mr. burgess: absolutely correct. mr. akin: doesn't pass the smell test. mr. burgess: it's not what i came to washington, d.c. to do. what i wanted to share with the house tonight, "the dallas morning news" runs a column every sunday by dave scott burns. he was quoting an economist in austin economist, laci hunt. er ving fisher saw it first. the man who may have been the greatest american economist wote the theory about the great depression in 1933. excess debt controls all of the economic variables. he went on to say, think about it for a minute. it's a very powerful statement. excess debt controls all of the economic variables. what does that mean? that means we cannot control the unemployment rate. that means we cannot control almost everything is out of our grasp because of the massive amount of debt that we have accumulated. a and on monday the president said he wanted to accelerate the price of spending because we weren't getting the money out the door fast enough. let me reiterate, excess debt controls every other economic variable. it was true in 1933

burgess, do you have an opening statement? >> mr. chairman, i do. >> thank you. >> i'll yield for five minutes. >> thank you. thanks for the indulgence. well, each month this committee receives the numbers from the bureau of labor statistics numbers and each month continue to feel the need for what president clinton used to call that laser-like focus on the economy. this month we see significant job losses without any focus on economic priorities. perhaps congress needs to appoint someone solely responsible for focusing the efforts on domestic economic issues. we could use someone in the room who will say, how exactly will this new initiative, this new czar, this new czarina, how will this great new jobs? two weeks ago in our -- in one of my other committees we heard a lot of about cap and trade. i said cap and trade will lead to new jobs. a report that was released claims that the president's concept of healthcare reform will create 500,000 jobs a year. well, we can all look forward to those potential jobs in 2012, 2014, 2016 when t

we now go to mr. burgess. >> thank you, mr. chairman. ma dm secretary i'm in the broom closet behind the kid's table which is where they keep me on this committee. during your -- and welcome to our committee this morning. during your confirmation hearing before the senate, i believe the statement was made, you said if confirmed i'll not only be an eager partner to work with congress, but that i understand bipartisanship. is that a reasonable fact similar lee of the testimony that day? >> yes, sir. >> i know that this senate health committee, the ranking member has sent a letter june 16th and a follow-up to a request submitted on june 10th sent by the ranking member of the senate health committee they note that the despite providing technical assistance to the majority regarding the affordable health choices act that same courtesy had not been made available to the minority of the committee. when can we and i'll tell the senate to expect that you're going to help them with the republicans on the senate health committee the same technical

. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> mr. burgess for questions. >> thank you, mr. chairman. that's the last point of mr. deal's is excellent and likely would have eliminated the problem for at least one of the three witnesses we had in front of us this morning but let me just ask mr. hamm and mr. sassi, if you're to hear the witnesses of the individuals that testified, what do you think after hearing that? is that something that -- and again, coming from this at the perspective as a customer of the insurance market at one time and maybe again in the future. i recognize the value that you bring and i want you to be able to continue to do the type of business that you do but you heard the opening comments of the chairman of the subcommittee this morning. there is a move afoot to do things in a way that would be very difficult for you to do business in the future and i for one would not like to see that happen but tell me what your impressions are after hearing the testimony that you heard. >> i would be glad to respond to that and i have to say i felt bad and i have a lot of e

. >> mr. burgess do you want to question now or do you want to come back? you only have five minutes so i wi have to hold you tight. >> i can be very brief. >> i have not seen it yet but go ahead. >> we have heard the discussion of the public option plan. what is your opinion of that? >> i oppose the public plan option. >> mr. collins? >> sir, i believe the reforms that have been proposed we can make the market work much better without a public plan. >> mr. sassi? >> we also oppose the public plan. >> i don't want to be the one to have to break this to you but the reality is you are very likely to get a public plan and not likely to get a deal struck by a hip at the white house. i would urge you to think outside the box on this when there are ways that we can solve this problem without going to a public plan, in my opinion and without leaving so many people uninsured inlet bell leaving so many people that fall to the cracks. clearly the situation as it stands now is unstable and untenable and we cannot continue it but you guys of that to be able succumb to

burgess referred to was the foreclosure situation as a matter of fact mr. brady and mr. burgess referred to it. and we've got situations where we're doing these modifications but if people don't have jobs, that's a real problem. do you see that -- that is the loss of housing, does that create a problem with regard to jobs too? >> i'm sure it does. i think it's the same sort of cycle that you see with consumption or anything else. when you have -- when you have foreclosures, when you have consumer spending down, it creates unemployment and en this the unemployment creates more -- bigger decline and consumer spending so it's a cycle. so it would be the same thing, i think, with foreclosures. >> i see my time has expired, mr. brady, for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. you were making the point that the job market is not improving. it's continuing to decline at a significant rate. thankfully, not as quickly as in the past months. what does the may decline in payroll say about the current economic conditions? >> although there's been some moderation in the job loss,

chairman, i yield back. >> mr. burgess, do you want to question now or come back after votes? we only have five minutes and i have to told you tight. >> you know me, i can be really brief. >> i have never seen it yet, but go ahead if you want to try. >> just ask you, all three of you briefly you, heard the discussion of the public option plan, what is your opinion of that? >> i oppose the public plan option. >> mr. collins? >> sir, i believe that the reforms proposed we can make the market work much better without a public plan. >> and mr. sassi? >> we also oppose a public plan, we also feel that -- >> i don't want to be the one to have to break it to you, but reality is you are very likely to get a public plan, you are not likely to get the deal struck by ahip and you can see the handled writing on the wall and i would urge you to be -- to think outside this box on this, for there are ways we can solve this problem. without going to a public plan, my opinion, and, without leaving so many people uninsured and without leaving so many people, that fall through the cracks as we h

. >> thank you very much, mr. brady. we are pleased -- mr. burgess, do you have an opening statement? a yield for five minutes. >> thank you for the indulgence. each month's this committee receives the release of bureau of labor statistics, and each month we continue to fill the need for what president clinton used to call the laser light focus on the economy. this month we have seen significant job losses without any focus on economic priorities. perhaps congress needs to appoint someone solely responsible for focusing the efforts on domestic economic issues. we could use someone in the room who will say how exactly will this new initiative, this new czar, or a bill that will have causal relationships, how will this create new jobs? two years -- two weeks ago we heard a lot about cap and trade. the report released on tuesday by the council on economic advisers claims that the president's concept of health care reform will create 500,000 jobs a year. well, we can all look forward to those potential jobs in 2012, 2014, 2016 when they take effe

. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> mr. burgess, for questions. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and that is -- last point, mr. deal's is an excellent one and likely would have eliminated the problem for at least one of the three witnesseds that we had in front of us this morning. but, let me just ask, mr. hamm, and mr. sassi and mr. collins, after you were here and heard the testimony of the three individuals, who testified, what do you think, after hearing that? is that something that -- and began, i am coming from a perspective of someone who supports the individual insurance market, i was a customer of the individual insurance market at one time and may be again in the future. i recognize the value that you bring. and i want you to be able to continue to do the type of business that you do, but you heard the comments, the opening comments of the chairman of the subcommittee this morning, and there is a move afoot to do things in a way that would be very difficult for you to do business in the future, and i for one would not like to see that happen. but tell me what your impre

. >> next mr. burgess. >> i have a map of the united states that pertains adjust to chrysler for the moment. it looks like what a republican and what would like the electoral map. [laughter] but it is chrysler dealers. my state of texas all the three happen brothers release baird in the economic downturn, our state has been hit pretty hard with the closings. there is a member in the northeast, as chairman of the house financial services committee able to make a phone call to get one of this dealerships or distributors to stay open. what is the number i need to call? is it 1800 car czar? celly who to call so i can help the dealers in my area that have been so badly hurt. >> i don't understand your question with all great respect to the office, i have to say i am not aware of any dealer that was ever removed from the list that was submitted to the judge. i have no knowledge of that. i would very much like to see if i could get that. >> it was in all of the paper's yesterday, at barney frank made a ca

mr. barton: i yield to a member of the committee, dr. burgess, one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. burgess: madam speaker, last night i offered an amendment that would prohibit the transfer or receipt of carbon credit derivatives. why is that important? this bill will ensure the price for carbon and trading. this is a breeding ground. we are aware if there is a price, wall street will find a way to option swap or hedge and cease trading and the current financial crisis has heightened our use of the use of derivatives. here's the problem, none of us can visualize a ton of carbon dioxide, yet that's what we will be buying. where would you put it? what kind of container would it come in? in fact, we had hearings in our committee about problems with the futures market in trading oil, but at least someone has to take possession of that oil. no one has to take possession of that chunk of blue sky that we are going to call a ton of carbon dioxide. my amendment would vice president stopped the next enron before it sta

. >> thank you mr. chairman. >> mr. burgess for questions please. >> thank you mr. chairman. ms. beaton, let me ask you, blue cross/blue shield came back to you after you need the surgery and said they were taking your insurance and the state of recision was dated back to the date of enactment of the insurance. is that correct? >> i am kind of hard of hearing. >> your recision was effective on december 2007 which was the date the insurance was initiated? is that correct? >> they gave me back all of my premiums. i never cashed the check because mr. barton told me never to cash it and i never did that they resented all my money back to the day, in simple language they wanted nothing to do with me and they gave me back and a penny that i'd given to them and they considered never being injured by them. >> and ms. raddatz what about your brother situation? was there a refund of premium back to the date of the recession? >> yes, they didn't actually get to that point because it got resolved before they refunded the money but they sent a letter stating yes, you are rescinded to the date

mr. chairman, again, i thank you for calling this hearing. i yield back my time. >> mr. burgess, three minutes for an opening statement, sir. >> let me say at the outset, i do believe in the individual markets. i believe it has a place in this country. and indeed, i was a client and a customer in the individual market for my family's coverage. for a period of time. but i also believe that the barriers that we, the federal government, the congress puts in place on the individual market sometimes creates unnecessary difficulties for the people who sell on the individual market or the people who wish to be their customers. but no one can defend, and i certainly cannot defend the practice of denying coverage after the fact. and i cannot be comforted by the fact, or the statements that are made that this is in fact an infrequent occurrence, because as the cases in front of us at the witness table demonstrate this morning, there is no acceptable minimums to denying coverage after the fact when the coverage was dully paid for. and entered into in an honest fashion, and then onl

the gentleman from texas, mr. burgess. >> thank you chairman. good to see you again. spent some time yesterday out at the fda's facility, and i will act on those comments of mr. boyer, you have a wonderful staff that you lead of there. they are obviously very, very dedicated individuals, sometimes working under the adverse conditions that we supply. but certainly i know you're very proud of the organization of which you lead and i believe that pride is justified. mr. chairman, i'm going to stipulate to all of the difficulties of the food and drug administration is encountering that have already been well document it, and i would ask unanimous consent to preserve my entire statement into the record let me just concentrate on the aspect that we are now finally after i don't know how many hearings on this, getting down to someone of the business of acting for the fda, and talking about legislation that would give the food and drug administration some tools. but we are also giving them a timeframe which may prove to be a very difficult time frame for them to mentation, an

should be no reason why republicans and democrats should disagree on, i don't want to put words in mr. burgess' mouth, but he comes down to this floor, republican from texas, he comes often and talks in an articulate way about the need to upgrade the information system. so there's a lot of potential agreement, but it didn't stop the sort of right wing in this country from going out and spreading lies that this investment in information technology was the federal government's attempt to have a big brother takeover of health care, and this was the federal government reaching in and controlling all of your health care information and knowing everything about every ill thans you've had or prescription drug you're on. it's the furthest thing from the truth. we're trying to standardize private health care investments that have been made by hospitals and doctors across this country. but i think it speaks to how difficult this debate is going to become. there is just a group of folks out there who are either jurs ideologically opposed to having the government have any role in health care or f

. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> in burgess for questions, please. >> thank you. ms. baiten, let me ask you. blue cross and blue shield came back to you after finding out you needed the surgery and said they were taking your insurance and the date of rescission was dated back to the date of enactment of the insurance, is that correct? >> i'm kind of hard of hearing. >> your rescission was effective on 12-07 which was the date the insurance was initiated? >> right. they gave me back my premiums. >> they refunded the -- >> i never cashed the check because mr. barton told me to the to cash it. they rescinded it back to the -- they wanted nothing to do with me and gave me back every penny that i had ever given them and considered never been insured by them. >> i see. and what about in your brother's situation. was there ever a refund of premium back to the date of the rescission? >> yes. they didn't actually get to that point because it got resolved before they refunded the money but they sent a letter saying you are se as i understanded to the date of original contract w

burgess had to leave, but i know he entered into that discussion with both you and mr. prez and mr. henderson about e-mail traffic to i think it's in the white house that might i understood you to indicate you would supply that e-mail dak george's approach would be to follow up in the letter of request but eissenstat isn't a problem for you to provide those e-mails. ms. sutton? >> thank you come mr. chairman. i want to add of course as you can see who stayed here at the end as was pointed out the car act we passed this week represent braley, and our original cosponsor and chairman stupak and chairman dingell were involved in the process of getting that bill done and it is intended to have a concrete impact because we do believe that mr. keikenapp said, we want for chrysler and gm to be a success because it is linked to our work communities and jobs and the food it puts on the tables of the people we are honored to represent and so it's painful for us to be here and in this position but the payment that we feel listening to this is nothing compared to what we have heard displayed her