[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 53 (Thursday, May 5, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 5, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
              AN EMPLOYER MANDATE WILL DO NOTHING BUT GROW

  (Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, if an employer mandate were 
enacted, my State would lose 14,300 jobs.
  As we debate yet another mandate on America's employers, let us not 
forget the real world implications of such mandates. I challenge each 
of my colleagues to find one government mandate that has not been 
expanded over time. Further, while many in this Congress have labored 
to describe the employer tax to pay 80 percent of premiums as anything 
other than a tax, I challenge each of my colleagues to find a tax on 
employers that hasn't grown with time. One need only look as far as the 
HI tax or the OASDI or FICA tax. Does anyone remember the temporary 2 
percent surcharge for unemployment compensation which was recently 
extended for the umpteenth time?
  My colleagues, years of experience at the State level provides us 
with plenty of real world examples of how a limited government mandate 
does nothing but expand over time. For example, many of the reform 
proposals before us today have provisions which would override State 
health benefit mandates. Yet what has the experience been with benefit 
mandates? The answer is simple, these mandates have priced millions of 
Americans out of the health insurance market.
  By pursuing an employer mandate at the Federal level we are courting 
disaster. Such a mandate would have nowhere to go but up, and each time 
Congress in its infinite wisdom decides to expand this mandate we will 
encounter another round of layoffs as employers on the margin are 
forced out of business. Early last year this Congress enacted the 
family and medical leave mandate, already this year there are calls for 
expanding the mandate to require employers to provide paid leave. The 
startling precedent is there, one only has to look to find countless 
examples of expanding mandates.
  The ironic part of this whole debate is that employer mandates are 
not necessary for real, effective, successful health care reform. We 
should be focusing on the specific solutions to the specific problems 
of our unemployment compensation system for which there is broad 
bipartisan support and move forward to enact real bipartisan reform.

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