Geoff Davis

Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky

Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, last week in Washington D.C., members of the American Bar Association (ABA)--including State, local and specialty bar leaders from throughout the USA--gathered to meet with Members of Congress and Administration officials about issues of importance to the legal profession and to the administration of justice. Among the participants was one of my constituents, William T. (Bill) Robinson III from Kenton County, Kentucky, who recently became the ABA President-Elect Nominee. Bill Robinson is the Member-in-Charge of the Northern Kentucky offices of Frost Brown Todd OD LLC, a regional law firm with almost 500 lawyers in nine offices located in Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, West Virginia and Indiana. Throughout his career, Bill has served as a leader in his profession and his community. Bill successfully completed his three year term as ABA Treasurer in August 2008 and currently serves as Chairman of the ABA Governmental Affairs Committee. As an active member of the American Bar Association for over 25 years, Bill has served in various leadership roles, including 7 years on the ABA Board of Governors. Bill is a Past Board Chairman of the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, a Past President of the Kentucky Bar Association and a Past Chairman of the Kentucky and the Northern Kentucky Chambers of Commerce. Bill is a graduate of Thomas More College and the College of Law at the University of Kentucky, where in 2004, he was inducted into the Alumni Hall of Fame. I ask the House to join me in congratulating Bill on his election as ABA President-Elect Nominee and his distinguished career and service to the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky

Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, last week U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb ruled that the National Day of Prayer violates the first amendment to the Constitution despite decades of statute and tradition. This is another disappointing example of activist judges making decisions that fly in the face of the Constitution, violating congressional intent, and the values of our Founders. John Adams declared, ``Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.'' Every year on the first Thursday of May we gather as a people to pray and acknowledge our Nation's need and place before eternity. George Washington said, ``Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness.'' This ruling is not what our Founders intended and does a disservice to our history as a religious Nation. I call on Attorney General Eric Holder to appeal this ruling.

Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky

Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, as Kentuckians file their taxes today, sending their hard-earned dollars to the Federal Treasury, Americans want to know exactly what they are getting in return. Like jobs maybe? Over the last 2 years, Congress has given America three things: a series of bailouts, a failed stimulus package, and a government takeover of health care, each costing around a trillion dollars or more. In return, there are over 225,000 Kentuckians and 15 million Americans out of work. Everyone agrees that the economy and job creation have been at the top of the list of what Americans are saying is the most important things to be done. Rightfully, in my mind, we hear over and over again, ``Where are the jobs?'' Well, we are going to focus on climate change or we are going to focus on other things that Americans don't care about when in fact we need a sound energy policy, a sound manufacturing policy, and a sound trade policy. Instead of focusing on the economy and job creation, the agenda in Congress has left Americans with uncertainty. When Americans feel their tax dollars aren't being used right, the Democrats in Congress say, ``Just send more.'' Well, Americans expect our focus to be on policies that create jobs, building a future for our children. And business can't thrive on an economy falsely buoyed.

Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky

Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I ask the gentleman's words be taken down for the false statements that he made about this conference to me as an Army veteran among others in the Chamber.

Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. I accept the gentleman's apology.

Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. My heart is heavy with grief tonight at this turning point for our Nation, Mr. Speaker. This vote will define the America we will have in the future: massive tax burdens, rationed care, and intrusive bureaucracy. Democrats are thwarting the will of the American people, taking them on a headlong rush toward socialism. This is based on a false premise that every need a person could have on Earth can be met by government. Almost like worshipers, they carry the heart of our Constitution, bought in blood, and sacrifice it on the altar of political expediency. It raises taxes, violates your privacy, is policed by the IRS, intrudes on free choice, and hurts seniors. I stand firm in my opposition to this exercise in idolatrous statism, a true tyranny that is the largest legislative transfer of power to the executive branch in the history of this Republic. Vote ``no'' on this bill. Start over with real reforms that Americans want.

Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky

Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, today the House is considering H.R. 4887, the TRICARE Affirmation Act. While I support the bill we have before us, I'm disappointed in another display of rushing the process. Speaker Pelosi said that we need to pass the health care bill so we can find out what's in it. This is, fortunately, one that was found before it was passed. Think of how many other hundreds and hundreds of possible errors there may be in that bill because of being forced through quickly and being ill considered. Moreover, as a former member of the 82nd Airborne Division, I'm deeply disappointed that we had to leave out veterans. Those who have served our country would actually become victims of a policy that the Congress is enacting--inadvertently and not by any malice aforethought. And I certainly thank and share my greatest appreciation with the distinguished chairman, Mr. Skelton, of the Armed Services Committee, who I served with for several years, for catching this and correcting this wrong. The bill wasn't added to the schedule until close to midnight last night. Beyond the immediate process issues, the addition of this bill to the calendar points to a troubled future if the Senate health care bill passes the House tomorrow. We're many votes away from health care reform becoming law, but already, as I mentioned, we're seeing fundamental flaws in this Senate bill that require amendment. As we all know, the health care bill that we'll consider tomorrow contains a new requirement that every single American in this country enroll in a health care plan that the government approves. President Obama said that if you like your doctor, you can keep him--if he approves. Now we have the IRS and we have Federal agencies that are going to get into our private affairs, and now it's affecting our veterans. If an individual does not have this coverage, they will be subject to a penalty and even the possibility of prosecution through the IRS. H.R. 4887 essentially amends the not-yet-passed Senate health care bill to clarify that all TRICARE plans are considered as minimal acceptable coverage under the bill. It is the least that we can do for our veterans. Defining TRICARE as such is important because it exempts its enrollees from the individual mandate in the Senate bill. As most know, TRICARE is a complete medical care benefit program for active duty members and retirees of all seven uniformed services and their dependents. TRICARE is currently open to about 9.3 million potential beneficiaries. Active duty military, their spouses, and dependents are automatically enrolled in TRICARE Prime. Retirees can choose between TRICARE Prime or two other options. Then there is a fourth subset called TRICARE for Life. These beneficiaries are enrolled in Medicare, but TRICARE serves as a secondary payer. Unfortunately, in the Senate health care bill, Democrats do not deem TRICARE programs for servicemembers and military retirees under age 65 to provide minimum acceptable coverage. H.R. 4887 would clarify these programs and make sure that they're included in this definition. It's surprising to me that these programs were left out originally. This is an important change to make, but I think this is only a foreshadowing of what is to come for hardworking Americans. The Senate health care reform bill has not even been signed into law and we already have to fix it. If Democrats were originally willing to adversely impact the health care coverage of these Americans who have honorably served our country, you have to wonder whose health care is safe. These oversights occurred because this process is too big, too fast, and being done against the will of the American people. I support this amendment. It's critical that we protect our military families. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. I now yield 4 minutes to the distinguished ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, the gentleman from California (Mr. McKeon).

Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. Now, Mr. Speaker, I'd like to yield such time as he may consume to the distinguished ranking member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, a veteran of Desert Storm and a retired United States Army Colonel, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Buyer).

Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is remaining on our side?

Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Now I would like to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns), an Air Force veteran and another distinguished member of the Veterans Committee.

Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to the distinguished gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Buyer).

Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. As we revisit this event, we are correcting an egregious wrong that was done by oversight to not fully cover our veterans and those on active duty and their families. The fact that TRICARE would not fall into the so-called minimally accepted coverage leads me back to the false standard that was set in the beginning on this bill in the first place. I was, among other things in the military, an assault helicopter pilot. One of the things that we learned as young aviators is that accidents normally didn't happen because of one big thing. Normally an accident would happen, and several of my close friends paid the ultimate price in this, was because several little things would begin to pile up, small events, things unseen. The faster the environment began to process, the more they would pile up, and eventually they became uncontrollable. Not noticing power, not noticing air speed, not noticing their rate of descent, their altitude, their visual references, lots of things can come into play. The bottom line is we are doing the same thing now, except we are doing it with one of the largest and most sweeping bills in the history of this country. We are rushing headlong without even a week; 72 hours for a bill this big, give me a break. Let's think about the reality of what we are doing, rushing headlong to do the largest transfer of power to the executive branch in the history of the United States. This is about turning us into a different Nation. This is about stepping beyond article I of the Constitution to deem. To deem what? We are fixing a small mistake. I guarantee you, there are hundreds of others. Deeming actually is pronouncing something that isn't as if it were done, for all practical purposes, and it was designed from a legislative perspective for simple corrections. Let us deem everybody good health; that has about the same effect in the eyes of the American people. If we are dealing with veterans, let us deem world peace so there won't be any more risks internationally. You see the absurdity of this argument presented over and over and over. And for the thousands of Americans outside this building, while we stand in here trying to work together to fix a small piece, there are hundreds and hundreds of other things piling up. Remember what the Speaker said: the Speaker said we have to pass this bill so we can find out what's in it. In the name of heaven, shouldn't we know what is in it before it even comes to this floor for a vote? I demand to know the justice in that, in ramming a piece of legislation through here that is going to change the lives of our children and our grandchildren. You ask the people dying in hospitals in England, you ask the people who wait 18 months for bypass surgery, you ask the veterans who are yet to come forward who will not have health care because of this on some technical fix. We are hiring over 100,000 new government bureaucrats and not making the changes the rest of the country uses. And every time in the Ways and Means Committee we tried to offer those changes, they were rejected. Think about this for a moment. I don't want the most important thing that we are handling in this administration to become a train wreck waiting to happen when we see all of the events beginning to pile up. We need to slow the overall bill down. The fact that we would have to do this, the fact that there are thousands of people demonstrating tells us that there is more to this than simply giving people health care. I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns).

Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I will go ahead and close with these final remarks. Next year will be the 30th anniversary of my graduation from the United States Military Academy. When I am back there seeing these men and women who have served this country in so many distinguished ways, through times of peace and war and turbulence, the one thing that I want to be able to look in their eyes and say that we did as a Congress, not simply me, is that we served their needs, their family needs, the needs of their soldiers, the needs of veterans in general. And it is clear from the overall legislation that we are seeking to amend before it even becomes law, although I think that is constitutionally in question if we are not actually going to vote on the Senate bill, we need to slow this process down and stop the Senate bill from being forced through this House, this reconciliation process, and go back to square one and do this step by step and get it right the first time rather than having to make corrections. I thank the chairman of the Armed Services Committee and the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee for bringing this critical fix forward. There are many more. Let us get to those. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. Would the gentleman yield?

Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. I would point out that TRICARE for life was excised from the Senate bill.

Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky

Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, before I begin my remarks, I would like to thank the gentleman from Washington for his magnanimous comments and the bipartisan spirit of this bill as we come to the floor right now. At least it is not as much animus as we find in the United States Senate. I rise today in support of this legislation to extend important benefits that help long-term unemployed workers, including unemployment insurance and health coverage assistance through COBRA. In addition, H.R. 4851 postpones the drastic cuts to Medicare physician payment rates, a critical factor for our health care providers, as well as a number of other important provisions that expire at the end of the month or sooner. While I support this assistance, the American people should be under no illusion that this will create jobs. It does no such thing. In spite of claims last year that the Democrats' stimulus package would keep unemployment from rising above 8 percent, it has risen from 5.5 to 9.7 percent nationwide and 10.7 percent in Kentucky. Just yesterday, senior administration officials testified they don't expect to see much improvement in the job market this year. We have already spent almost $100 billion on unemployment benefits, with another $50 billion in the pipeline through 2010. I am disappointed that the majority has again chosen to subvert their so-called PAYGO rules by not paying for this short-term extension. Again, 83 percent of the Federal budget is exempt from the PAYGO legislation that was supposed to pay-as-you-go. While the bill before us today is necessary, it is not a long-term solution. It is inefficient, and it buys us time to actually fix the root causes. Instead of creating 3.7 million jobs as promised, the Democrats' stimulus bill was followed by more than 3 million additional job losses. A record 16 million are now unemployed. A significant number are underemployed. And all Americans are asking one simple question that I hear all the time at home, and all of my colleagues do, Where are the jobs? Record numbers are collecting unemployment benefits instead of paychecks. The need to pass this bill today reflects the failure of the Democrats' stimulus bill and subsequent efforts to create the jobs they promised. For this failure we will spend another $6 billion next month on Federal unemployment benefits, borrowing that money from our children and our grandchildren. Millions will soon exhaust these benefits and wonder what comes next. What Americans want are jobs, not handouts. To really help unemployed workers, we need to craft policies that will actually create jobs so unemployed workers can get back to work, so capital will be invested, so companies will invest in machines and development and growth, so the market will come back and they will hire people who will in fact become taxpayers to contribute to the economy and to meet their own needs. Doing so requires ending the massive tax, spend, and borrow plans of the Democrat Congress and administration. These policies have created severe uncertainty among American workers and businesses that leads to economic stagnation and discourages hiring. If you want to look at the full fruit of such policies, all we need to do is look at Eastern Europe in the 1960s, the 1970s, and the 1980s that led to the collapse of the Soviet empire. We could eliminate all of the uncertainty that we have today economically and get the private sector American job creation engine humming again by immediately providing real tax relief to businesses and families across the Nation. In addition, we should scrap plans for a government takeover of health care and focus on reform that actually reduces cost; reengineer the government system that wastes almost $200 billion a year on overhead that never sees the way to senior citizen health benefits; and do the private market reforms and bring about meaningful medical liability reform that will end defensive medicine costs that cost almost one-third of all medical costs. We should rescind unspent funds from the failed stimulus bill and the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the so-called TARP bill, and apply all of these funds to one thing, which is reducing our deficit, which I believe the gentleman from Kentucky, the United States Senator, tried to do 2 weeks ago and was disparaged by people in the Democratic Party in the House and the Senate and in the administration for simply saying let's pay for something with money that we already have available. Businesses can't thrive in an economy falsely buoyed by temporary stimulus funds and taxpayer-funded bailouts. In order to create jobs, we have got to empower the people to make their own choices. We need to craft legislation in Congress that won't cause additional harm to our economy but will instead give Americans the flexibility they need to grow their businesses. With that, Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I yield 10 minutes to the distinguished ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton).

Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the distinguished gentleman from Texas control his 10 minutes.

Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, as I said in my opening statement, I urge support for H.R. 4851 to continue unemployment and health insurance benefits for long-term unemployed workers, along with extensions of other important expiring provisions like the Medicare reimbursement provisions that my colleague from Texas just mentioned. But as we, as a Congress, redouble our efforts on the task of empowering Americans to create jobs, we need to remember the four causes of this. Even as we help in those places where jobs are hardest to find, promoting job growth ultimately needs to be the broader goal. One thing that we could do as a Congress to promote job growth and help our economy stand up and restore confidence in investing would be to stop the ramming of this health care bill through the House of Representatives presumably without even taking a vote on it. I think there is a small detail in the Constitution that would suggest my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have a small problem explaining that to their constituents. But let's look at the base principles in this bill. There are good elements in it, small individual elements. But the framework, the foundation on which it is built is not only flawed, it would be destructive to the American economy and make it into the equivalent of an Eastern European health care system within 10 years. First of all, it's based on huge tax increases. We still don't know what the reconciliation numbers are, but we know by commentary off the floor that the score from the Congressional Budget Office was far more than anything that's been presented in public thus far. Taxing health insurance is going to do one thing. It's going to reduce access to health insurance because less benefits will be provided by employers. It's very simple. Those of us who have run businesses understand this. We go without payroll to make sure our employees are covered. But we need to keep in mind the reality of what is happening. Taking money out of our pockets to fuel the growth of Federal bureaucracy is not right. The second thing that's done on the opposite end of the pipeline is a half a trillion dollar cut in Medicare benefits. In my going on 6 years in Congress, I have never seen $1 taken out of waste of the Center of Medicare Services. We hire more people, we put more rules in place, but we don't take the overhead out to simplify the processes. Indeed, in the Ways and Means Committee, a simple amendment offered by the gentleman from Illinois to study point of sale and credit card architecture technology that's used in every convenience store in America was rejected; as one gentleman from Texas called it, a pumpkin designed to enrich insurance executives. We use that every day. We use that in our identification cards here to vote. We don't have that integrated in our government. That's why citizens complain all the time about dealing with Washington, D.C. The final thing that's done on top of all of this is the only job creation program that's coming out of the legislation being considered this week is the hiring of over a hundred thousand new Federal workers who have to be paid for by taxpayers. That means that many jobs have to be created for every one of those. When I stop and think about this, I'm amazed, because we're not fixing the waste, the excess, the broken processes, the unintegrated database, and the contradictory regulations between the agencies. All we're doing is making the problem bigger and, in the end, it will result--as your own bill says with its waiting list language--in rationed care. Finally, let's talk about the overwhelming majority of the American people. It is astounding to me the awareness level at all levels of our society of this bill and, frankly, the fear that is out there; not fear from things I say back home, but when people read the bill and see what it means. I'm not talking about cable television fear mongers. I'm talking simply about good Americans who are doing their civics homework like some of my colleagues in both bodies have failed to do and don't remember the basis of why we're sent here. And then when we can't get that popular vote because of fear of Members of retribution in the fall--which I guarantee you is going to come and all of us will be held accountable for our vote--to deem a bill that takes over nearly one- fifth of the economy--let's think what ``deeming'' means for my fellow Americans watching. I could deem each of my children a Ph.D. I could deem them a good house. I could deem them a great future. In fact, while we're here deeming things, let's deem world peace, then we would do away with lots of expenditures. You all know the absurdity of that statement on the false premise that is raised with deeming. Why are we doing it? Because it creates a subterfuge that is wrong and violates Article 1 of the Constitution. At the end of the day, there will be an accounting to the American people. We agree on good things that can get done. Let's do those good things. Let's fix the government waste, fix the private market, and provide real medical liability reform. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. I thank the gentleman for yielding. My question is when you, as a party, deemed the debt increase of nearly $2 trillion, I would say that it makes any deeming of budgetary issues, even the Deficit Reduction Act reconciliation process, seem almost as a grain of sand. We might as well deem all votes and not even come here and answer mail in our offices if we are going to continue to deem one- fifth of the economy under government control.

Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. Would the gentleman yield?

Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. When the cashier at our local supermarket asked me about the reconciliation process and deeming and how can you pass something you don't vote on, I think the message is already at the grassroots.

Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky

Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Brother Joe Adams for his outstanding service as chaplain to the Kentucky State government. On March 16, 2010, the Kentucky House of Representatives will celebrate Brother Adams' retirement after twenty- eight years of service. Brother Adams was born and raised in Kentucky, and began preaching at the age of fourteen. In 1966, he enlisted in the United States Air Force. Serving for four years, Brother Adams spent his last year in Vietnam. Following his service to his country, Brother Adams enrolled in Western Kentucky University to study Accounting and began preaching in Simpson County. He later pursued a master's degree in Child Development and Family Living, but soon realized he was being called to devote his life to full-time ministry. Brother Adams has been a pastor at several Baptist churches across Kentucky. Since 1983, he has dedicated himself to working with community and State officials through the God and Country Ministry. In addition to his duties as chaplain to the Kentucky State government, Brother Adams has contributed to the Commonwealth as a member of numerous boards and committees, including the Bardstown/Nelson County Chamber of Commerce, the Bardstown Public Housing Tenant Relations Committee, the Non-Public School Commission, and chairman of Christian Home Educators of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in commending Brother Joe Adams for his service to our country and the Commonwealth of Kentucky. He has touched thousands, literally being the hands and feet of his Lord Jesus Christ reaching into many dark places with the light of truth, hope, and love. May God richly bless him as he and Saundra enter the next chapter in their lives of service.