing their health insurance every day, premiums had not nearly tripled in the prior 10 years, we weren't 7 years away from facing bankruptcy in Medicare, more than 700,000 people were not going bankrupt every year because of health care costs, and, finally, nearly 40,000 people every year weren't dying because of a lack of health care coverage.

You know, the people in America have seen what the Republican response for health care is. They saw one move in 12 years of their control, and that was to pass an unfunded prescription drug plan that the Social Security trustees now say may raise the deficit by $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years.

We've seen the Republican solutions. The American people want the Democratic solutions.

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