[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 9 (Monday, January 24, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E95]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             REPEALING THE JOB-KILLING HEALTH CARE LAW ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                           HON. TIM HUELSKAMP

                               of kansas

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, January 19, 2011

  Mr. HUELSKAMP. Mr. Speaker, since the misleadingly-named ``Patient 
Protection and Affordable Care Act'' was signed into law last year, 
Americans have uncovered more reasons to oppose it. For all the talk of 
``reform'' that accompanied its passage, the law will actually entrench 
the worst aspects of our broken system, driving out-of-control costs 
even higher and taking health care out of the patient's hands and 
giving control to the government.
  Contrary to what they were told, taxpayers have learned that the true 
cost of the law is closer to $2.6 trillion over the next 10 years, and 
will add more than $700 billion to the deficit. Accounting gimmicks 
that included scoring the bill using 10 years of revenue but only 6 
years of new spending and double-counting of Social Security payroll 
taxes, CLASS Act premiums, and Medicare cuts made it seem like this 
program would land the country in the black, but will only result in 
more red ink.
  As a result of this law, employers across America have discovered 
that onerous reporting requirements will force them to file 1099 forms 
for every vendor with which they do $600 worth of business. An 
accountant in my district just told me that he will have to expand his 
staff by 25 percent to accommodate all of his extra paperwork. This is 
not the type of job creation America envisioned.
  Furthermore, when employer costs of insuring employees goes up, 
Americans will lose their private insurance plans, and will be forced 
to go on to government plans. This will also add to the deficit. 
Additionally, businesses and labor unions alike have realized that 
Obamacare is a bad deal, and at least 222 have sought waivers from 
having to comply with the law. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has 
approved special privilege exemptions for dozens of labor unions and 
the half a million union members they cover. And even more troubling is 
that Secretary Sebelius has been tardy in responding to a FOIA inquiry 
regarding the secretive details of these waiver requests.
  And, last but of course not least, patients will soon come to 
discover that this law may not only be dangerous to their pocketbooks, 
but to their health.
  Mandates, dictates, controls, tax hikes, and subsidies will flat-line 
any genuine effort to reform the country's health care system. The 
exploding cost of health care is bankrupting the country, yet the 
government's open-ended commitment to subsidizing health care is the 
very reason costs are skyrocketing.
  Fortunately, instead of waivers for a select few, we have a universal 
remedy: repeal the law for all. I urge my colleagues to heed the calls 
voters made last year during the debate and at the ballot boxes, and 
vote to undo this job-killing legislation.

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