[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 65 (Thursday, May 9, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3286-S3287]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              UNEMPLOYMENT

  Mr. McCONNELL. Today the President plans to travel to Austin, TX. I 
understand his trip includes a visit to a technical high school and a 
chat with workers. The idea, I presume, is to show folks that the White 
House has once again pivoted to jobs. If you are someone who is all 
about the visual, then, of course, putting on a pair of goggles or 
showing up at a factory is a great way to at least look as though you 
are doing something about the situation.
  Whether that means you are actually getting the job done is a 
different story. Unfortunately, robust job creation has been talked 
about a lot in this administration, even as millions remain out of work 
or stuck in part-time jobs.
  Take a look at last month's jobs report. It was touted by the White 
House as proof of an economy on the mend, and surely we on this side 
hope that will soon be the case. We are not there yet. We only have to 
drill down below the top line to find a lot to be concerned about. For 
instance, the unemployment rate technically edged down to 7.5 percent, 
but it actually moved up to 8 percent in my home State of Kentucky. 
While the Federal rate is still pretty high, even those numbers don't 
tell the full story. Because so many Americans have stopped looking for 
work altogether, we now have the lowest labor force participation rate 
since Jimmy Carter.
  Our actual Federal unemployment rate is nearly 11 percent. That is 
quite a ways off from the 5 percent or so the administration boldly 
predicted we would have by now if only Congress would pass the 
stimulus.
  Consider this. If all we did was match the average of recoveries 
since World War II, we would have about 4 million more private sector 
jobs than we do today. That is how much worse this recovery is than 
other recoveries since the war.
  Unfortunately, that is the Obama economy. I hope the President is 
traveling to Austin today because he is finally serious about turning 
that around, about changing course and implementing policies that might 
actually work to get the economy moving again. Given that he will be in 
Texas, he might want to think about developing more jobs in the energy 
sector. It is a huge industry--huge--not just in Texas but all across 
our country. His administration has the power, if it chooses, to spur 
more job-creating energy resource exploration and development.
  There is a lot more Texas is doing right too. That is why it has been 
touted as a national leader in job creation. One study showed Texas, 
with less than 10 percent of the population, accounted for almost one-
third of private sector jobs created in high-paying sectors in recent 
years. If the President is interested in duplicating that success at 
the Federal level, he might take note of the fact that policymakers in 
Austin have taken a very different approach from Washington when it 
comes to how they tax and spend.
  Basically, they do less of it with no income tax, for instance, and a 
low ratio of spending per capita. They don't ram through laws such as 
ObamaCare.
  I hear the President plans to hold another event tomorrow where he 
will claim that ObamaCare is helping women. Let me tell a story of how 
ObamaCare is affecting one woman, and I am sure there are many more 
just like her.
  The Wall Street Journal recently profiled a businesswoman named 
Elizabeth. She is in the clothing business, and she had been hoping to 
hire more employees. But thanks to ObamaCare, Elizabeth is now being 
forced to turn to independent contractors because if she brings on just 
a few more people and exceeds 50 employees, the government could punish 
her business.

[[Page S3287]]

  There are many other small businesswomen who will see their dreams 
crushed under the weight of ObamaCare's nearly 20,000 pages of 
regulations. There are many women in their twenties and thirties who 
will be unable to afford the law's massive premium increases. There are 
many mothers who will not be able to get by if their employers cut 
their hours due to ObamaCare or if they lose their jobs because of it.
  Here is something else to consider. This morning, Speaker Boehner and 
I informed the President we will not be recommending individuals to 
serve on the Independent Payment Advisory Board. The IPAB, as some call 
it, is a commission set up by ObamaCare that is charged with reducing 
Medicare payments to health care providers and determining what 
services should be available to seniors. Of course, we know that will 
lead to access problems, waiting lists, and denied care for seniors--
what most people would call rationing. It threatens to 
disproportionately affect women too.
  According to the Department of Labor, women make approximately 80 
percent of health care decisions for their families and are more likely 
to be the caregivers when a family member falls ill. That family member 
could be a child, could be a spouse, or, more often these days, a 
parent who relies on Medicare. We want to know Medicare will be there 
to take care of them, and we want to know those decisions will be made 
between patients, their families, and their physicians, not an 
unaccountable board of bureaucrats such as the IPAB--one that even has 
the power to overrule payment decisions made by Congress and signed 
into law by the President. That is how powerful IPAB is.
  So the President should rethink the purpose of this event. I hope he 
will use it instead as a platform to prepare women for the actual 
consequences many of them will soon face under ObamaCare.
  More broadly, the President needs to get out in front of this train 
wreck before Americans--men and women alike--are completely blindsided 
by it. Polling suggests that almost half of Americans are unsure how 
ObamaCare will affect their families. So he really needs to get out 
there and prepare them for what is coming.
  If the President is truly concerned about jobs, then it is time for 
him to admit ObamaCare was a mistake and work with Congress to repeal 
it because we need reforms that lower the cost of care. What we don't 
need is a 2,700-page law and a resulting tower of redtape that will 
continue to kill jobs and hurt our economy.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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