[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 75 (Wednesday, June 15, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 15, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                  TRIGGER TIME BOMB ON SMALL BUSINESS

  (Mr. STEARNS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, there is a new word in the health care 
debate: Trigger.
  A trigger is a back door way to get to employer mandates. Instead of 
mandating that small businesses pay 80 percent of their employees' 
health care costs now, this trigger mechanism will mandate it in the 
future.
  The employer mandate has been described as a gun pointed at the heart 
of many of our small businesses. The trigger is more like a time bomb, 
with a fuse that lasts in years rather than in minutes.
  When these triggers go off, the impact will be the same: a loss of 
jobs, a freeze in hiring, an end to many small companies.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my Democrat colleagues to not pull the trigger on 
our private sector.
  Let us reform our health care system without putting people out of 
work. Let us fix what is broken in our current system without putting 
mandates on our small business. Trigger or no trigger, let us reject 
employer mandates. They are just not the best way to reform our health 
care system.

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