[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 15 (Wednesday, February 2, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S431-S432]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           HEALTH CARE REPEAL

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, later today, as I noted yesterday, 
the Senate will have a rare opportunity. For those who have supported 
the health care spending bill in the past, it is an opportunity to 
revisit your first vote, to listen to those who have desperately been 
trying to get your attention, to say, yes, maybe my vote for this bill 
was a mistake, maybe we can do better, to listen to the small business 
owners who have been contacting our offices every single day and 
telling us all the ways this bill keeps them from creating the jobs we 
need, to show you have actually noticed most Americans don't want this 
bill, to show you are aware more people want it repealed than do not, 
to show you have noticed the townhalls in your States, to show you have 
noticed the opposition to this bill continues to grow, to show you have 
noticed the Federal court rulings that show this bill is 
unconstitutional at its core.
  It is not every day you get a second chance on a big decision after 
you know all the facts. This is that second chance.
  For all of us who opposed the health care bill, today we reaffirm our 
commitment to work a little harder to get it right; we can't afford to 
get it wrong. But let's not anyone hide behind the preposterous talking 
point that repealing this bill would add to the deficit. Only in 
Washington would somebody claim that spending trillions of dollars on a 
brand new government entitlement and a massive bureaucracy to go along 
with it will save money.
  I urge all my colleagues to move beyond party affiliation, to look at 
the facts alone. If everyone in this Chamber did that, we would repeal 
this bill right now, and then we would begin the work of achieving our 
common goal of delivering health care at a higher quality for lower 
cost. We would put in place the commonsense reforms people actually 
want.
  We also expect a vote later today that would clear away one of the 
many impediments to job creation that was

[[Page S432]]

layered into this bill. It turns out Senator Johanns did such an 
outstanding job of raising awareness about the 1099 requirement that 
our friends on the other side have basically co-opted the idea and are 
now claiming it as their own. Actually, that is fine with us. It is not 
a bad precedent, actually. We have a lot of other good ideas we would 
be happy to share--not replacing one 2,700-page bill with another but 
passing commonsense reforms that people actually want.
  The case against this bill is more compelling every day. Everything 
we learn tells us it was a bad idea, that it should be repealed and 
replaced. The courts say so, the American people say so, job creators 
say so. It is time for those who passed this bill to show they noticed. 
Let's take this opportunity.
  I yield the floor.

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