[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 134 (Wednesday, October 2, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H6118]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     WE NEED A REASONABLE PROPOSAL

  (Mr. LANKFORD asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. Speaker, I hear from folks all the time--we need to 
have a reasonable proposal to be able to end this. Well, how about this 
for a reasonable proposal.
  There are lot of people that are concerned about the penalties and 
the effects that are coming down on them in the next year. People have 
reasonable questions about how this is going to happen.
  Am I going to sign up right?
  Am I going to have a problem?
  So let's do this. Let's take, for the first year, just take the 
penalties away from individuals; that if you make a mistake on filing 
of your ObamaCare, or if you have real problems with it, for the first 
year you won't have to pay those penalties. Just for the first year.
  And then also, here's something else reasonable: How about Members of 
Congress and the White House have to live under the same rules that 
every American does dealing with ObamaCare?
  Is that a reasonable proposal?
  Well, that happens to be the proposal that we have on the table right 
now--that if someone makes a mistake on their filing of ObamaCare, or 
they don't want to do it this first year, they won't face penalties the 
first year.
  Every Member of Congress and all of the White House will have to be 
in the exchanges, just like every other American that's out there 
that's required to be in that. We think that's a reasonable proposal.
  For my colleagues that support ObamaCare, I am amazed they're 
fighting like crazy to not be in it.
  At this point, we should meet face-to-face. I was pleased to see the 
President say he wants to meet, was disappointed to see he wants to 
meet to say he won't negotiate.
  Let's meet face-to-face and solve this.

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