[Page H8899]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         PUTTING PATIENTS FIRST

  (Mr. BACHUS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. BACHUS. Mr. Speaker, throughout the year there has been a 
drumbeat, a relentless drumbeat of expensive stimulus packages, 
takeover of the car companies, financial bailouts, and cap-and-trade. 
And the drumbeat continues today, more government control, more 
government spending, higher taxes, fewer choices, especially for small 
business.
  Now the Democratic leadership wants to take over one-sixth of our 
GDP, our health care. They want government to take over health care. It 
is a recipe for economic disaster. Even worse, it is a disaster for 
patients, because a government-run system will always ration care, 
reduce quality, and raise costs. It will put a Federal bureaucrat 
between you and your doctor.
  Let's put patients, not the government, first. As long as we continue 
this government-knows-best approach, we are not going to get health 
care reform or the kind of economic recovery the American people need. 
We will only get bigger government, rationing, and diminished quality 
of care.
  Stop the drumbeat of more government. Stop the takeover of government 
health care.

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