[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 47 (Wednesday, March 21, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Page S1876]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, this week marks the 2-year 
anniversary of the President's health care law--one that is often 
described as his signature legislative achievement. But you would not 
know it based on the President's schedule this week. For a President 
who is not particularly shy about taking credit even for things he did 
not have anything to do with, he is curiously silent this week about a 
bill he talked about for more than a year before it passed. According 
to news reports, the President does not even plan to mark the occasion.
  Well, we are happy--Republicans are very happy--to talk about it for 
him, even though he is reluctant. We are happy to point out the ways in 
which this law has failed to live up to the promises the President made 
about it. We are happy to make the case for why this unconstitutional 
infringement on America's liberties needs to be repealed and replaced 
with the kind of commonsense reforms Americans actually want.
  Two years ago, then-Speaker Pelosi said:

       We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is 
     in it.

  Well, 2 years later, here is what we have found so far.
  The Democrats' health care law has led and will continue to lead to 
higher costs and hundreds of thousands of fewer jobs over the next 
decade.
  We now know it is loaded with broken promises, such as the one the 
President made over and over during the health care debate. He said:

       If you like your current plan, you will be able to keep it.

  According to the independent Congressional Budget Office, 3 million 
to 5 million Americans will lose their current plan each year under the 
most likely scenario.
  The health care law will strip billions out of Medicare and increase 
the Medicaid rolls in States by nearly 25 million, costing already 
cash-strapped States an additional $118 billion and almost certainly 
lowering the quality of care for millions of Americans who depend on 
this vital program.
  In my State of Kentucky, an estimated 387,000 more people will be 
forced into Medicaid--at a time when Kentucky's Medicaid Program is 
already facing huge deficits just trying to provide benefits to current 
Medicaid recipients. As a result of this law, more than a million 
Kentuckians or 29 percent of my State's population will soon be on 
Medicaid. Kentucky's Governor, a Democrat, is on record saying he has 
no idea--no idea--how Kentucky will meet its responsibilities if the 
law forces several hundred thousand more people into the State's 
Medicaid Program. The math simply does not add up.

  This is just one example of how the law is unsustainable and hurts 
the most vulnerable the most. The bottom line is this: This health care 
law is an absolute mess--a mess--and the American people do not want 
it. According to a Washington Post-ABC News poll out this week, more 
than a half of Americans do not like it--a figure that has not changed 
much at all since the Democrats forced it through Congress 2 years go. 
Two-thirds believe the Supreme Court should throw out the individual 
mandate or the whole law.
  When it comes to the cost of health care, this law makes everything 
worse. Two and a half years ago, the President said his health care 
plan would ``slow the growth of health care costs for our families, our 
businesses, and our government.'' Yet the Obama administration itself 
now admits total spending on health care will increase by $311 billion 
under the President's health care law. According to the CBO, it 
increases net Federal health spending and subsidies on health care by 
$390 billion, and drives up premiums on families by $2,100 per year.
  Americans wanted lower costs and to have more control of their health 
care decisions, and they got the opposite instead. They wanted lower 
premiums; they got higher premiums. They wanted a government that lives 
within its means, and they got a new entitlement instead. They wanted 
more options; they got fewer. They wanted better care; it is going to 
be worse. That is why Americans want this bill repealed.
  Look, this bill would be unconstitutional even if it did the things 
the President said it would. But the fact that it did the opposite of 
what he promised means it should be repealed either way, whether the 
constitutionality of it is upheld or not.
  It should say something when the President himself is not talking 
about this bill except in closed campaign events.
  It is time to repeal this bill and replace it with the kind of 
commonsense reforms people want--reforms that actually lower costs, 
protect jobs and State budgets, and return health care decisions back 
to individuals and their doctors. That is a reform that both parties 
and all Americans could support.
  Madam President, I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Illinois.

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