John Dingell

Mr. DINGELL

Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel).

Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Wynn).

Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I am always happy to accommodate the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Tauzin), my dear friend, even when he is pushing an outrageous piece of legislation under an appallingly constrictive rule. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey), and I ask the chairman from the Committee on Energy and Commerce to listen closely.

Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Doyle).

Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green). (Mr. GREEN of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Missouri (Ms. McCarthy). (Ms. McCARTHY of Missouri asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the very able and respected minority whip.

Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland).

Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Berry).

Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Capps).

Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Maine (Mr. Allen).

Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. John). (Mr. JOHN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Florida (Mr. Davis).

Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from California (Ms. Solis). (Ms. SOLIS asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Kilpatrick). (Ms. KILPATRICK asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pascrell). (Mr. PASCRELL asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I yield the balance of my time to the distinguished gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), the minority leader, to close.

Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters).

Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Ross).

Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I would inform the gentleman from Louisiana at this time that I have one speaker remaining.

Mr. DINGELL

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

Mr. DINGELL. My dear friends and colleagues, I lay before you the Republican plan. I ask you to look at it with a straight face, because it is inexplicable, and I cannot explain it to you with a straight face. The amendment which was offered by my dear friend, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Rangel), on behalf of him and me, does the following things: it gives and sets forth a very clear set of benefits. Senior citizens pay $25 a month; they get 80 percent of drug costs from government after a $100 deductible. This is what you get if you get the Republican plan. But that is not the worst you get. If you are a senior citizen, you fall into a doughnut hole. After you get $2,000 in drugs that you get under the plan, all of a sudden your payments by the government stop; you have to keep on paying premiums, but you get no benefit until you have got $5,100. They are going to privatize your Medicare in the year 2010. That is pretty bad. But it is followed by other things: massive subsidies to the insurance companies which commence in 2 years, in 2006. But that is not all. No guarantee as to what it costs you in terms of what you have to pay in the way of premiums, no assurance that you will get any particular level of benefits. The only person who is going to cut a fat hog out of this deal are those goodhearted, flinty-hearted, cold- hearted folk in the insurance business who are going to all of a sudden get a key to the United States Treasury, the right to collect any amount of money they want and to sucker the Secretary of HHS any old way they are minded and to walk home and to pay the money perhaps to the senior citizens but possibly to their shareholders or in dividends or perhaps to pay it in salaries or in bonuses to their corporate officers. That is what you get under the Republican plan. And privatization of Social Security as you know it today. The Republicans have said that they intend to do away with Social Security. Well, this is what is happening here. The Democratic plan compels the drug houses to negotiate with the Federal Government and the Secretary. The Republicans preclude him by absolutely prohibiting him from negotiating. We do not tolerate under the Democratic plan the Republican opportunity to privatize Medicare. And just wait till your senior citizens find out what you are doing to them with privatization and doing away with fee-for-service and substituting in lieu of this the kind of plan that you talk about where there is no assurance of protection for the senior citizens. The Republicans say the bill costs too much. Well, it pays some $800 billion to 40 million senior citizens. Just last week, without a gasp of shame, my Republican friends set it up so that 200,000 families got the same amount of money. I think it is time we looked after the senior citizens and not the fat cats that my Republican colleagues and friends look after. Vote for the Democratic plan. Vote down the Republican plan. Let us take care of the senior citizens. It is the right thing to do.

Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 15 seconds. I hope my colleagues look at that chart because it has the same factual value as Alice in Wonderland. There is no requirement that any of those drugs be made available. There is no requirement that they be made available at any particular price or that they have to be made available under the plan at any particular cost because of cost sharing with the insurance. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman).

Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone).

Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Stupak).