[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 134 (Wednesday, October 2, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H6157-H6162]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
IMPLEMENTATION OF OBAMACARE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 3, 2013, the gentlewoman from Kansas (Ms. Jenkins) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Ms. JENKINS. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to be here this evening with my
colleagues to host the Republican leadership hour. We are going to talk
to
[[Page H6158]]
the American people about the damaging taxes levied against them by the
President's health care law, the cost to consumers, the IRS' role in
enforcement of these tax provisions, and the rocky implementation of
the law.
The President's health care law contained 21 new taxes, many of which
will impact low and middle-income earners. Together, these taxes
represent a $1 trillion tax hike at a time when American families
certainly cannot afford it.
And although it became law in 2010, the two linchpins of the law, the
employer mandate and the individual mandate, were not scheduled to be
implemented until 2014. My colleagues and I have consistently expressed
our concerns to the President and our Democrat colleagues that these
two taxes would present both an undue economic burden on our
constituents, and a logistical nightmare for the administration to
implement.
On July 2, the administration announced in a Treasury blog post that
it would delay enforcement of the employer mandate by a year, until
2015. One administration official said that the President justified
this decision to delay this tax on business because it began, and I
quote, ``listening to businesses about the health care law.''
I've been hearing from businesses about this tax for 3 years, and I'm
sure the President has as well. I'm glad that he saw the light. I'm
also pleased that the House came together, in a bipartisan manner
yesterday, to pass a bill reaffirming the decision to delay the
employer mandate tax for a year.
However, a delay of the employer mandate will not give any relief to
individuals who do not have employer-sponsored health care, nor will it
give any relief to employees who have already been converted to part-
time status by their employers in anticipation of the employer mandate.
These American families will still face this excise tax, even though
the President is giving Big Business an escape hatch. We believe the
administration has set up a double standard for compliance with this
unpopular law, and that is why the House is working to delay the
individual mandate as well until 2015.
As things stand now, on Day 2 of open enrollment, the health care
exchanges, in many cases, have simply not been ready. A report issued
this summer by the Government Accountability Office found that many of
the State health care exchanges will not be operational and will
complicate individuals' efforts to comply with the law.
I know that many of the Members speaking today will share stories
they've gathered so far, and my State of Kansas has been a good example
of the confusion that these delays are causing. Officials are already
counseling my constituents to wait to purchase benefits for a few weeks
until the exchange's kinks are worked out. I find this unacceptable.
Additionally, the administration has announced that the subsidies
available to individuals, when purchasing insurance, will not be
verified by the Federal Government, and that individuals will have to
self-report information regarding their income. This paves the way for
fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars.
Finally, at the heart of this law is the IRS' role in enforcement of
the President's health care law. This is an agency we all agree is
mired in scandal, or maybe even worse, a culture of incompetence. We do
not think this is the appropriate time to be increasing the IRS'
workload with enforcement of these new taxes, and questions abound
about the security of taxpayers' information in the Federal data hub.
I look forward to spending time with my colleagues this evening
discussing these issues.
At this point, I yield to my friend and colleague from Oklahoma (Mr.
Mullin).
Mr. MULLIN. Thank you for this opportunity to stand up and, not just
represent our side of the aisle, but represent the business owners that
are having to go through this struggle of the shifting sands constantly
underneath their feet, and take time to maybe take a different approach
that this House, this body, those that are sent up here to represent
the American people, maybe we can look at a little bit different and
take a business approach to it.
You see, I've been sitting, literally, at negotiating tables since I
was 20 years old. Because of some family circumstances that came in, it
forced me to, in a sense, grow up quick. I took over a very small
plumbing company and at that time I had to immediately start going for
work.
And when I started going to work, I'd show up at a table, a bid
table, and I'd be going across other contractors, and we would be
negotiating. The only problem is, I didn't know how to negotiate.
See, I'd sit down with my proposal and I'd say, this is what I'm
going to do. And they'd said, okay, but we've got to talk about it. I'd
say no, I'm not going to talk about it. This is what I'm going to do.
You can take it or you can leave it.
And I started leaving. And I started realizing, as I was leaving, I
was going broke. Literally, I was going broke because I wasn't getting
the jobs. Somebody else was getting the jobs.
And then I started figuring out, you know, I've got to figure out how
to negotiate. There's a technique to negotiating, and that means you've
got to know two things when you're going to a table to negotiate.
You've got to know, one, what is it that you want. That's vitally
important. But what's more important is, 2, what is it you can accept.
And that's called negotiating.
Of course, we always want everything. But we've also got to know what
we can accept. And if I never figured out how to accept that certain
amount, I would have went flat broke.
And what's going on with this country?
Let's think about the comparison between the two. This body of
elected officials has forgotten how to negotiate. We are sitting there
pointing fingers at each other while our country is literally going
flat broke, because we all want something. But what is it that we can
accept?
We've been so blinded by party politics that we forgot how to sit at
a table and negotiate. I'm literally sitting back, as a business owner,
thinking, are you serious?
Are we really putting our company, are we really putting America's
best interests, at mind?
Here's what the Republican Party wanted. We wanted to repeal
ObamaCare. We came to the table and we said, we don't want it. Take it
back.
Sent it over to the Senate. The Senate says no. They say, we want a
clean CR or nothing.
So we came back to the table, and we negotiated among ourselves and
said, okay, let's delay it for 1 year. We know it's not ready for prime
time. We know this thing's going to be disastrous. Let's delay this
thing for 1 year. That's it.
Sent it over to the Senate and the Senate said no. We want a clean
CR, or that's it.
Then we decided, okay, let's at least delay the individual mandate,
the penalty to the individual. That's the heart of this. Let's not
penalize those individuals that can't afford it. Let's not penalize
those individuals that this administration is constantly saying he's
trying to protect.
Let's not, at least let's not penalize them. If they don't want it,
let's believe in the American freedoms that we have and not force it
upon them, and delay it and make sure we get it right.
What did the Senate say?
No. It's my way or the highway.
At the same time, our country is going flat broke.
We have three legs of government. We have the House, we have the
Senate, and we have the executive branch. But, unfortunately, the
executive branch is leading the Senate, and they're giving them their
marching orders. And they won't even come to the table with us to
negotiate, even though they're constitutionally bound by that.
It says that if the House and the Senate can't come together, they're
supposed to go to conference and talk it out. And the Senate says, no.
Who's losing here?
Who's losing is the American people. That's who's losing, while both
sides are trying to figure out who's going to win.
And we're playing with real people's lives. We're playing with
individuals' lives, and we think it's just politics.
It's not just politics. We have to drop the labels, and we have got
to figure out what is best for this country.
[[Page H6159]]
If I never figured that out, I wouldn't be the largest plumbing
service company in the State of Oklahoma today. I wouldn't employ over
120 people with just that one company. I wouldn't be that entrepreneur
that is the backbone of this country. Instead, I would have been flat
broke.
There are lessons to be learned, and we're not. We're going
backwards. It's time we stand up and do what's right for this country.
It's time for the Senate to come to the table. Don't just tell us
what you want; tell us what you will accept, and let's start a
conversation, and let's negotiate.
Thank you so much for yielding the time to me. It's such an honor to
represent the great State of Oklahoma.
{time} 1915
Ms. JENKINS. Thank you for your words.
At this point I yield to Congresswoman Renee Ellmers from North
Carolina.
Mrs. ELLMERS. Thank you to my distinguished colleague from Kansas,
vice chair of our Republican Conference. Thank you for yielding time to
discuss this situation that's at hand right now.
Right now, we're faced with this government shutdown. Right now,
millions of Americans are thinking to themselves, What on Earth is
happening in Washington? There's a shutdown. There's the implementation
of ObamaCare exchanges that took place starting yesterday.
The interesting thing is that 47 States are receiving frequent error
messages on the Web site. In my home State of North Carolina, the Obama
navigators were grounded as the exchanges and the computer system was
shut down. Americans across this country are faced with error messages
on both exchanges run by the State and those run by the Federal
Government.
Day one. Day two. Failure of ObamaCare.
So despite 3 years of time, countless dollars, countless
administration officials testifying in hearing after hearing after
hearing in the Energy and Commerce Committee and in the Ways and Means
Committee that everything would be ready to go on October 1, for sure,
right on track--those were the things we were told, We are moving right
on track; consistently, we were told--and this is what the people of
the country are seeing.
This is what we're seeing in North Carolina. This is day two of
ObamaCare exchanges. They changed up a little bit from day one. They
added some cute little icons here. It says:
We have a lot of visitors on this site right now. Please
stay on this page.
As if you have nothing else to do. Just hang out. Just stay here.
We checked this site throughout the day just about every hour to just
check and see if it would be up and running.
And it goes on. It says:
We're working to make the experience better.
We don't want you to lose your place in line.
We'll send you to the login page as soon as we can.
Thank you for your patience.
Well, yes, America is going to need a lot of patience with ObamaCare.
Because if this terrible law--and, yes, it is law, but there are bad
laws that get passed--if this law is fully implemented, health care
will be changed forever. You will have to have a lot of patience
because you are going to be waiting at the doctor--if you can even find
a doctor to go to. You will be waiting at the hospital, in the
emergency room, or wherever you seek care, because the care will not be
available. And the care that you will receive will be diminished.
Yes, we're all going to have to have a lot of patience.
One of the things that I've been doing in my office is trying to get
firsthand accounts of what my constituents are experiencing as they're
learning about their health care coverage; if they have health care
coverage right now, what's happening to them. And I'd like to share a
few of those with you.
A nice lady by the name of Judy emailed me saying she received a
letter from Blue Cross & Blue Shield stating that the plan she
currently has would no longer be available.
Now, if you can flash back a couple of years ago, our President--
President Obama--said repeatedly, You will be able to keep the health
care you have. You will be able to keep the doctor that you have.
Well, our worst fears are once again realized. Judy has had a change,
and she didn't choose it--someone else did.
And she goes on to say that a new plan was chosen for her where her
premiums will go up from $151 a month to $589 a month. My question is,
Chosen by whom? It certainly wasn't Judy who chose that. It was someone
else. It was Blue Cross & Blue Shield. Somewhere along the way, someone
else dictated to Judy what she would be able to have.
The reason she was given--and this actually was stated in the letter:
While rates often change due to rising costs of health
care, the new rules and regulations of the ACA, effective
January 1, 2014, contributed to the majority of the increase.
It literally stated in the letter that the reason her premiums were
going up so significantly was because of the implementation of the
Affordable Care Act.
Another constituent wrote:
Our self-employed son's insurance went up from $430 a month
to $900 a month.
That's almost double. That's almost a 100 percent increase.
We were promised lower costs and more competition. President Obama
said our premiums would be decreased by $2,500. Yet I am hearing the
opposite from my constituents.
One of the other issues that's happening in North Carolina right now
has to do, again, with the exchanges. One of the things that we found
out about a week ago was that the number of insurance companies that
were going to be offering plans on the exchange is two--two insurance
companies are offering plans.
There are 100 counties in North Carolina. One insurance company has a
monopoly, essentially. They can offer plans throughout North Carolina;
and in 61 of those counties, they have a monopoly. They're the only
plan being offered. They're the only insurance company being offered.
To that, they counter by saying, We're offering multiple plans. But
that's not competition. Competition is amongst the insurance companies
that should be provided. We were promised lower rates. You receive
lower rates with competition. It's very simple.
So only two insurance companies are providing health care coverage on
the exchanges in North Carolina. One has a monopoly throughout. The
other covers 39 counties. So you can see 61 counties having a monopoly.
That's not fair. How is that fair?
As my colleagues and I have been saying over and over again, this law
is not ready for prime time, And it never will be. That's the sad part.
It is never going to measure up to what we were promised. Even as
changes have been made to it, it still is lacking. It's filled with tax
increases. It's filled with mandates. This isn't the plan that we
should be following for health care.
I'm a nurse. I dedicated my life to health care. I came here to
Washington to fight ObamaCare. I never wanted to run for office before;
but in the summer of 2009, the President was on the road telling us all
about the health care plan that he wanted for America. My husband is a
general surgeon. We practice in our small town. We said we've got to go
out, and we've got to speak on this.
One of the things that the President also said was that,
overwhelmingly, doctors and nurses were in favor of this plan. We said,
No, Mr. President, this is not true. And we started speaking out
against it.
The same issues that I was raising with the people of North Carolina
that I was speaking about back then are the fears and the realities
that we're faced with now. The cost, the overreach, the inefficiency,
all affecting health care, all affecting our economy.
The workforce alone, as we know, is going to be changed from a 40-
hour work week to a 30-hour work week. We're going to become a part-
time America. That's not what our country was built on. And yet that's
what we're faced with with the implementation of ObamaCare.
That's why we've asked for a delay. That's why we believe that every
individual, every American should be receiving the same options that
Big Business has gotten with the 1,500-plus waivers given. Every
American should be able to say, I think it's a good idea
[[Page H6160]]
and I'll take it; or, No, I don't. Why should we not have that choice?
Why should every American not have that choice?
We need to delay it; but more importantly, we need to put a better
system in place. And the system that I support, at least at this point,
is the Republican Study Committee's plan for health care reform. It's
an alternative plan. It's the American Health Care Reform Act that we
rolled out a couple of weeks ago. It puts in place all of the pieces
that we know, one, that the American people want, that the American
people feel they need; but at the same time, it puts forward
flexibility, affordability. It's patient-centered. It's not government-
run.
They're the reforms that have been necessary, complete with tort
reform, liability reform that is such an essential piece, health care
savings plans, tax credits for individuals who are buying health care
insurance.
It is the answer to health care reform. You should be able to
purchase insurance across State lines. You shouldn't have to be told
that there are only two insurance companies that you can choose from.
These are the solutions in health care that we really should be
looking for--not given something, not told you have to have something,
not told that you will be penalized if you do not participate.
The whole point of an online marketplace was to provide options; but
as we are seeing, this couldn't be further from the truth.
And I thank my colleague from Kansas for allowing me to speak my mind
on this issue. It's so important to America, so important to these
times, with this government shutdown.
Ms. JENKINS. Thank you, Congresswoman Ellmers.
At this point I yield to my good friend from the great State of
Kansas, Representative Pompeo.
Mr. POMPEO. Thank you for yielding. I appreciate the time.
I imagine, Ms. Jenkins, you're hearing some of the same things as I
am as you return to Kansas and talk to our constituents.
This is serious business. We're standing here tonight with a partial
government shutdown, and I don't think anybody thinks that's the best
outcome for America. I think we all want America's essential vital
services and systems to be functioning and up and running, but what
we're dealing with in the Affordable Care Act is also a very serious
matter. It's very real. It's not a game.
I've heard some across the aisle suggest that by trying our best to
fund the pieces of the government that matter and not fund the
Affordable Care Act, we're taking hostages. I find that language, in
one sense, offensive. But most importantly, I find it inaccurate. It
doesn't represent what we're trying to do. We're not taking hostages.
What we're trying to do is take account of what our constituents are
telling us, and I want to talk about that just a little bit.
I tried to get online yesterday myself to enroll in the Affordable
Care Act. I was met with a bit of a blank screen and a long pause. I
did manage to get through to the 1-800 phone number that was provided
on the screen. I was told if I stayed on the line, 20 minutes later I'd
get a live voice. Some hour and 40 minutes later, I did manage to get a
live voice. There was great music in the interim.
And I got a live voice. It was a young lady who told me she was from
Louisiana. She said, Why did you call? I said, I'm calling to comply
with the Federal law. She said, I'm not going to be able to help you
with that today. My system is down, too.
She was a government contractor working out of Louisiana. I asked her
how long she'd been working on this. She said, Quite a while.
In fact, yesterday wasn't the first day of the Affordable Care Act.
We're now some 3 years into it. It's not the case that the bill was
passed and there wasn't enough time to have this system ready. I
imagine some of the kinks will get worked out. The President calls them
hiccups. I hope the hiccups are the worst medical ailment that comes
from the Affordable Care Act, but I fear that they won't be the worst
ailment.
In fact, I've already heard countless stories. I'll recount just
three of them.
Just today, I received an email from a small employer with about 60
folks throughout Kansas. He indicated to me that he just received this
week a letter indicating that his health insurance premiums for his
business--he's the number two guy in the company--were going to be up
somewhere between 30 and 40 percent. He reminded that his health care
premiums had gone up before, but he said he'd never seen anything like
this.
{time} 1930
A real impact, there will be a real impact. He's trying to figure
out, what do you do? How much of that cost gets passed on in copays and
deductibles to the employees? How much of that cost does the company
eat, making them less competitive in the global environment in which
they're trying to compete. A real story from a real Kansas business
impacting real lives.
I spoke 3 weeks ago, when I was last back in Kansas, with a number of
folks from some smaller hospitals in the rural part of south central
Kansas. Those are called critical access care hospitals. They serve
vital functions for less densely populated parts of our country.
I was talking about the impact of the Affordable Care Act and they
said, you know, things have been tough at some of these hospitals
before. There are times when it's difficult to make ends meet and to
provide all the services that people need. Docs come in from Wichita
and from Kansas City and from other places to help part-time to provide
these services in rural parts of the State. They said that after the
Affordable Care Act it would be even more difficult, almost impossible,
to keep these hospitals open and functioning and providing these
valuable services. Real lives, real Kansans, real people with a real
impact from the Affordable Care Act.
Finally, I met with a young couple during that same trip home. Both
of them work. They work at jobs where they were working for 40 hours a
week and have now been told it's likely that they won't. They were
still working 40 hours a week at the time. Their employer had just put
them on notice and had suggested then that they begin to look for
second jobs, or that maybe one spouse should leave that company and go
work someplace else. Of course the rationale that had been provided by
these people's employer was that if they continue to have full-time
employees--what America has always had, full-time employees, 40-hour
workweeks--that there would be an enormous cost that would flow to that
employer where they simply couldn't keep the business running with a
full-time work staff.
So here's two folks that had pretty good health benefits, great jobs,
40-hour-a-week jobs, jobs they were very happy with, jobs that
permitted them to take care of their families, and their life is going
to be changed. Real Kansans, real lives affected by the Affordable Care
Act.
We've seen this kind of thing all too often. I suspect that some of
these glitches at the beginning will probably get worked out, but you
can't fix provisions like that without fundamental changes to the
Affordable Care Act. I think that's pretty evident.
The President had seen this all coming. The President chose to
provide waivers for lots and lots of groups. Lots of folks who have
come and said: This is harsh; this is penal; this is not working; and
the President said: Here's a waiver. Here, you can have a change.
That's just not the American way. It's not the way that we operate
here, where we try to provide health care systems that are the same and
fair and equal for all American citizens and all American employers and
everyone who is trying to make their way and take care of their own
families. These are very real issues.
I have seen this fight over these last few weeks. It's no different
than the same discussions that have been taking place for 3 years. I've
been here almost that long in Congress where we've been talking about
what we thought would happen when this day came, when, for the first
time, people would have to begin to think about what real costs were,
what it was really going to look like.
And I wish, I truly wish that we had overblown the risk, we had
overdramatized what was really going to happen,
[[Page H6161]]
that we had falsely alerted the American people that the Affordable
Care Act was going to be a train wreck or a disaster; but, sadly, I
think the evidence, as it mounts, as it comes in, demonstrates that we
may have underestimated the risk. We may have underestimated how badly
this is going to impact the American economy. We may have
underestimated how many primary care physicians are going to just say
``I can't make a go of this anymore'' and leave the practice. After
all, right, it's not about insurance; it's not about having a piece of
paper or a card that says you're entitled to health care. It's about
receiving health care. It's about being fixed when you've got something
broken. It's about being cured when you've got something that's made
you sick.
This isn't about paper. This isn't about politics. This is about real
lives and kids who need treatment. It's not enough to say: It's
wonderful. I have this thing called ObamaCare, but I can't find a
physician who will treat me.
These are the kind of things that we need to work on and need to try
and fix.
I will say this lastly. There has been some suggestion that this is
partisan, this is about Democrats versus Republicans. For me, this is
not it at all. The President made a statement yesterday. He said this
bill was popular; this is why the system was overcrowded and you
couldn't get on. It's not popular; it's a law. These people didn't go
on this health care system because they like it. They did so because
they were required to do so on pain of penalty by the Federal
Government.
I saw today someone who had been told that if they didn't comply,
they might end up with a tax lien because they didn't pay a penalty.
This is not the American way. This is not a health care system that's
going to work.
I hope my colleagues will help us. I hope they will come to see that
all we're asking for at this point in time is not what we'd really
like--we've compromised already. What we would like to see at this
point is we are happy to compromise and settle just for a short time,
just for a delay, to try and make it better, to try and impact those
real people, those real Kansans who are going to be really impacted by
a law which won't do what it is the President promised it would do.
Ms. Jenkins, thank you for yielding the time.
Ms. JENKINS. Thank you, Congressman.
Speaking of Kansans, when President Obama originally touted this
health care law, he promised that Americans would see their health care
costs go down. With the rollout of the health care exchanges on
Tuesday, Kansans in my congressional district have finally been able to
see that their worst fears have been confirmed and this promise simply
isn't true.
Healthcare.gov has a county by county breakdown of health insurance
premiums offered by the two insurance carriers who agreed to
participate in the federally run exchanges. For a 27-year-old seeking
the least expensive insurance option in Crawford County or Cherokee
County in southeast Kansas, they will see over a 100 percent increase
in their insurance premiums over the State average for this past year.
Things don't get much better in other parts of my district. The same
person who lives in Topeka or Lawrence or Leavenworth will see a 62
percent premium increase over the State average for that same insurance
plan for this past year.
These are examples that are happening all over Kansas and all over
the country, and it makes it clear that the President's health care law
will continue to fail to control out-of-control health care costs.
With that, I would be happy to yield to my esteemed colleague from
Michigan (Mr. Walberg).
Mr. WALBERG. I thank the gentlelady for yielding time and for leading
this discussion of a way forward.
I appreciate the fact that we are now in a shutdown of government
that I fear has been intentionally perpetrated in order to force
something further on the American people.
I remember between my first term in office, after being defeated in
2008 to come back here and spending time for the next 2 years back in
my district, and in watching my colleagues--my former colleagues and
now my present colleagues--battle and debate on the floor of this great
Chamber, in this great House, this great Capitol, in the people's
House, the issue of what then was called the Affordable Care Act. I
remember reading about it and listening and speaking with colleagues
and asking what their impression was, and then ultimately hearing the
Speaker of the House say: Let's pass this, let's pass it and then we
can find out what's in it; and reading the comments of fellow
legislators who had not even read this full bill and understanding that
there was much in it, much that ultimately would be found out later on
to be an extreme problem, not just to carry out, not just to regulate,
not just to implement, as we've seen in the last couple of days--and we
can certainly assume that there will be break-in problems to get
something this massive, this intrusive, this complicated up and
working--but more so the problem of looking at a takeover of one-sixth
of our Nation's economy, the problem of challenging people with
something so complicated that even experts and consultants wouldn't be
able to tell them for sure what this would mean to them, but more
importantly, the impact upon liberty, freedom, the American ideal.
In the last 2 days, as we've debated the issue of a continuing
resolution, because of the unwillingness of the Congress of the United
States to ultimately get a budget in place to move ourselves forward--
we come to continuing resolutions to just move it forward a little bit
longer. That's not the way we should be doing it. That's not the way
this side of the aisle has requested and fought to make it happen. But
when there is an unwillingness to come in alongside and negotiate, come
to a table and work something forward, to put through appropriations
bills that implement the programs and pay for them, we have a problem.
So now here we are in a shutdown, a shutdown in the making of an
unwillingness of the Senate, yes, but I think more so the unwillingness
of leaders to listen to their people.
We've read the reports in the polls. We've heard before we went into
this battle the last few days that the American people want this
government to fund its basic services and not to shut down. We've also
read in those polls the same people, a majority, have said we want to
delay or defund or repeal the Affordable Care Act. So we have that as
our task and, at the very least, to delay to a point that we can see
what's in it and take action to amend, to repeal, or to completely go
to a plan that will work.
So we have veterans of the Second World War being locked out of going
to their war memorial, except for the fact that Members of Congress
have gone and opened up those gates.
I just got a call from a constituent of mine who is here in the
Capital today and wanted to go over and see the 9/11 Memorial at the
Pentagon. We assumed that that was open; it always is. There's no
guard. You can walk into that memorial. But that's closed. Why? Is it
because we want to make this problem harder for our citizens than it
should be in order for them to get over the idea of reading the bill,
knowing what's in it, and then asking for redress from their Members of
Congress who represent them?
I went to the E-Verify site yesterday and I saw E-Verify, a computer
program that's in place. It doesn't take a person to run it. It's
operating. It's a system. It's connected to all sorts of data systems.
Yesterday and today it says:
Alert. E-Verify is unavailable due to the Federal
Government shutdown. For more information, please click here.
This is what is being done to the citizens of the United States to
produce the pain through the shutdown experience in order to ultimately
say: Uncle, I will give in to a law. Yes, it is a law, but a law can
always be redressed and changed. And they're asking for us to take the
time to look at the Affordable Care Act, now known as ObamaCare.
A lady in Jackson, Michigan, in the heart of my district, called in
to our office, our local office and, in tears, said: Here's my problem.
This morning, my employer, a local provider of home health care who I
have worked for for a number of years for 35 hours, and then I make up
the difference of my 40 hours that I need and beyond by working in a
restaurant on the weekends,
[[Page H6162]]
this employer of mine told me today that they're moving me now to 25
hours instead of 35. And why? Because of the Affordable Care Act. She
said: It's not affordable to me because now I will have less income,
less hours. How do I pay my mortgage, and how do I buy health
insurance?
Or it's the autoworker in Monroe, Michigan, on Lake Erie in my
district, a hardworking guy who said to me at a town hall meeting just
a week and a half ago: Mr. Congressman, I want you to know that times
are tough. I have some great concerns. My wife is sick and I have a
$900 a month health care bill that I have to pay. But I want you to
stand firm. And I said: Sir, what do you mean by ``stand firm''? He
said: Shut down ObamaCare. Give us back our choice, our freedom.
The 54-employee business in Adrian, Michigan, who told me last week
that--and they're beyond the level of being able to just simply toss
off the insurance to the employees. They're not wanting to cut from
their 54 employees down to below 50. But they received a notice from
their insurance company that they were being canceled, and when
approached, they were told it was in preparation for the uncertainties
of the Affordable Care Act.
{time} 1945
That shouldn't be the experience in the State of Michigan or any
other place in this great country. That shouldn't be the experience--
that employers are encouraged to downsize as opposed to continue to
expand. I could go through testimony after testimony similar of the
challenges that have come from the Affordable Care Act that has become
unaffordable and unmanageable.
All we are asking for is the opportunity to work together to
negotiate toward a compromise on the way forward, Mr. Speaker. That's
possible.
We passed a bill the other day unanimously to fund our military. The
Senate passed that. That shows that if we want to, it can get done.
This summer, 35 Democrats voted with Republicans to delay the
employer mandate and 22 voted to delay the individual mandate.
Seventeen voted to repeal the medical device tax last week, as recently
as last week.
We can get things to work if we are willing to sit down and negotiate
toward a compromise that speaks to the concerns of our constituents.
Seven of the more than 40 bills the House has approved to repeal all or
part of the ObamaCare have been signed into law.
We could go on and on, Mr. Speaker.
But I get to a final point of concern for me. With the Affordable
Care Act, otherwise known as ObamaCare, we also have crossed the line
into the areas of our personal freedoms and our rights of conscience.
Yes, I was a minister by training and background before going into
politics. I understand there are religious beliefs, there are
denominational beliefs, and there are a lot of differences. But the
beauty of this great country, Mr. Speaker, is that we have always
espoused the opportunity for freedom of religion and rights of
conscience regardless. We have truly had plurality in our country.
Yet this one act is tromping down on the individual rights of
conscience and religious liberties, our First Amendment in the U.S.
Constitution. A former Prime Minister of the Netherlands back in the
1900s by the name of Abraham Kuyper really made this point of where I
am going, Mr. Speaker, when he said:
When principles that run against your deepest convictions
begin to win the day, then battle is your calling and peace
has become sin. You must at the price of dearest peace lay
your convictions bare before friend and enemy with all the
fire of your faith.
When we hear of the little Sisters of Mercy being told that they are
not religious enough to carry on their rights of conscience in
relationship to the Affordable Care Act, Mr. Speaker, we have a
problem. When we have a devout Catholic business owner who employs
several hundred employees in the west part of Michigan who, because of
his rights of conscience, has chosen to say we will provide insurance
for our employees under the Affordable Care Act or any act, but we
cannot provide insurance that violates our long-standing, strong-held
rights of conscience, and courts say, because of this act, no, you
can't do that.
Mr. Speaker, it is time to identify the challenges here, to read what
is in the bill, to implement the changes necessary or go back, I
believe, to the first and foremost principle of this great country, and
that is liberty and justice for all, and develop a program that expands
choice, opportunity, responsibility, variety, competition, and
ultimately the ability for our citizens, our constituents, the people
we serve, to care for their lives, their health in the best way
possible with their government standing on their side, not in their
way.
I appreciate the opportunity to speak to this issue. It needs to be
spoken to over and over and over again until ultimately we win the day
and give back that liberty and opportunity to our American citizens.
Ms. JENKINS. Thank you, Congressman Walberg.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank you for allowing my colleagues and
I to speak to the American people about the destructive provisions of
the President's health care law, the constant stream of delays that
have come from the President's administration, the costly effect it
will have on folks all over the country, and the rocky implementation
it has experienced so far.
I believe we have made it clear that this law is simply not ready to
meet the needs of the American people. It is unfair to punish regular
folks while giving preferential treatment to big businesses, unions,
and Members of Congress. We hope our Democrat colleagues will work with
us to provide fairness for all and say ``no'' to special treatment.
I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________