[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 45 (Tuesday, March 23, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E454-E455]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       RECONCILIATION ACT OF 2010

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. GLENN THOMPSON

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                         Sunday, March 21, 2010

  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, for the first time in 
history, the House of Representatives will pass a life-changing measure 
without a single Republican vote in favor. That vote will impact one-
sixth of our U.S. economy and affect every man, woman and child in the 
nation, now and for generations to come.
  In almost every poll, the majority of Americans didn't like this bill 
or the manner in which it was placed before the Congress for a vote.

[[Page E455]]

  According to the most recent Gallup Poll, 66 percent of Americans 
think the Democrats' massive government takeover of health care would 
make things worse or make no difference for themselves and their 
families.
  I believe we have started down a path of total government takeover of 
our health care system at a cost of almost $1 trillion now, and untold 
costs to be paid later in taxes, fines and loss of care. As a health 
care professional, my evaluation of the measure is that it will 
decrease access to health care, increase costs, put a bureaucrat 
between you and your physician and place quality care as an 
afterthought.
  I fear the impact on our rural hospitals and I fear this measure puts 
us on a path of no return, which will be spoken about in depressing and 
critical terms for decades to come.
  One hundred and thirty economists wrote to the President March 18th 
to tell him that the Health Care bill is a job-killer. Speaker of the 
House John Boehner released the contents of that letter.
  They wrote: ``The bill raises taxes by almost $500 billion over ten 
years. A significant portion of these tax increases will fall on small 
business owners, reducing capital and limiting economic growth and 
hiring.''
  And they wrote: ``The bill will impose a tax of $2000 per employee on 
employers with more than 50 employees that do not provide health 
insurance. The bill will also tax employers that offer health coverage 
deemed `unaffordable' by the government. These new taxes on employers 
will reduce employment or be passed on to workers in the form of lower 
wages or reduced hours.''
  It doesn't take much deduction to figure out that if you have 49 
employees now, you will never hire the 50th employee. Why would you 
bring that burden on your business?
  Those with 53 or 54 employees will potentially fire four or five 
employees in order to go below the mandate.
  The economists concluded, ``The new and higher taxes on America's 
small businesses and workers included in the bill are detrimental to 
job creation and economic growth, especially now given the fragile 
state of the economy.''
  But the bill will create jobs--for the tax collector. Some 16,500 
people will be hired as auditors, agents and other employees needed by 
the Internal Revenue Service to collect the hundreds of billions in new 
taxes. The cost of enforcement is estimated to be between $5 and $10 
billion over 10 years and it is not paid for in the bill.
  The wealthier American people will be taxed to subsidize those who 
cannot afford their health care. And few will be able to afford health 
care as the mandates take shape and insurance companies are unable to 
make a profit under the new rules. The eventual result will be 
rationing of care.
  Rural hospitals already suffer from low reimbursement rates under 
Medicare and Medicaid. Those rates are eighty to ninety cents for one 
dollar of health care value in Medicare and forty to sixty cents for 
one dollar of health care value in Medicaid. When the federal 
government controls the private health care industry as well, no one 
will be paid the full cost of medical care.
  The bill cuts more than $200 billion from the Medicare Advantage 
program.
  Rural hospitals now get by with a one to three percent profit per 
year. If that evaporates, small hospitals will close.
  Republicans have been vocal in their support of the need to fix our 
health care system. We have dozens of bills including the ``Putting 
Patients First Act''--a bill I have co-sponsored. It allows purchase of 
health care across state lines, deals with pre-existing conditions and 
allows parents to keep their children on their health care plans until 
age 26. It does all of this without taxes or cuts in Medicare.
  We could have agreed on a number of issues. Instead, we have more 
than 3,000 pages of Senate bill, reconciliation package and manager's 
amendment that we will be unfolding and deciphering for years to come. 
The undiscovered, perhaps unintended, consequences will be continuing 
surprises.
  For example, according to The Wall Street Journal, Caterpillar Inc. 
announced that the bill will increase its health-care costs by $100 
million in the first year--no doubt giving it, and many other American 
companies, another reason to move American jobs to foreign countries. I 
fear this is the tip of the iceberg.

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