Rob Andrews

Mr. ANDREWS

Mr. ANDREWS. Madam Speaker, nurses make a great contribution to our health care system, and a gentlewoman who is a nurse has made a great contribution to this bill. I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. McCarthy).

Mr. ANDREWS. Madam Speaker, I'm pleased at this time to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Fudge), who's one of the authors of the small business provisions in the bill.

Mr. ANDREWS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself 3 minutes. Madam Speaker, the people of the country and Members of the House deserve a vigorous debate. They also deserve an accurate record. And I think the time has come to begin to clarify and correct some of the series of assertions that have been made here that are simply not correct. There was an assertion made from the minority side a few minutes ago that no one knows what will happen to those who are on TRICARE or veterans health benefits. The gentleman may not know, but we do. Nothing will change for a person under TRICARE or veterans benefits if they do not wish to have it changed. There was a statement made on the other side that the bill will ``cover illegal aliens.'' That is incorrect. There is no subsidy and there is no coverage for an undocumented person. There have been numerous statements made on the other side that there will be massive tax increases on the American people. Here is the fact: the fact is that there is a surtax in this bill that helps to pay for coverage of uninsured people and for better quality care. It affects the top .3 percent of households in this country. If you're an individual and you make more than $500,000 a year adjusted gross income, if you're a couple and you make more than $1 million a year adjusted gross income, it affects you. The statement has been made repeatedly the bill will add to the deficit. That's not the truth. That's not what the Congressional Budget Office says. They say the contrary. They say that the net effect of this bill is it will reduce the deficit in the first 10 years by in excess of $100 billion and that in the second 10 years, the bill will reduce the deficit by somewhere in the neighborhood of one-quarter of 1 percent of GDP. The statement has been repeatedly made that it is a crime not to have health insurance. Here's the accurate statement: because there is a penalty imposed on individuals who don't meet the individual mandate, and, by the way, that individual mandate has within it very generous subsidies and it has a hardship exemption, but it has been said it is a crime not to have health care. That is not accurate. It is a crime to willfully and intentionally evade taxation, just as it is with every other tax. It has been said this is a government takeover of health care. That is false. This is a consumer takeover of health care. And those who would be apologists for the insurance industry don't like that. The American people do and will. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ANDREWS. Madam Speaker, at this time it is my honor to yield 4 minutes to a person who has spent a distinguished career in this House fighting for this day, who is one of the principal authors of this bill, the leader of our committee, the chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor, the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller).

Mr. ANDREWS. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield to a Member who understands the immorality of 47 million uninsured. The gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Kildee) is recognized for 1 minute.

Mr. ANDREWS. Mr. Speaker, when you can't win an argument on the facts, you resort to emotion. The minority can't win the argument with insured people because they preserve the right of insurance companies to discriminate on the basis of preexisting conditions. They can't win the argument with senior citizens because they ignore the doughnut hole that they created in 2003 in the Medicare part D. And they don't ignore the uninsured. I will give them some credit for that. There are going to be 50 million uninsured in 2010. They do change that. Their plan would make it 55 million uninsured 10 years from now. So they are standing on a motion, and we hear a Member say this: ``We cannot stand idly by now, as the Nation is urged to embark on an ill- conceived adventure in government medicine, the end of which no one can see, and from which the patient is certain to be the ultimate sufferer.'' But the Member wasn't a current Member, and the time wasn't now, and the issue wasn't this bill. The Member was Durward Hall, the time was 1965, and the issue was Medicare. They were wrong then, they are wrong now, and their substitute is wrong. You should vote no.

Mr. ANDREWS. I yield the gentleman an additional 1 minute.

Mr. ANDREWS. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Clarke), one of the leading voices for senior citizens, resulting in the AARP endorsing our bill.

Mr. ANDREWS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 3 minutes. (Mr. ANDREWS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. ANDREWS. I would like to thank my friends on both sides of the aisle. This has been a stressful time for Americans, and today may have been a very stressful day for Americans. This might have been the day that someone thought they were going to get a job but found out that they won't get the job because they had breast cancer 5 years ago and can't get health insurance because of their preexisting condition. It has not been their day. Or it might be the day that a senior citizen decides that they don't have the money this week to renew their prescription because they're in the doughnut hole under Medicare. So they're going to pay their rent instead of their prescription bill, and they're going to get very sick. It's just not their day. Or it might be the day that someone is lying awake in bed, churning about the fact that their child seems a little sicker than usual. But if they take them to the doctor, they might get sent to the hospital, and they can't pay the hospital bill because they have no health insurance, and it might mean bankruptcy or foreclosure or losing their home. It's just not their day. If we pass this bill and it gets to the President's desk, a new day will come to this country, because no person with a preexisting condition will ever suffer discrimination again; because effective next year, eventually no senior will run out of drug coverage at any time during the year because they work for it and they deserve it. The new day will come to that uninsured person because no hardworking American will ever go without health insurance in this country. You know, the special interests and the lobbyists and the health insurance industry, they have all had their day. They have been around here for a very long time. And I hate to disappoint them, but today is not their day. It is the day for uninsured Americans. It is the day for hardworking Americans. This is the day when we will begin the change, and every American will get the health care they so richly deserve. Stand up for those who cannot be heard, and vote ``yes'' for this bill.

Mr. ANDREWS. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to yield 1 minute to the newest member of our committee, who has made a tremendous contribution to this bill already, the gentlelady from California (Ms. Chu).

Mr. ANDREWS. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time each side has left?

Mr. ANDREWS. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to a gentleman who has led the fight to help small businesses in this bill, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Bishop).

Mr. ANDREWS. Mr. Speaker, our next speaker fought hard to make sure the vast majority of entrepreneurs in small businesses were exempt from any taxes under this bill. I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Polis).

Mr. ANDREWS. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to a gentlewoman who authored a provision to expand small business opportunities for affordable health insurance, the gentlewoman from Nevada (Ms. Titus).

Mr. ANDREWS. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey, my neighbor and friend, Mr. Holt.

Mr. ANDREWS. Madam Speaker, a number of great and visionary men have stood at the podium where you stand now as Speaker of the House. Many of them tried to achieve significant health care reform; each of them failed. A lot of strong visionary men failed, so we will succeed with a strong, visionary woman. It is my privilege to yield 1 minute to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi.

Mr. ANDREWS. I am honored to yield 1 minute to a gentleman who has done an extraordinarily effective job of representing his constituents, the gentleman from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (Mr. Sablan).

Mr. ANDREWS. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman who made sure that the ban on discrimination based on preexisting conditions will take effect as soon as this bill does, the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Courtney).

Mr. ANDREWS

Mr. ANDREWS. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and memory of Victor J. Herlinsky, Sr., of Mahwah, NJ who passed away on August 14th after a long struggle with Parkinson's disease. Mr. Herlinsky was born in Ukraine to parents Adam and Augusta on July 10th, 1927 and lived in Germany and Brazil before immigrating to the United States in 1956. Embodying the American dream of self-made success, Mr. Herlinsky was one of the founding partners of the 4-H Brothers trailer-body manufacturing and repair company in Wallington, NJ. Mr. Herlinsky was also an active athlete who excelled in a variety of sports. He was a golden glove boxer in Munich, a semi-professional soccer player in Brazil, and a member of the Ukrainian Carpathian Ski Club. An avid tennis player, Mr. Herlinsky was awarded lifetime memberships to the Nutley Tennis Club and the KLK Ukrainian Sports Club. Mr. Herlinsky is survived by his wife of 44 years, Irene, their children Victor Jr. and Donna, and granddaughters Larissa and Alexa, as well as his surviving siblings Tamara, Ivan, and Walter. Madam Speaker, as an immigrant, athlete, entrepreneur, and family man Victor Herlinsky embodied the most important qualities and ethics of the American identity. I express my deepest condolences to his family for their loss and pay tribute to the memory of this astounding individual.

Mr. ANDREWS

Mr. ANDREWS. Mr. Speaker, if you listen to America's senior citizens and ask them what they want with respect to Medicare, I think this is what you hear. Seniors want to continue to have their benefits left alone and be able to choose the doctor and hospital they want. Under our plan, they do. Seniors want to pay less for their prescription drugs which are rising at a rapid pace. Under our plan, they will. Seniors want to be sure that their doctors will continue to provide quality care for them because they trust and rely on those doctors so much. Under our bill, doctors will get more of what they richly and fairly deserve. They will get paid what they deserve. Now, the other side has engaged in a scare campaign to scare America's seniors. I think what most scares America's seniors is the irresponsibility of proposing nothing about America's health care crisis. That is what the minority offers. We offer a better way, a brighter way, and a safer way for America's seniors.

Mr. ANDREWS

Mr. ANDREWS. Finally, it's a matter of national security. Many of the problems that vex us today in the international situation are precisely because we put ourselves in a position of disadvantage by buying so much necessary energy from overseas, often from countries who do not share our human rights or international agenda. This has been a very fair and open process. It's a very wise and forward-looking bill, and I would encourage Members of both the majority and minority to support this rule and to support the underlying bill later this afternoon.

Mr. ANDREWS. I thank my friend for yielding. Mr. Speaker and Members of the House, the House has an opportunity today to do something in a very fair and correct way and that is very important. I do want the record to reflect the degree of inclusion that Chairman Gordon and the members of his committee have put forth in this bill. By my count, there were 29 suggestions made by the minority which are included in this underlying legislation. One was made at the subcommittee level and was accepted, and three were made at the full committee level and were accepted. The gentlewoman from Arizona has a manager's amendment which will be considered by the House later today. My understanding is it includes 25 suggestions from the minority. The minority had some input, so the idea that this is a one-sided discussion, I think, is simply not accurate. More importantly, the discussion takes us in a direction that our country very badly needs to go. My friend from Tennessee just talked about the importance of paying down the national debt, and he sure is right. There is a best way to pay down the national debt, in my view, and two of the best ways are included in this bill. The first is to stop spending hundreds of billions of dollars a year overseas to buy energy from countries that are not terribly friendly to us. The second way is to put Americans to work. So, instead of consuming public resources in the welfare, Medicaid or food stamp systems, they're paying more taxes because they're making more money, and they're contributing to the Treasury in that way. This bill puts us on a path that leads to those two directions. It is a road map. It suggests ways that innovative strategies can be used to increase the amount of energy that we derive from the sun. Now, my friend from New Mexico could have talked about how solar energy is prominent in his State because they do have a lot of sunshine there. I'm from New Jersey. We have a fair degree of sunshine but certainly not to the degree that they have in New Mexico. However, New Jersey is now second in the Nation in the number of kilowatt hours that we produce from solar energy. So our State is living proof of the fact that you do not have to be in a warmer, sunny-all-the-time climate in order to achieve progress in this way. Those are the kinds of strategies that we will see investigated and encouraged as a result of this bill. You know, this is a matter of energy, environment and security. The energy aspects are obvious. The more energy we derive from the sun, the less we buy from the Middle East and the less vulnerable we are. Second, it's a matter of the environment. The emission of greenhouse gases is a serious and growing problem in our ecosystem, and this bill would reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that we emit into the environment.

Mr. ANDREWS

Mr. ANDREWS. Well, it's been 126 days and the minority party's not given us their plan for health care. What they have given America's seniors is a lot of misrepresentations on Medicare. This bill does not cut Medicare benefits for seniors. It cuts corporate welfare for insurance companies. There is a program called Medicare Advantage, and it's an advantage for the insurance industry because it works like this: for every $100 that we spend on regular Medicare to take care of seniors, insurance companies get $114. They keep most of that $14, if not all of it, and do not use it to help seniors. We're getting rid of that and I think that makes sense. This bill will work in favor of seniors on Medicare because when you go to the doctor for preventive care if you're a senior on Medicare, no more copay, no more out of your pocket. Medicare pays it all. The cost of your prescription drugs will drop, and Medicare benefits will be strengthened. The life of the Medicare trust fund will be extended by 5 years. So after 126 days, you'd think they'd come up with something, but what they've come up with is more misrepresentation.

Mr. ANDREWS

Mr. ANDREWS. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the extraordinary contributions that Judge Bruce W. Kauffman has made to the legal community in his five decades of service. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Yale Law School, Judge Kauffman began his service to the legal community as a law clerk to the Honorable Vincent S. Haneman of the Superior Court of New Jersey, and thereafter joined the law firm of Dilworth Paxson, where he represented some of the nation's most high-profile clients and rose to become chairman of the firm. In 1980, Judge Kauffman was appointed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, where he served with distinction for two years. In 1997, President Bill Clinton nominated Judge Kauffman to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. During his tenure, the Judge returned to his alma mater and served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania. Judge Kauffman served on the District Court until his retirement from the Federal bench in July of 2009. Those who know the Judge know that his service is not finished, and that he is undertaking a new commitment to serve as Cochairman of the Executive Committee at Elliott Greenleaf, where he will be instrumental in providing counsel to clients and mentoring attorneys, as he has done for so many others throughout his career.