WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor Monday regarding health care reform:

“Well, the debate over health care continues.

“And this week, all eyes are on the House.

“All we hear about is the arm-twisting and the horse-trading that’s going on over there behind the scenes — the mad dash ahead of the big vote. And once again, Americans can’t believe what they’re hearing.

“Behind all these stories is a simple truth: Democrat leaders are doing everything they can to convince a handful of lawmakers that they should vote for a bill they don’t really like and which their constituents overwhelmingly oppose.

“They’re scrambling to get these wavering house members to vote for a bill that claims to be reform, but which promises to lead to higher health care costs, higher insurance premiums, and a vast expansion of government’s role in our daily lives.

“They’re pulling out all the stops. They’re doing everything they can to jam this bill through. And they don’t even seem to care anymore about how ugly it all looks.

“What we’re seeing is nothing more than a replay of the same revolting process Democrats used to pass this bill in the Senate, a process that completely outraged the public. 

“The same deals they used to get this bill through the Senate are back. As if voting on these deals the first time wasn’t bad enough, Democrats in the House are now getting ready to vote for them again.

“Every one of the deals that were so revolting to the American people will still be in the bill that House members are expected to vote on later this week.  

“That means that anybody who votes for this bill will be voting in favor of the special deals that were put there for no other reason than to sway votes.

“A handful of Democrats have stood up in opposition to these deals and this entire process. One longtime Democrat Congressman said last week he won’t be voting for the bill as a result of the deals. Here’s what he said:

‘I reject unequivocally the unsavory deal making that took place in the Senate where Nebraska, Florida, and Louisiana obtained special benefits that do not apply to the other states and those special benefits provided to those states at the expense of resident of all the other states. I simply cannot support legislation that contains those unwarranted giveaways to a select few states at the expense of the others.’

“But others are keeping quiet. They’re still on the fence. And that’s why this week’s vote promises to be even uglier than the last one — because this bill goes beyond things like the Cornhusker Kickback and the Louisiana Purchase and the Gator Aid.

“I was disappointed to see the White House reverse itself over the weekend and endorse many of these sweetheart deals after the President said he’d try to have them removed. Apparently, they determined that removing the deals might jeopardize efforts to pass the bill. So now the White House says it won’t object to all the special deals, just some of them. What that means, of course, is that some senators and House members are getting special deals on top of special deals.    

“But that’s not all the White House is willing to do to jam this bill through.

“According to press reports, it’s also promising to raise campaign cash for House members who vote for the House bill. We read in one of the papers today that the White House is openly signaling that those lawmakers will go to the top of its list for fundraisers and presidential visits ahead of the November elections.

“So if press reports are accurate, lawmakers who support this bill are being told they’ll get repaid with presidential visits and big-money fundraisers from the President or the Vice President — vote for the bill and you get you a special visit for your reelection campaign.

“We also read this morning in Politico’s ‘The Pulse’ that the drug lobbyists were here in the Capitol over the weekend huddling with Democrat staffers to make sure their interests would be protected in the final bill. 

“This is precisely the kind of thing Americans rebelled against after the last vote on this bill. This debate should be about the substance of a bill that would restructure one sixth of our economy and the direction Americans want to go in as a country — not how much money such-and-such-senator or congressman needs in order to vote for it.

“It’s especially disappointing that this particular White House is supporting all this. After the Cornhusker Kickback and the other special deals, the administration had an opportunity to distance itself from this process, to hit the reset button, and work toward a bill Americans could be proud of.

“Unfortunately, in its desperation to force this bill through, the White House is reverting to the anything-goes approach. And the results are predictable: Americans won’t like this bill any more than they liked the last one.

“They’ve issued their verdict about this bill and this process. They don’t like either one. And once again, the only people who don’t seem to get it are Democrats in Washington.”

####