Service Members Home Ownership Tax Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRAHAM. I don't know if you could call it a sweetheart deal more than it is just repugnant. The campaign in 2008 was about change we could believe in. I do believe one of the reasons President Obama won is because he convinced young people in this country that if he got to be President, this country was going to change for the better; we were going to do things differently, and that resonated with people.

Quite frankly, when we were in charge, as Republicans, we let people down. We let things get out of control on our watch. Some of our people wound up going to jail. The Iraq war was not popular. So you had this new, young, exciting, articulate figure come along and promise a new way of doing business. That is what hurts so much about this bill. The special deals the Senator just mentioned remind us all why Congress is in such low standing.

The 60th vote--how did they get it? Did they negotiate the 60th vote on C-SPAN in a transparent manner promised in the campaign that we would have negotiations on C-SPAN so that you, the American people, could watch what was being given and what was being taken and there will be no more backroom deals?

Here is what happened. They took one Senator who was the key guy and they put him in a room. We had no access to that room and no Democrat did either. After it is all said and done, here is what resulted from those negotiations that were not on C-SPAN.

Nebraska is going to be the only State in the Union, ladies and gentlemen, that new Medicaid enrollees will be covered by the Federal Government. Every other State in the Union, when you sign up a new person on Medicaid, because you are expanding the number of people eligible for Medicaid, your State is going to have to make a matching contribution.

In my State of South Carolina, with 12 percent unemployment, there is going to be one-half million more people eligible for Medicaid under this bill than exists today. It will cost my State of South Carolina $1 billion. But if you live in Nebraska, it doesn't cost you a damn dime because that is what it took to get a vote.

If that is change we can believe in, count me out. If that is OK with the American people, I can tell you our best days are behind us. The insurance companies in Nebraska got a deal that no other insurance company in the Nation got. Physician-owned hospitals in Nebraska got a deal that nobody else got. Louisiana got $300 million to help with their Medicaid problems that nobody else got.

If you want your country to be run in a more businesslike fashion, then you need to speak up. You have a chance between now and sometime in January, when this goes back to the House, to let your voice be heard.

To my good friend from Nevada, the special deals in this bill are not special. They are the same old crap we have been putting up with for decades up here and that people thought was going to come to an end. It is going to hurt your children's ability to have half of what you have because they cannot make it because you are about to pass on a bill to them they cannot pay.

What I hope will happen, I say to my good friend, the Senator from Nevada, is that the people will take their government back. If you think this deal from Nebraska is unacceptable, speak up and speak out and let the House Members know you want it changed.

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