House Proceeding 04-28-09 on Apr 28th, 2009 :: 0:26:05 to 0:29:40
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0:26:01 to 0:26:21( Edit History Discussion )

Roy Blunt: working group that is focusing on this issue and it is a priority that does need addressing. with that i'm happy to yield four minutes to my friend, mr. blunt. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from missouri is recognized for four minutes. mr. blunt: thank you, madam speaker. i thank the gentleman for yielding. here we are, we just had a same-day rule on a bill that was

0:26:05 to 0:29:40( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Roy Blunt

0:26:22 to 0:26:43( Edit History Discussion )

Roy Blunt: midnight last night. we're now on the rule on the budget, the supposed blueprint for the future and we're going to hear in this debate and the other debate that this is a budget that spends too much, that borrows too much, that taxes too much. because it spends too much, it borrows too much and it taxes too much. i want to talk principally about health care for a few minutes. that's been a topic here of the

0:26:44 to 0:27:04( Edit History Discussion )

Roy Blunt: discussion already. reconciliation by definition defines a partisan victory. i just advance to my friends that health care is the worst possible place to achieve that victory if you can achieve something differently than that. there is broad agreement on what

0:27:05 to 0:27:27( Edit History Discussion )

Roy Blunt: we ought to do in health care. we're all working hard to make that agreement become a reality. we've talked about tax policy, we've talked about welfare policy. frankly, we did use reconciliaon, but it was always to restructure something the government was doing. i don't think there's an example of where we used reconciliation to restructure the overall private economy.

0:27:28 to 0:27:48( Edit History Discussion )

Roy Blunt: both health care and energy would restructure an economy that will never come back to where they were. and that is not something you should be doing without lots of thought, without lots of support in a bipartisan way. i'd advance to my friends that's a huge mistake. certainly if you restructure

0:27:49 to 0:28:09( Edit History Discussion )

Roy Blunt: energy for five or 10 years or you restructure health care for five years or 10 years, we're never coming back to the competitive marketplace that needs to be improved but not tossed aside. and i'm fearful that that's what happened. here we are, we're at the end of april. if there is a secretary of health -- of h.s., that's only because she's confirmed this week.

0:28:10 to 0:28:30( Edit History Discussion )

Roy Blunt: i don't think there is a secretary there. even if there is, the others in that department that support the secretary are not there. no secretary, no bill, no plan to get this done within the calendar. the calendar makes it virtually impossible to get this done before that reconciliation instruction has to be used. and frankly, for those who want

0:28:31 to 0:28:51( Edit History Discussion )

Roy Blunt: to go to a single-pair government-run system, the -- pay -- single-payer government-run system, the reconciliation out there is every reason in the world not to have a bipartisan compromise. this is an area where, if we need to have 2/3 of the members of the house and/3 of the members of the senate going from

0:28:52 to 0:29:13( Edit History Discussion )

Roy Blunt: that vote saying we believe the country is headed in the right direction, if we have a 51-49 sort of victory and we have a five-year debate on whether we have health care rationing or government-run health care, that's a bad thing for america, madam speaker. we need a heal that's affordable, that's accessible, that has better quality. i think we can all reach

0:29:14 to 0:29:35( Edit History Discussion )

Roy Blunt: agreement on those issues, but not, i would advance, if we have this option out there of one party doing it one way. . . the taxes, ilation, interest rates that are absolutely in the

0:29:36 to 0:29:40( Edit History Discussion )

Roy Blunt: country's future in the way of recovering the economy are part of the problem of the future. they'll stand in the way of that