Tom McClintock

Mr. McCLINTOCK

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Exactly. We don't allow the freedom of Californians-- and this is true of most States--to go across State lines to buy a better health plan.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. And if you have that voucher that brings within your reach that basic health plan and then have the freedom to shop around for that plan that best meets your needs, you are in a controlling position that will protect you against nonresponsive insurers, nonresponsive health plans. But that's going to require a couple of other things, which is also included in Republican legislation. One of those things is the freedom to shop across State lines for that plan that might give you better services at a lower cost. I know in California we don't have that freedom. We don't require Californians only to shop at California retailers or only to bank at California banks.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. The problem is, today in this country, unless you're self-employed, chances are you don't own your own health plan. Your employer owns it or the government owns it. And you don't control it and can't tell a nonresponsive health plan or a nonresponsive company, You're fired, because you don't own the plan to begin with. If we can use the tax system to bring within the means of every family that basic health plan that they will own, they will then have the same power over their health plan, over their health insurance company, that they have right now over their grocery store--to take their business elsewhere if it fails to meet their needs.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. You can tell a nonresponsive insurance company, You're fired--I'll take my business elsewhere. You know, in all the years I've held public office, I've never had anybody write a letter to me and say, My grocery store stopped carrying Wheaties this month, and you need to pass a law to force them to do so. Why don't I get those letters? Because it's a lot easier to take your business to the next supermarket that does have what you want at a price that's competitive

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Correct. It would be the individual owning their own policy.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Fortunately, there is a better alternative. It can be summed up in a word: Freedom. We have the ability through the tax system to provide a refundable, prepaid tax credit; a health voucher, if you will, on a sliding income scale that would bring within the reach of every American family a basic health plan that they could choose according to their own needs; that they could own, regardless of who their employer is; and that they could change if it failed to suit their needs.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. By the way, she wasn't just visiting Montana. She had to be rushed more than 300 miles south to an American hospital to have those babies, just as the woman with the hip surgery, also from Calgary, had to travel to Montana to have her hip surgery done. And the question occurs: If we allow the same thing to happen to the American health care system, where are we going to go for necessary surgery when all of us end up on a waiting list? We all know that a common hallmark of the bureaucracy is long waiting lines, whether it's at the DMV or the post office. Long waiting lines at the DMV and the post office are inconvenient and they're annoying, but a 6-month waiting list for needed heart surgery can be downright fatal.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. So a great deal of publicity. What didn't get a lot of publicity was the fact that that Calgary mother had her baby in Great Falls, Montana.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. You may remember the story of the Calgary mother a few years ago. It was a big story at the time. I think she had identical quintuplets. The odds of that are something like one in a zillion.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. That's a story that we hear all the time out of those nations that have allowed their governments to take over their health care system. There's an article I believe in the Wall Street Journal today telling the story of a Canadian from Calgary who had a hip problem. It was going to be more than a year before they would allow her the surgery. Of course they're not allowed to have private insurance in Canada. As the bumper sticker says, The government hates competition. She traveled to Montana and paid $50,000 out of her own pocket so that she could get that hip surgery done in a timely manner.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Yes.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Justice Brandeis long ago told us that sunlight is the best of disinfectants, sunlight on this bill that the majority seems so frightened of. And that's why it's so important to get that 72 hours' notice, not just for the Members of Congress who are being asked to vote on it but for the people of the United States who are being asked to live under it ought to have some chance to know what bills are being proposed and being adopted by this Congress in their name that directly affects the quality of their lives and their families' lives.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. As you know, there's a lot of concern among the Members of Congress, particularly on this side of the aisle, that the intention of the majority is to suddenly emerge with a new health care bill in the same manner that we saw the stimulus jammed through. That's why we're seeing so much resistance among Democratic Party leaders to the discharge petition that requires the bill be in print for 72 hours and bring it to the House floor for a vote. Why would they be resisting?

Mr. McCLINTOCK. $787 billion, more than three-quarters of a trillion dollars, the biggest spending bill in the history of this country, introduced at 11 o'clock at night and taken up for debate at 10 o'clock the next morning.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. And don't forget the so-called stimulus bill.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. California still has a few last vestiges of sobriety in its process, that being one of them. A proposal that a bill should be in print 72 hours before final passage doesn't sound so radical.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. I come from the California legislature, and I thought that was a process that had deteriorated. But the California legislature in its constitution requires that a bill be in print for 30 days before any action; even a committee changing a punctuation mark. Thirty days.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. You mentioned the researchers reading the bill. The big problem for supporters of this government takeover of our health care system is very simple: the American people are reading the bill and are realizing the impact that it will have on their lives and are now rejecting it by a substantial margin.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. And interestingly enough, that amendment was killed on a straight party-line vote in the Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Yet an amendment that made that clear was voted down on a straight party-line vote in committee. Another amendment that was offered, as you know, was to require Members of Congress to take the public option.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. While we're on the subject of amendments that have already been offered to H.R. 3200, there are two others we ought to mention. One, making it very clear that illegal aliens will not be entitled to care under this plan. That was voted down on a straight party-line vote. So obviously the intent of the authors of the bill is something quite a bit different than the President assured us was the intent on the floor several weeks ago.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Quite right.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. The fact is ultimately I think the supporters of the bill realize that their numbers don't add up. That's why they have opposed every attempt to actually enforce the fiscal integrity of this measure by amendment. The question I think all of us should be asking right now is if the authors of this plan have no faith in its fiscal integrity, why should the rest of us?

Mr. McCLINTOCK. That's what the authors are proposing.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. No doubt of that. We've seen the proposals. And the attack particularly on Medicare Advantage.