[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 114 (Monday, July 27, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8103-S8104]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       FINISHING THIS WORK PERIOD

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, there are many who suffer from our broken 
health care system, and many who will benefit when we fix it. Counted 
among those are the increasing numbers of Americans who go to work 
every day in small businesses. The vast majority of jobs in America 
today are not with the huge companies but with small businesses. Owners 
and employees alike of small businesses are getting a raw deal. They 
are paying more for their health insurance, if they have it at all.
  Small businesses in big cities and small towns across the country 
play an immeasurable role in sculpting how the future will look. These 
are the entrepreneurs who innovate, invent, and fuel our economy. They 
are the visionaries who help create jobs and cultivate ideas.
  We, in turn, must help nurture these businesses. We should be making 
it easier for them to grow and to succeed. But if we keep the status 
quo--if we do not act--we will be making it harder. The White House's 
Council of Economic Advisers has found that when a small business buys 
the same health insurance plan as a big business, the small business 
pays significantly more per worker. The consequence of this inequity is 
very clear: A small business owner who has to pay more to keep his or 
her employees covered has to cut corners somewhere else. Maybe they pay 
their employees lower wages or salaries. Maybe they have to use more of 
their profits to pay for health care and have less to spend on the 
research and development that will help their ideas become realities. 
Maybe they need to buy new equipment or invest in new technologies but 
cannot because of the crushing costs of health care. Maybe they lay off 
more hard-working Americans than they ordinarily would.
  What if the expense they choose to sacrifice is health care itself? 
And that happens so often. Almost 100 percent of large businesses--
those with more than 200 employees--offer health benefits. But fewer 
than half of businesses with nine or fewer employees can afford to do 
the same, and that number is shrinking.
  When we reform health care, we will level the playing field for small 
businesses. We will give employees more choices and better plans from 
which to choose. We will give owners tax credits so they can afford to 
cover their workers. We will make it easier for existing small 
businesses to succeed. We will make it easier for more entrepreneurs to 
start their own new companies. And we will make it easier for more 
Americans to afford to work there and stay healthy at the same time--
all in this small business atmosphere.
  Reforming health care--and doing it the right way--is not just a 
health issue, it is also an economic issue. That

[[Page S8104]]

is why we will continue in the coming weeks and months to reform health 
care in a way that protects what works and fixes what does not. It is 
why we are committed to getting this right, not just getting it done by 
an arbitrary deadline.
  While we work on health care, we will also tackle other priorities on 
our plate. Over the next 2 weeks, we are going to complete at least two 
appropriations bills that invest in our Nation and support programs 
that will help our economy grow.
  This week we will pass the Energy and Water appropriations bill and 
start the very important Agriculture appropriations bill. Both of these 
bills are important. The Energy and Water appropriations bill will help 
develop safe, homegrown energy sources that reduce our dangerous 
reliance on oil. The Agriculture appropriations bill, which invests 
significantly in nutrition programs, school lunch programs, food and 
drug safety, and international food aid, is important.
  We also need to keep existing and successful programs alive so they 
can continue to succeed. These include the highway trust fund, the 
unemployment trust fund, the Federal Housing Authority, Ginnie Mae, and 
benefits for retirees of the Postal Service. All these extensions we 
have to take care of before we leave. So let me be clear: We are not 
looking to expand a single one of the programs I have just talked 
about. We merely must keep them running.
  We will also revisit the Travel Promotion Act--a solid, important 
bipartisan bill that will create tens of thousands of new jobs, cut our 
deficit by almost a half a billion dollars, and help our economy 
recover in every single State in the Union.
  We will confirm President Barack Obama's outstanding nominee for the 
Supreme Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor.
  With the cooperation of both Republicans and Democrats, and with a 
commitment to crafting productive policy rather than playing political 
games, we can finish this work and this work period strongly. I am 
confident we will.

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