[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 111 (Wednesday, July 22, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H8559]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          WHERE ARE THE JOBS?

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Carter) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CARTER. Mr. Speaker, jobs, jobs, jobs. Americans are asking, 
where are the jobs? With the unemployment rate at 9.7 percent, 
Democrats continue to push job-killing bills. First cap-and-tax, and 
now a plan to socialize health care. We all agree our health care 
system is clearly in need of reform. Health care costs too much. 
Families and individuals are seeing their premiums rise, and businesses 
are having to drop or significantly reduce their coverage to make ends 
meet. Employees are wondering why their plan no longer covers things 
like dental or vision.
  The answer is, the costs are forcing employers to reduce coverage. 
However, the Democrat government-controlled health care bill actually 
makes things worse. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says it 
will raise prices even higher and increase taxes. The Democrats' health 
care bill also hurts the quality of health care, cuts thousands of 
jobs, and devastates State economies.
  There are just too many problems with the Democrat health bill to use 
a 5-minute speech, so I'm going to focus on one job-killing section, 
section 1156, which would be the death of physician-owned hospitals, 
which are a huge job creator and a medical innovator in Texas and 
throughout the country. Texas has more existing and planned physician 
hospitals than any other State. To be exact, Texas has 50 physician-
owned hospitals that provide 22,000 jobs and contribute $2.3 billion to 
the Texas economy annually. So let me repeat. This little provision in 
the Democrat government health plan kills tens of thousands of jobs, 
tens of millions of tax dollars paid, and over $1 billion of economic 
activity for the State.
  If section 1156 becomes law, 104 physician-owned hospitals currently 
under construction would be lost. This would cost Texans 20,000 jobs 
and $5 billion in investments. Constituents in my district are letting 
me know how devastating this provision is for Texas. Hospitals like the 
Heart Hospital of Austin, rated the number one hospital in America for 
heart attacks, would not be able to build new hospitals and could only 
expand after going through several layers of bureaucracy.
  This is only one small portion in the Democratic government-run 
health care plan, and it kills jobs. And others kill jobs. In a poll of 
5,097 of my constituents, 82 percent oppose the Democrat plan. 
Nationwide polling indicates the majority of Americans are opposed to 
the Democrat plan. Let's listen to our constituents and defeat this 
government-run takeover of our health care.

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