[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 131 (Saturday, September 28, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H5932-H5933]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                PRESIDENT OBAMA'S FAILURE OF LEADERSHIP

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
North Carolina (Ms. Foxx) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I want to give high praise to my colleagues on 
this side of the aisle who have been here this morning talking about 
the really, really important issues that are facing our country these 
days.
  Why are we here in Washington, D.C., on a Saturday? We should be at 
home in our districts. Republicans believe that the wisdom of the world 
is not in Washington, D.C.; it is back in our districts; it is back 
with the American people. But we're here because of a failed policy 
that was passed without bipartisan support but strictly on behalf of 
liberals in this body, in the Senate, and the failed policies of a very 
liberal President. So we wouldn't have to be here today if it weren't 
for that failed policy.
  Unfortunately, our colleagues on the other side of the aisle are 
trying to put the blame on us for saying that we're here because we're 
fighting what we see as a failed policy. The American people see it as 
a failed policy also. The majority of the American people are opposed 
to what we have come to call ObamaCare. It was not passed by bipartisan 
vote. Our colleagues keep talking about bipartisanship. It was passed 
purely on a partisan basis. No Republican has ever voted for ObamaCare, 
and every Republican who has had the opportunity to vote against it, 
has voted against it. Why? Because we believe we represent the American 
people. We don't want to shut down the Federal Government. In fact, 
we've passed bills to keep the government running; but we want to have 
the policy right.
  My colleague from Connecticut talked about the need for compromise 
and he said, erroneously, this is the first time that we would shut 
down the government over a policy. He must have forgotten that the 
Federal Government has shut down 17 times before--sometimes when 
Democrats were totally in control, sometimes when there was split 
government, but it has happened 17 times before.
  What are we doing here on our side of the aisle? We're fighting for 
the American people. We know this is a failed policy, and we do not 
want to see this failed policy go any further than it has gone. As my 
colleagues have said, the sad thing about it is our President is 
willing to negotiate with a country that we call a terrorist country 
but is not willing to negotiate on this. He said: What I haven't been 
willing to negotiate, what I will not negotiate, is on the debt 
ceiling. He doesn't want to negotiate on ObamaCare either. But we know 
that the President did negotiate in August 2011. We know that five 
other Presidents have negotiated on this issue. We also know that there 
are going to be people who are not going to be covered by this program 
that is supposed to be covering all Americans. And, Mr. Speaker, I 
include, for the Record, an article by Daniel Henninger in the 
September 25 Wall Street Journal, called, ``Let ObamaCare Collapse,'' 
because it points out many, many of the problems with this program that 
haven't all been pointed out this morning.
  And we have another issue that we're going to be facing in the next 
few days, and that is the raising of the debt limit. I want to quote 
someone who talked about the failure of leadership if we have to face 
raising the debt limit:

       The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's 
     debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that 
     the U.S. Government can't pay its own bills. It is a sign 
     that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from 
     foreign countries to finance our government's reckless fiscal 
     policies. Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically 
     and internationally. Leadership means that ``the buck stops 
     here.'' Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad 
     choice today onto the backs of our children and 
     grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of 
     leadership. Americans deserve better.

  That was then-Senator Barack Obama on the floor of the U.S. Senate 
March 20, 2006.
  Yes, indeed, Mr. President, we have a failure of leadership, and the 
buck stops with you.

             [From the Wall Street Journal, Sept. 25, 2013]

                         Let ObamaCare Collapse

                         (By Daniel Henninger)

       Congress can't kill the entitlement state. Only the 
     American people can.
       What the GOP's Defund-ObamaCare Caucus is failing to see is 
     that ObamaCare is no longer just ObamaCare. It is about 
     something that is beyond the reach of a congressional vote.
       As its Oct. 1 implementation date arrives, ObamaCare is the 
     biggest bet that American liberalism has made in 80 years on 
     its foundational beliefs. This thing called ``ObamaCare'' 
     carries on its back all the justifications, hopes and dreams 
     of the entitlement state. The chance is at hand to let its

[[Page H5933]]

     political underpinnings collapse, perhaps permanently.
       If ObamaCare fails, or seriously falters, the entitlement 
     state will suffer a historic loss of credibility with the 
     American people. It will finally be vulnerable to challenge 
     and fundamental change. But no mere congressional vote can 
     achieve that. Only the American people can kill ObamaCare.
       No matter what Sen. Ted Cruz and his allies do, ObamaCare 
     won't die. It would return another day in some other 
     incarnation. The Democrats would argue, rightly, that the 
     ideas inside ObamaCare weren't defeated. What the Democrats 
     would lose is a vote in Congress, nothing more.
       A political idea, once it becomes a national program, 
     achieves legitimacy with the public. Over time, that 
     legitimacy deepens. So it has been with the idea of national 
     social insurance.
       German Chancellor Otto von Bismark's creation of a social 
     insurance system in the 19th century spread through Europe. 
     After the devastation of World War I, few questioned its 
     need. In the U.S., Franklin Roosevelt's Social Security 
     system was seen as an antidote to the Depression. The 
     public's three-decade support for the idea allowed Lyndon 
     Johnson to pass the Medicare and Medicaid entitlements even 
     in the absence of an economic crisis.
       Going back at least to the Breaux-Thomas Medicare 
     Commission in 1999, endless learned bodies have warned that 
     the U.S. entitlement scheme of Social Security, Medicare and 
     Medicaid is financially unsupportable. Of Medicare, Rep. Bill 
     Thomas said at the time, ``One of the biggest problems is 
     that the government tries to administer 10,000 prices in 
     3,000 counties, and it gets it wrong most of the time.'' But 
     change never comes.
       Medicaid is the worst medicine in the United States. It 
     grinds on. Doctors in droves are withdrawing from Medicare. 
     No matter. It all lives on.
       An established political idea is like a vampire. Facts, 
     opinions, votes, garlic: Nothing can make it die.
       But there is one thing that can kill an established 
     political idea. It will die if the public that embraced it 
     abandons it.
       Six months ago, that didn't seem likely. Now it does.
       The public's dislike of ObamaCare isn't growing with every 
     new poll for reasons of philosophical attachment to notions 
     of liberty and choice. Fear of ObamaCare is growing because a 
     cascade of news suggests that ObamaCare is an impending 
     catastrophe.
       Big labor unions and smaller franchise restaurant owners 
     want out. UPS dropped coverage for employed spouses. 
     Corporations such as Walgreens and IBM are transferring 
     employees or retirees into private insurance exchanges. 
     Because of ObamaCare, the Cleveland Clinic has announced 
     early retirements for staff and possible layoffs. The federal 
     government this week made public its estimate of premium 
     costs for the federal health-care exchanges. It is a morass, 
     revealing the law's underappreciated operational complexity.
       But ObamaCare's Achilles' heel is technology. The software 
     glitches are going to drive people insane.
       Creating really large software for institutions is hard. 
     Creating big software that can communicate across unrelated 
     institutions is unimaginably hard. ObamaCare's software has 
     to communicate--accurately--across a mind-boggling array of 
     institutions: HHS, the IRS, Medicare, the state-run 
     exchanges, and a whole galaxy of private insurers' and 
     employers' software systems.
       Recalling Rep. Thomas's 1999 remark about Medicare setting 
     prices for 3,000 counties, there is already mispricing of 
     ObamaCare's insurance policies inside the exchanges set up in 
     the states.
       The odds of ObamaCare's eventual self-collapse look 
     stronger every day. After that happens, then what? Try truly 
     universal health insurance? Not bloody likely if the aghast 
     U.S. public has any say.
       Enacted with zero Republican votes, ObamaCare is the solely 
     owned creation of the Democrats' belief in their own 
     limitless powers to fashion goodness out of legislated 
     entitlements. Sometimes social experiments go wrong. In the 
     end, the only one who supported Frankenstein was Dr. 
     Frankenstein. The Democrats in 2014 should by all means be 
     asked relentlessly to defend their monster.
       Republicans and conservatives, instead of tilting at the 
     defunding windmill, should be working now to present the 
     American people with the policy ideas that will emerge 
     inevitably when ObamaCare's declines. The system of private 
     insurance exchanges being adopted by the likes of Walgreens 
     suggests a parallel alternative to ObamaCare may be happening 
     already.
       If Republicans feel they must ``do something'' now, they 
     could get behind Sen. David Vitter's measure to force 
     Congress to enter the burning ObamaCare castle along with the 
     rest of the American people. Come 2017, they can repeal the 
     ruins.
       The discrediting of the entitlement state begins next 
     Tuesday. Let it happen.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. All Members are reminded to address their 
remarks to the Chair.

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