{"id":5634,"date":"2017-04-06T14:00:28","date_gmt":"2017-04-06T21:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/?p=5634"},"modified":"2025-11-29T14:02:54","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T22:02:54","slug":"congressman-mcclintock-ben-franklins-wisdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/2017\/04\/06\/congressman-mcclintock-ben-franklins-wisdom\/","title":{"rendered":"Congressman McClintock — Ben Franklin\u2019s Wisdom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Congressman Tom McClintock]<\/em><\/p>\n

McClintock delivered the following remarks on the House floor:<\/u><\/p>\n

Mr. Speaker:<\/p>\n

Congress is fundamentally a deliberative institution. \u00a0Deliberations take time and they\u2019re often messy \u2013 in fact, the bigger the issue, the messier the deliberations. \u00a0The designers of our Constitution wanted a great, big, ugly debate whenever a decision was being made. \u00a0They wanted the subject to be held up to every conceivable light and for every voice in the country to be heard.<\/p>\n

That is certainly true of the effort to replace the collapsing bureaucracy of Obamacare with the patient-centered marketplace we have long promised. \u00a0Those deliberations must continue until they bear fruit, because there is no excuse for failure.<\/p>\n

Obamacare is only getting worse. \u00a0Last year\u2019s average 25 percent premium increase is likely to be followed by even bigger increases this year. \u00a0The flight of health care providers from the system is only going to accelerate. \u00a0The rapid expansion of Medicaid \u2013 which could exceed spending on defense by next year \u2013 is not only fiscally unsustainable \u2013 it doesn\u2019t even guarantee care.<\/p>\n

Dwindling Medicaid providers and lengthening waiting lists means that many Medicaid patients have no recourse but to flood emergency rooms. \u00a0The original Medicaid population \u2013 the elderly, blind and disabled \u2013 who are only reimbursed an average of 57 cents on the dollar, are pushed to the back of every line by able-bodied Obamacare expansion patients who are reimbursed at 90 percent.<\/p>\n

The American Health Care Act is far from perfect. \u00a0I had argued vigorously for a comprehensive bill rather than our current piece-meal approach. \u00a0I lost that debate, but I haven\u2019t lost sight of the ultimate goal: to restore our healthcare system as the best in the world. \u00a0I could list a lot of other things that could be made better in the current bill \u2013 and perhaps in our extended deliberations they will.<\/p>\n

But those who expect perfection in our legislation fundamentally misunderstand our system. \u00a0Congress was never designed to make perfect law. \u00a0It was designed to make the best law that is acceptable to the most people. \u00a0And it\u2019s pretty good at that, when we let it be.<\/p>\n

When the Constitutional Convention seemed hopelessly deadlocked, Benjamin Franklin declared that he didn\u2019t entirely approve of the Constitution, but he had learned over the years to doubt a little of his own infallibility, and to recognize the limitations of making decisions with others. \u00a0He noted that when you assemble a group of people to benefit from their collective wisdom, you also had to accept their collective shortcomings, and realize that a perfect product is never possible from such a process.<\/p>\n

In another speech, he recalled as an apprentice tradesman, trying to fit together two pieces of wood. \u00a0It was often necessary, he said, to shave a little from one and a little from the other until \u201cyou had a joint that would hold together for centuries.\u201d \u00a0In this same manner, he urged them to \u201ceach join together and each part with some of our demands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Compromise is not an end in itself. \u00a0It is a means to an end. \u00a0As long as that end moves us forward toward better policy, more freedom, greater prosperity and stronger security, whatever imperfections the measure may include are often precisely what are required to bring it to fruition.<\/p>\n

I fear we are losing sight of these simple truths. \u00a0Ironically, factions within the House who are the most adamant in opposing Obamacare have become, as a practical matter, its most effective defenders. \u00a0 I know they don\u2019t intend this to be, but the reality is that Obamacare survives today solely because of their actions in this House.<\/p>\n

Benjamin Franklin was right. \u00a0In deliberations of this magnitude, it is essential that we each doubt a little of our own infallibility, that we each part with a few of our own demands, in order to join together and produce the reforms our country depends on us to enact.<\/p>\n

A political minority doesn\u2019t need to compromise \u2013 it has the luxury of standing solely on principle. \u00a0But the majority, entrusted with making the actual decisions to guide our country to better days, must compromise if it is to make law that will hold together for the centuries.<\/p>\n

Lincoln once reminded Congress that we can succeed only by concert. \u00a0He said, \u201cIt is not \u2018can any of us imagine better,\u2019 but \u2018can we all do better.\u2019\u201d \u00a0He urged us to rise with the occasion, to disenthrall ourselves \u2013 for only then could we save our country.<\/p>\n

I hope some of our colleagues will consider this advice during the Easter recess.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Congressman Tom McClintock] McClintock delivered the following remarks on the House floor: Mr. Speaker: Congress is fundamentally a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","darknews-slider-full":"","darknews-featured":"","darknews-medium":"","darknews-medium-square":""},"author_info":{"display_name":"News MoLo","author_link":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/author\/admin\/"},"category_info":"News<\/a>","tag_info":"News","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5634"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5634"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5635,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5634\/revisions\/5635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}