[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 145 (Monday, October 14, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H6580-H6587]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 3, 2013, the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Hartzler) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Mrs. HARTZLER. Tonight the country is facing great challenges--the
challenges of ObamaCare, of runaway spending here in Washington, and of
our fiscal crisis that is increasing our debt over and over again. Now
is the time for solutions, and now is the opportunity that we have to
get things right and to turn things around. I am looking forward
tonight to visiting with my colleagues about the challenges we have
before us as well as the opportunities.
You know, this situation that we are in today kind of reminds me of a
story that I heard a few years ago. I think it is very fitting to this
time in history. This is a true story. There was a man who went hunting
with his dog many years ago; and as he walked through the great
outdoors and came back from his hunting trip, he noticed that his pants
were covered with something that in Missouri we call cockleburs. If you
are not from Missouri or that part of the country, it is basically a
weed, and it leaves very prickly seed pods that are about the size of a
dime. And they will stick to anything from your clothes to your pet's
fur, or anything else that happens to brush against it as it passes by
the weed.
So this man got to looking at all of these cockleburs on his pants
and his dog when he got back, and he was trying to pull them off and
clean them off. And then he stopped a minute and got to look at that
cocklebur and he got to thinking: What is it that causes this cocklebur
to stick so well? And he wondered, is there a way we could use that
same format to help provide some solutions.
He thought about some friends who had arthritis, that had trouble
buttoning up their shirt or zipping things. He thought about young
children, and they have trouble fastening things together. And he
thought, I wonder if we could take this challenge of this cocklebur and
make an opportunity out of it.
{time} 1930
Do you know what he did? He invented something we all use every day
called ``Velcro.'' He laid the groundwork for what I think we need to
do here in Washington: take the challenges before us and use them as an
opportunity in this point in history to create a better health care
system that addresses Americans' needs, that gets spending under
control, makes government more efficient and more effective, and it
also addresses our long-term debt and reverses course so that we will
get out of debt as a Nation and balance the budget. This is the
opportunity that we have before us.
Before my colleagues share their thoughts on this, I want to talk
just a minute about the challenges that we have in ObamaCare. There are
so many reasons that at this time in history we
[[Page H6581]]
have been taking a stand here in the House and saying: it is time to
reverse this onerous policy, because the American people don't want it
and it is hurting them.
I wanted to share at least seven things that are challenging about
this law:
The first thing is that ObamaCare is causing an increase in premiums.
I got last week an email from a constituent who sells insurance back
home. They were very distraught because they had a customer come in who
wanted to renew their health insurance. After they figured out what it
would mean through ObamaCare, they discovered this customer was going
to have to pay $1,500 a month. That isn't even the full premium. Their
employer would pay some others. So when you added it all up, this
family--she had to tell them--was going to have to pay $18,000 a year
for their health care. This makes a difference in that family whether
they can send a child to college or not. It is wrong. We need to have
some solutions here.
Something else I heard today: I was visiting with a constituent who
told me that they went on the exchanges to see what ObamaCare would do
to their health care premiums. What she found out is that her insurance
next year is going to cost $200 more a month than she is paying right
now, plus she is going to have to have a larger deductible and her
coverage is going to decrease. So she was obviously very upset.
ObamaCare is increasing premiums and increasing costs on Americans.
That is wrong. It is time for solutions.
Number two, ObamaCare is killing jobs. Despite what others on the
other side of the aisle say, it is killing jobs. One in five small
businesses report that they are letting employees go due to the new
law. Others are deciding not to expand their business due to the new
law. The Gallup survey this year found a staggering 41 percent of small
business owners are holding off hiring new employees due to ObamaCare,
and 38 percent have pulled back on plans to grow their business.
I have an example I wanted to share with you from my own district. I
was visiting with a small business owner the other day. They are doing
pretty well. They have a small business that has been growing. The
exciting thing is, they said: Representative Hartzler, we want to open
up a second location, we want to hire some new workers, we are very
excited about it. But they looked at ObamaCare and the requirements
involved and they said: We cannot afford it. If we open up the second
location and hire new workers, we are not going to be able to keep
going. So they decided not to expand their business.
Now, the thing that makes this extra tragic is, in this town there
has been a manufacturing plant closed down over the last few years.
There are hundreds of people in my district looking for work who would
love to have that job, but because of ObamaCare they are not going to
be able to do it. This business owner wants to expand, but they can't.
That is wrong. ObamaCare is killing jobs. That is why it is time for
solutions.
Number three, ObamaCare is reducing the take-home pay. It has been
many years since many Americans have got a raise. They are ``making
do,'' but if anybody goes to the store like I do every weekend and buys
groceries and other things for your family, you know that things are
costing more and more. So we have a real problem here. Americans aren't
getting pay increases and yet the cost of living is going up.
There are many businesses that are cutting back on their employees'
hours because of ObamaCare to get them under the 30-hour requirement.
In fact, a U.S. Chamber of Commerce Small Business Outlook Study showed
that 27 percent of businesses have and will cut hours to reduce from
full-time employees to part-time. So we are becoming ``part-time
America'' because of this law.
Just today, I got an email from a large business owner in Missouri,
and here is what they said. It validates this very point. It says:
As one of the largest out of state employers in Missouri,
we are not expanding or hiring. Our health insurance costs
will increase by an estimated $800,000 in 2014 due to
ObamaCare, despite significant reductions in coverage for our
employees and reducing hours to less than 30 hours per week
where we can. Our taxes have gone up, regulations are
overwhelming, and there is no end in sight.
It is happening.
Number four, ObamaCare is jeopardizing our personal security and our
privacy. How would you like to have your Social Security number made
available to everybody? According to an August 7 Forbes magazine
article:
In order for ObamaCare to work, the government will need to
know a lot about your financial, medical, and employment
situation.
And this could very well--ObamaCare's exchanges--end up
illegally exposing American's private records to hackers and
criminals.
Just last week, when ObamaCare went online, McAfee, which is one of
the Nation's premier Internet security companies, they tweeted out that
ObamaCare is a ``hacker's dream.'' This is very, very concerning. It is
clearly time for solutions.
Five, ObamaCare is simply not working. I am sure many of you have
heard the news reports. This is just a 4-page outline of all the
different headlines from around the country about how this is not
working.
Florida:
The glitches in the new electronic health care sign-up
system began almost immediately, and they never let up.
Missouri:
But in Kansas and Missouri, it was more fizzle than bang.
North Dakota:
North Dakota Insurance Commissioner Adam Hamm said he and
his staff were monitoring the Federal Web site Tuesday but
were unable to access it.
West Virginia:
Ten hours later--after two attempts at signing up and one
45-minute call with a consumer service agent--technical
glitches have prevented the 60-year-old grandfather from
purchasing a plan.
It goes on and on. There are real problems there.
Six, ObamaCare is unfair. President Obama has exempted Big Business
from having to comply with ObamaCare for a year, and he has granted
over 1,300 waivers, yet he hasn't given a waiver to the hardworking
American public who deserves it. That is not fair.
And lastly, something that a lot of people don't know, but a lot of
people should care about, is that ObamaCare uses tax dollars to pay for
abortions for the first time, and it hides the fact that people will be
paying for abortions in their monthly bill.
Here is how it works. The law says that at least one policy in every
exchange has to cover abortion. But it also says--the law says--that
they can only disclose that as part of the huge summary of benefits in
all the fine print that is there at only the time of initial sign-up.
So many people right now are going online, and they have got these
policies that come up and there is all this fine print. They don't even
know that that policy includes abortion.
ObamaCare is going to have subsidies to help people pay for their
premium. That subsidy comes from our tax dollars. Many Americans do not
want their hard-earned tax dollars to go and pay for abortion, yet it
will. Sadly, the people many times will not even know if their policy
has abortion or not. There are many Americans who support life, and
when they go to buy it directly, they will not know.
Inside the bill, not only does it cover abortion, but ObamaCare has
what is called a ``secrecy clause'' in it that specifically says that
that charge for the abortion fee cannot be listed in their monthly
bill. So many pro-life Americans who value life unknowingly will buy an
insurance policy that is covering abortion, and every month they will
be paying their own hard-earned dollars to go towards abortion. It is
just wrong.
So clearly, clearly we need some solutions. Republicans do have
solutions. We are putting forth a health care bill that replaces and is
better than ObamaCare. It allows for increased access and lower costs.
You are going to be hearing more about it in the days to come. We call
it the ``American Health Care Reform Act.'' There are better solutions.
We have got a lot of challenges with ObamaCare, but this is our
opportunity to make it better for the American people, and that is what
we are going to do.
We also have a challenge of a huge debt crisis at this time in
history. I
[[Page H6582]]
know many of my colleagues here are going to share about that. We have
got to quit spending money we don't have. People at home are tightening
their belt. It is time for Washington to do that too.
This is where we are at tonight--Monday night, October 14, 2013. How
this is going to play out, we don't know. But I know I am going to
continue to fight for positive solutions that are good for the American
people. I am going to be looking for opportunities to take the
cockleburs of life and look at them and say: Is there a way to turn
this around and make something good out of it?
I believe that is where we are right now. We can make something good
of this situation. It has been hard on Americans, it is hard on
families, there is a lot of uncertainty. It has been hard on us as
Members of Congress.
But we can make something better than has ever happened before from
this country. We can produce a health care bill that the American
people deserve. We can rein in this runaway spending and get it right,
make government more efficient and more effective, and we can address
our debt crisis. We can do it. That is our challenge, that is our
opportunity, that is why we are fighting, that is why we are here
tonight.
I want to thank my colleagues who stayed tonight to share their
thoughts on this important time in history, this Monday night that we
are at.
I would like to yield to my friend from Utah, Chris Stewart.
Mr. STEWART. I would like to thank the gentlewoman, Representative
Hartzler, for sharing the floor with myself and other colleagues
tonight. It is an honor, especially on a topic that all of us know and
recognize that is so very, very important.
Dean Acheson once said that ``Negotiation in the classic diplomatic
sense assumes parties are more anxious to agree than to disagree.''
For the past 2 weeks, President Obama and Senator Harry Reid have
made it very, very clear that they are much more anxious to disagree
than they are to agree with Republicans--a situation that has very
honestly prevented sincere negotiations. It is impossible to work out a
deal when one party just sits on the sidelines and won't talk, like we
have experienced over the last few weeks with the President. Now, we
heard rumors this afternoon that the President has finally begun to
negotiate with Republicans. I hope that that is true because our
Founding Fathers established a system that was intended to be
deliberative.
Whether you agree or disagree with the President, this much we know:
he has been willing to push our Nation toward an economic crisis all
for the sake of a political agenda. When this happens, every American
loses. It doesn't have to be this way. It shouldn't be this way.
For 14 years, I was an Air Force pilot--which was, by the way, the
coolest job in the world. I loved doing that. At one point, I was
selected to be a member of the START verification team--Strategic Arms
Reduction Team. Of course, we were working with the Russians during
this time. They would come to my base to verify that we had complied
with elements of the START treaty.
During the 1990s, the Russians were not our friends. By the way, Mr.
Speaker, I would cautiously add that today the Russians are not our
friends either. These were in some cases tense and very carefully
orchestrated events, but we did them. We extended a hand of trust and
fellowship between two nations that had very little in common and had
much to lose if they did not develop a working relationship.
Mr. Speaker, if we could do it then between the Russian and the U.S.
militaries, surely we, with the Republicans and the President, could do
the same thing now. The President is the leader of this Nation. He has
a responsibility to lead. But part of leadership is being willing to
sit down and in a sincere way be willing to listen to the other side.
The President has failed in this responsibility and the Nation has paid
a price.
Before being elected to Congress, I was the president and owner of a
small company. Being part of a small business means developing
relationships that are built upon trust. With the disastrous rollout of
ObamaCare, the President has clearly broken the trust of the American
people.
$634 million--$634 million--that is how much it cost to develop the
ObamaCare Web site.
{time} 1945
Facebook operated for 6 years on less money than that. Twitter was
launched and operated for less than half the cost. Instagram, LinkedIn,
Spotify all were designed, implemented, and operational at a fraction
of the price of the ObamaCare Web page. And yet, in one of the most
embarrassing moments in ObamaCare history, and I believe this will be a
history that will be rife with embarrassing moments, news organizations
had to search high and low throughout the country to find one person
who could be verified that they had actually signed up on the ObamaCare
Web page. And, of course, days later we had born the legend of Chad,
something many people are very familiar with.
Harkening back to my military days, if I had been given a mission and
had so utterly failed to accomplish that mission, I would have been
held accountable. So I ask, Mr. Speaker, when will Kathleen Sebelius be
held accountable for this disaster? After more than 3 years and after
more than $630 million and a failure to launch such as this, why does
she still have her job?
But let's remember this: at the end of the day, we are not talking
about ObamaCare, and we are not really talking about a Web page or a
sequester or a continuing resolution. What we are really talking about
at the end of the day is our Nation's crushing national debt. Our
national debt is now approaching $17 trillion. Now, President Obama
congratulates himself on having reduced the debt by half; but listen,
when you run up a debt after 1 year in office of $1.2 trillion or $1.3
trillion, when you have nearly 4 years in a row of a greater than a
trillion-dollar annual deficit, and then you congratulate yourself
because you cut it $6 or $7 billion, that is not something to
celebrate.
Now is the time to work together towards a balanced budget and
actually beginning to pay down that debt. Yes, this is a tough
decision, but we were elected to make tough decisions. My plea to the
Senate and to the President is: Please, come to the table. Let's start
the conversation now about how we can put our fiscal house in order.
Time is running out.
With that, once again, Mrs. Hartzler, thank you for yielding to me.
Mrs. HARTZLER. Thank you, Chris. I really appreciate your
perspective. As a former Air Force pilot, I think what you said about
leadership is very true. It is time for the President to show some
leadership and for us to get together and to talk about this. That is
why it is time for solutions. Thanks for sharing those things.
Now I would like to yield to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr.
Scalise), who is chairman of the Republican Study Committee and a real
leader here in this House, and I certainly appreciate you sharing
tonight.
Mr. SCALISE. I thank the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Hartzler)
for her leadership as the chair of the RSC Communications Committee for
leading this effort to talk about real solutions. Of course, today we
are in day 14 of a government shutdown, a shutdown that has seen
Republicans bring proposal after proposal after proposal to fund
government. In fact, Mr. Speaker, I want to point out, there are more
than 20 bills now that have been passed by the House of Representatives
to fund all or parts of the Federal Government--20 bills. This chart
chronicles the timeline, going back to September 20, well in advance of
the midnight hour where, today, on day 14, by the way, President Obama
has still yet to even engage in conversations.
In fact, we went to the White House Thursday to meet with the
President, sat in a room with him for an hour and a half. The simple
offer was: Mr. President, we will increase the debt ceiling. All we are
asking is for you to start talking, just to agree to have
conversations; and, unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, we left that meeting
without the President even being willing to start talking.
And so we are 14 days into a government shutdown that the President
is decrying and calling people names. You have got people in the White
House literally calling people suicide bombers,
[[Page H6583]]
terrorists, and all kinds of other things that are so unbecoming of the
Office of the President of the United States--again, a President who
said he was going to change the tone in Washington allowing people in
his White House to call people on the opposition terrorists and suicide
bombers--and yet he refuses to even sit at the table and negotiate our
differences while we have passed 20 different bills to fund all or
parts of government.
What are some of those parts of government? A bill to fund veterans
affairs. Mr. Speaker, for all the areas of disagreement we have in
Washington--and clearly, with a divided Nation with a divided
government, there are areas where we have disagreement, but we should
all be able to come to the table and say we ought to fund our veterans
while we are negotiating our differences on the things we disagree
upon.
And yet we sent the bill over to the Senate to fund our veterans, and
Harry Reid tabled that bill, Mr. Speaker. We sent a bill to say that
disaster aid shouldn't be something that we disagree over. We passed a
bill with bipartisan votes and sent it over to the Senate. In fact, we
saw one of the most disgraceful acts by a Commander in Chief, Mr.
Speaker, where for days we saw this administration refusing to give
death benefits to our fallen heroes, a moment I don't think we have
seen in our Nation's history.
And we passed a bill to say don't hold our veterans hostage, and yet
you still see barricades--I call them ``Obamacades''--up in front of
the World War II Memorial, an open-air memorial where, in normal days,
there is nobody there being paid to guard or block this memorial. It is
an open-air memorial built to honor our World War II heroes. And yet
when our World War II heroes come from all around the country, some in
their nineties, come to see their memorial, they are greeted by
barricades by this administration. This is the kind of embarrassing
leadership that we are getting out of the White House when all we are
saying is let's negotiate our differences like has always been done.
When Ronald Reagan was President, Tip O'Neill was the Speaker, and
you had divided government. There were 12 different shutdowns during
that time in our Nation's history. What Ronald Reagan did as a leader,
as a great leader, one that we surely miss today, Ronald Reagan started
having regular meetings with Tip O'Neill. They actually built a
relationship, started getting things done. And we saw one of the
greatest revolutions, economic expansion in our Nation's history
because you had a real leadership in the White House.
Mr. Speaker, again, we have sent 20 different bills over to the
Senate, all chronicled, many of which had large Democrat votes out of
the House. Still to this day, not one word from the President over
whether he would agree to start talking. Of course, he wants to make it
all about ObamaCare. Clearly, there are big areas where we have
disagreement, but it is not just a partisan issue. It is not just
Republicans who have issues with ObamaCare. Let's start with the
occupant of the Oval Office.
Barack Obama has problems with ObamaCare. He has issued over 1,200
waivers to his signature law, as the gentlelady from Missouri pointed
out. I have yet to find one small business in my district who got one
of those waivers, by the way. It was handed out to a lot of special-
interest friends who could get access to the White House. Is that the
way the government is supposed to run? In fact, he even worked out a
deal to give Members of Congress an exemption from his signature health
care law.
So what we are saying, Mr. Speaker, is why don't we start with the
basic premise of fairness. If this law is so good, make it apply to
everybody. If it is not that good, if it is so bad you need to issue
1,200 waivers to your friends, Mr. Speaker, then why not give that same
waiver to all Americans until this thing is ready to work, which
clearly it is not. As somebody once said, the failures of this law,
October 1 was a date that for 3 years they knew was coming, where these
exchanges had to be up and running, and now we are hearing debacle
after debacle, people registering 12, 14 times without being able to
get through. Somebody said it is like Flowers.com not being prepared
for Valentine's Day.
So as we stand here today talking about getting our economy back on
track and talking about the 20 different proposals we have sent over to
the Senate to get government up and running, most of which have not
been given even a minute's consideration, literally tabled on party-
line votes by Senator Reid, what we are saying is: How about just
fairness? Let's start with fairness and make ObamaCare apply to
everybody. If it is that good, why don't we make it apply to everybody?
Get rid of all these special waivers, all these special backroom deals
to everybody from the President's friends to Members of Congress. Let's
make it apply to everybody. Let's get the government back open, and
let's start tackling our long-term spending problems that are causing
programs like Medicare and Social Security to face bankruptcy where we
have put good plans on the table to save those programs from bankruptcy
and, frankly, Mr. Speaker, to save our country from bankruptcy so we
can hand off to our kids and grandkids the same opportunity that we
enjoy today in the greatest country in the history of the world, a
country that is facing serious problems, a country, unfortunately,
facing a lack of leadership from the President who, 14 days into a
government shutdown, still to this day has not even agreed to start
talking with people from the other party to work out those differences.
I thank the gentlewoman from Missouri for creating this forum to talk
about solutions, and my other colleagues in the Republican Study
Committee who have been bringing forward solution after solution to get
our economy moving again and restore the greatness that this country
knows is there, that beacon of light that we are all fighting for here
tonight on the House floor.
Mrs. HARTZLER. I thank you, Mr. Scalise, talking about the leadership
that we have been providing here in the House.
I think it is very important that people know, we proactively worked
to make sure that government stayed open. We passed these bills way
before October 1. Unfortunately, we haven't had leadership from the
White House or from the Senate willing to come together. Thank you for
bringing that up.
In fact, something that a lot of people don't know is that, at this
point in the House of Representatives, we have already passed one-third
of all appropriations bills in the continuing resolution. We have been
passing bill after bill to keep this government open, to fund it and
make sure it keeps going and working for the American people. The
Senate has not passed them. They haven't taken them up. So it is not us
that has shut down the government or is responsible for this lapse in
funding, and it is certainly not us that is keeping it shut. Thank you
very much for sharing that.
Now I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Weber). I am glad to
have you here tonight and appreciate what you have to share.
Mr. WEBER of Texas. I thank the gentlewoman from Missouri.
Mr. Speaker, it is good to be here.
Mr. Speaker, since 1978, the debt ceiling has been raised 53 times,
and 27 of these increases have been used as a negotiating tool both by
Congress and the President. So why not now, Mr. President? Can we not
negotiate now? And to borrow a somewhat trite phrase from days gone by,
yes, we can.
Sadly, today we have a President who does not want to make any
concessions with House Republicans. You know, Thomas Jefferson once
said, ``Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold.'' Has pride
gotten in the way, clouding the judgment of our President, do you
think, Mr. Speaker? Has this President chosen party politics and his
unworkable health care law over working with House Republicans toward
fair solutions that would help hardworking Americans keep more money in
their pockets?
Mr. Speaker, think with me here for a second. During the debt ceiling
debate in March 2006, then-Senator Obama said:
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 cannot pay its own bills. It is a sign
that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from
foreign countries to finance
[[Page H6584]]
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 choices today onto
the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a
debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve
better.
Yet, here we are, 7 years later, and we are debating the exact same
thing. Why is that okay, now, I would ask him, Mr. Speaker. Why is that
okay, now, Mr. President? Do we have a failure of leadership? Can we
admit that? Yes, we can.
It is a failure of leadership also for spewing such venomous rhetoric
when the governing process doesn't go your way, calling Republicans
names. It is a failure of not listening to the American people. Can we
call this a failure of leadership? Yes, we can.
{time} 2000
The American people want the government reopened. They want to make
their own health care decisions. The shutdown the American people want
is the out-of-control government spending, the $17 trillion debt that
has been amassed that the President in his own words said ``is a
failure of leadership,'' and then in another instance, ``unpatriotic.''
Mr. Speaker, House Republicans have put forth proposal after proposal
to fund this government, to keep it open, to protect the American
people from the President's hostile takeover of the health care system.
Sadly, we still have a President and a Senate majority leader acting
like petulant children, refusing to come to the table to negotiate,
prolonging that failure of leadership. Each day that passes, with the
Affordable Care Act going into effect, our Nation's fiscal health gets
worse--a failure of leadership. I love America too much to let it fall
under these circumstances. I will not stand by and watch as our country
crumbles because of a President who is not willing to work with us and
come to the table and to carry out this prolonged failure of
leadership.
I am Randy Weber, and America is worth fighting for. I thank the
gentlewoman from Missouri for fighting alongside me and continuing this
valiant effort.
Mrs. HARTZLER. Thank you, Randy. It is an honor to stand beside you
in this. This is a time for solutions. And people wonder, Can we get
this right? Can we make things better? Can we keep the opportunity for
the future? With you, I would say, Yes, we can, but we are going to
keep working on it. Thank you very much.
I now yield to my friend from the Midwest, from Indiana, Marlin
Stutzman. What would you like to share with us tonight?
Mr. STUTZMAN. First, I would like to thank the gentlewoman for
yielding and organizing this Special Order about solutions. That is
what the American people expect from us as Congress, whether you are a
Republican or whether you are a Democrat. The American people are
looking to Washington to find solutions, to work together, to make
America strong again. So I want to thank you for your comments today
and for representing your district so well.
It doesn't take much to sort out and to realize the difficulty that
we are facing in our country and what our Federal Government is facing:
$17 trillion in debt, a struggling economy, a health care system that
does need to be fixed. People are looking to Washington to gain
confidence in the marketplace. And in spite of Washington, you will
find bright spots throughout the country where good things are
happening, but it is not enough. We can still do better. And it is time
for Washington to find solutions for our economy, for the American
people, for American families so that way when a family sits down to
have dinner tonight, they are not going to be wondering if Dad is going
to be going to work next week. They don't have to worry whether Mom
will have her job the following month. What is going to happen after
Christmas time? What is going to happen next year? They hear so many
different stories about the new health care law and what it means for
them. What is their insurance plan going to be like next year? There
are so many unknowns and questions that are not answered because of the
uncertainty that Washington has placed irresponsibly on the American
people.
While we know we have $17 trillion of debt, a deficit that is running
out of balance, a health care law that is crushing the American people
today, an Independent Payment Advisory Board that has 15 board members
that are unelected and unaccountable who will be making health care
decisions for Americans in the near term, we still have an unemployment
rate of 8 percent and mandates from ObamaCare that are forcing
companies to cut hours. Too much uncertainty is being created by our
Federal Government.
Small businesses are trying to figure out how they are going to make
ends meet next year, how they are going to plan their budget when they
know the mandates and the cost of insurance continue to crush them, how
they are going to create new jobs and expand their companies if
regulations continue to hamper them and the new health care law
continues to sidetrack them.
One of the taxes that is in the health care law that is driving jobs
away from Indiana is the medical device tax, also known as the
pacemaker tax, the wheelchair tax. Anything that is a medical device,
such as a hip, a knee, a joint, these things are taxed now because of
ObamaCare. It is over 20,000 jobs just in Indiana. Warsaw, Indiana, in
particular, is the orthopedic capital of the world. It is the home to
Zimmer, Biomet, DePuy, Paragon, and so many other companies that are
doing so much remarkable work for the betterment of Americans.
I know that my grandmother had her hip replaced before she passed
away 10 years ago, and it changed her life. It gave her a new ability
to enjoy life with her children and her grandchildren. This is an
industry that is being harmed by ObamaCare, and it is time that we take
a step back and reevaluate and find new solutions.
Unfortunately, this tax is putting 2,000 jobs in jeopardy in Indiana,
and I believe that it is time for Washington, for the President, for
the Senate, and for the House to come together. Let's stop stumbling
from crisis to crisis. That is not the best way to govern. The American
people are tired of the way Washington has these cycles of political
stunts and fiscal cliffs and all these other manufactured crises.
Hoosiers know, as many Americans know, that in order to get a job
done, you have to sit down and figure out a way to get it done, talk
about it, and then go out and do it. But Washington is broke because
government spends too much and talks too little. So I think now is the
time for us to get serious about our debt. We need to reform our
entitlement programs. We need to work towards reforming our Tax Code.
We have solutions. We have ideas. We can make things better for not
only the American people, but for the world, if we would just trust the
instincts of the American people. If we followed those instincts and
followed the example of the American people, the Federal Government
would be in a much better place today.
It is time for solutions, and I want to thank the gentlewoman for
yielding and for her leadership on this issue tonight.
Mrs. HARTZLER. Thank you very much, Marlin. That is right: it is time
for solutions. And I very much appreciate you bringing up the concern
with the taxes. We haven't talked about that yet tonight, but there are
20 new taxes in ObamaCare, and especially, as you pointed out, the
medical device tax, which is very onerous and killing jobs all over.
The statement you said that is going to stick with me most tonight
that I hope the American people remember and that I love that you just
said is that Washington is broke because it spends too much and it
talks too little. Well said.
Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts.
I now yield to my friend from Michigan, Kerry Bentivolio.
Mr. BENTIVOLIO. Thank you. I would like to thank the gentlewoman from
Missouri for the opportunity to speak on this important issue.
Mr. Speaker, I stand before this Chamber today to talk about the
Democrat shutdown.
In the House we are standing strong to prevent ObamaCare from hurting
people. Just today, the Detroit Free Press, a liberal-leaning paper,
reported that two health insurance companies are dropping the low-cost
plans for
[[Page H6585]]
146,000 Michigan families due to ObamaCare. This will cost each of
these families thousands of dollars per year, more to be covered by
ObamaCare-approved health care plans. That is unacceptable. Our
government is shut down because the extreme liberal Democrats refuse to
negotiate and have rejected bills to keep most of the government open.
This behavior reminds me of a spoiled child having a temper tantrum who
runs to their room, slams the door shut, and refuses to come out until
their demands are met.
This is no way to behave and is a disservice to all Americans. Mr.
Speaker, they are obsessed with forcing health care legislation, which
they are exempt from, onto the American people. They want two classes,
the majority who live under ObamaCare and the elite who use their
connections to get waivers.
By refusing to fund veterans, to keep the parks open, or support
pediatric cancer research, Senate and House Democrats are showing whose
side they are on, and it is not the American people.
I plead with my responsible, adult Democrat colleagues that it is not
too late. Let's move forward. Join the rest of the American people and
support equality under the law.
Mrs. HARTZLER. Thank you, Kerry. And thank you for your leadership. I
know you have been going down to the World War II Memorial and helping
to open up the barricades for our Honor Flights coming in. It is sad
that we have to do that, but thank you for your leadership in that.
I now turn to one of your colleagues from Michigan, Bill Huizenga,
and yield time to him.
Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. Thanks. I appreciate my good friend from
Missouri putting this together and having this conversation.
This is a conversation we need to have with the American people.
There is obviously a lot of misinformation that is going out over the
airwaves as we have talked about a number of times, and I think people
are looking for that information. I know I have been tweeting out a few
of the articles that I have come across on my iPhone here.
For those of you out there watching, it is @RepHuizenga. I would love
for you to follow me and take a look at this, this #Time4Solutions hash
tag that we have going here because it is talking about some of those
challenges, as well as the solutions that, I think, we are all looking
for.
I appreciate you pointing out to my friend and colleague from
Michigan, Kerry Bentivolio, who is a great veteran himself of Iraq, as
well as earlier times, and has done a couple of tours. For me, that
World War II Memorial was something very special to be able to be a
part of. That first day, there weren't television cameras around, there
wasn't media. There wasn't anybody around except for those of us who
cared about making sure that our veterans had an opportunity to go in
and see a memorial that they earned.
I will tell you, as someone who is the son of a disabled World War II
veteran, a man who suffered a B-24 crash in Italy in 1944, I can tell
you I know how powerful it is for him, how powerful it was for his
buddies that he was able to go to the memorial, and how powerful it was
for me as a family member to be along on that very special day. The
least that we can do is to open that up.
It is not just the World War II Memorial. It is the Korea memorial. I
had a chance to bring a group of veterans from the Grand Rapids area in
my district and in and around Kentwood and those areas. We went down to
the World War II Memorial, and we also went down to the Korea memorial.
That is where most of them were. They were greeted with no crowds, but
the same barricades, as well as a park ranger who was in a very tough
spot. He told me, Congressman, I am here to tell you that this monument
is closed, this park is closed. I said, Well, respectfully I am here to
tell you that I am going to help my constituents exercise their First
Amendment rights and open up that barricade. We were able to get some
people in there.
Today, as I was coming in, I drove past the Martin Luther King
memorial. It was the same thing. There were buses lined up on the
street with their flashers going, and there was a tremendous number of
people in there exercising their First Amendment right, that civil
disobedience that had gone on. The gate was kicked open, and they were
in there going and seeing that memorial to a great man the way that it
should be, open and available, right now, without the excuses, without
the rented barricades, without those other things.
I also want to touch a little bit on the health care side as we are
going through this. I appreciate you saying it is not just challenges,
but also the opportunities. Frankly, we need to be talking to each
other, to get to those solutions. This hash tag, #Time4Solutions, is
very timely. We have had a Senate leader who has said absolutely no
negotiations, none.
Now we are finally getting there, I think because they are hearing
from their constituents back home that we need you to be talking.
{time} 2015
The same with the White House. I think the White House even came
around a little sooner than what the Senate leader did. But it is time
to make sure that we are having these negotiations and these
conversations.
A lot of us know the challenge, many of them are very well known, the
signup glitches that happened. Glitches might be charitable, shall we
say, for what was going on.
But one of my colleagues from Michigan, the chairman of the
Intelligence Committee, Mike Rogers, had put forward an op-ed not that
long ago, and I have a copy of it here that I was reading. He is
talking about the privacy threat.
If you look at the hub, the data hub that is being built, you know,
our health care records are going to be exposed to a tremendous number
of people.
Your privacy information, your private information, health care
information, yours, mine, all the constituents that are out there
watching this, their information, your information is at risk. Your
information is at risk, and it is time that we do something about it.
Now, who hasn't heard the ``if you like your doctor, you can keep
your doctor?'' Well, maybe not so much.
This is one of the things I just tweeted out. CNNMoney today was
reporting about doctor choice and ObamaCare--not so much. This is CNN.
This isn't me. This is CNN.
They are saying that, for example, there was a major insurer that was
offering policies in 14 different States, and what they are saying is
that they are looking at the more heavier areas of population,
eliminating up to half of the doctors.
Think of that. Half of the doctors that currently you could go to if
you had one of their off-exchange plans won't be available to you. In a
lesser populated area, it is ``only'' going to be 10 or 20 percent of
those same doctors.
I can tell you, I sat, for a number of years, on the Michigan Rural
Health Association board of directors as we were looking at health care
issues in Michigan, especially in the rural areas. If you are starting
to limit health care choices, even more so than what they already are
in some of these rural areas, the damage that is going to be done to
people and that relationship that they have with their doctor and with
their health care provider--a place where you maybe have to do tele-
medicine just to be able to get the proper diagnosis and the things
that are going on.
We have all heard, ``If you like your plan, you can keep your plan.''
Maybe not so much.
Oh, but the plans are going to be more affordable. Well, they had the
number right. There was a discussion that this was going to save $2,500
for the average family. Unfortunately, we now know it is the right
number, but the wrong direction. So it is actually going to cost the
average family, like mine--I have got five young kids--it is going to
cost $2,500 additional. That is the wrong direction.
Some of the lesser-knowns--I will give you an example. My nephew,
Andrew, is putting himself through college. He is working as a waiter
in a nice restaurant.
A couple of months ago they called everybody in for the staff meeting
and said, by the way, we are going to be starting this soon: No more
than 29
[[Page H6586]]
hours per week. No more than 29 hours per week.
And he said, you know, Uncle Bill, I can get through this. It is not
going to be easy. It is not going to be my choice, but I can get
through it.
But he is looking at these colleagues, these single moms, these
single moms that are saying, now where do I go for another 10 hours?
Now how do I figure out where I am going to make ends meet and how I am
going to make ends meet?
I think that is why we have seen letters by those big Republican
organizations like SEIU, the Teamsters, the AFL-CIO, not exactly
institutions normally related and associated with the Republican Party.
They have put in formal letters saying, Wait a minute; this is not
being implemented the way that it was supposed to be implemented.
They are afraid that there is an attack on the 40-hour work week, as
well they should be afraid. That is exactly what is happening right
now, and we need to be making sure that we are pushing back at that.
The medical device tax has been brought up a little bit. This has a
significant impact in Michigan. Stryker Corporation, out of the
Kalamazoo area, they have said publicly that it is going to cost them
1,000 jobs, 1,000 jobs. All right?
It is also going to be hundreds of millions of dollars in new taxes
that are being laid on. This ObamaCare tax, it has been deemed a tax by
the Supreme Court, so let's talk about it in the terms of a tax.
It is time that we repealed this tax. It is time that we not take
those 1,000 jobs away from Stryker; time that we not take those jobs
out of Ann Arbor, an innovative hub; time that we not take those jobs
away from the next entrepreneur in Grand Rapids, on Pill Hill, Medical
Mile, as it is sometimes called; that we make sure that they have got
the same opportunities, not less opportunities, the same opportunities.
That isn't going to happen under this.
As you had pointed out, coverage, the mandatory, forced coverage of
abortive services that is mandated in this bill, is absolutely wrong.
I have a company that is gaining some prominence in my district
called Autocam. John Kennedy, the majority stakeholder and president
and CEO of Autocam, was just in Washington sharing his story last week.
As a devout Catholic, he had made the decision that that wasn't going
to be something that he would offer in his plans. They are self-
insured, and if his employees wanted to go do that, that was their
choice, but he wasn't going to be forced to pay for it, until this bill
came along and said: It doesn't matter what your personal beliefs are.
It doesn't matter that you own the company. It doesn't matter that
your religion says this is wrong. We know better. This government knows
better, and we are going to force you to spend that money to provide a
service that you wholeheartedly disagree with.
Does that sound like the American way to you?
Does that sound like the American way to any of us? Absolutely not,
yet, somehow we are viewing it as acceptable.
Waivers for the politically-connected, as has been talked about; as
long as you have got a good friend that is either in the White House or
at Health and Human Services, we can probably work something out for
you.
Now, how does that feel?
Now, today though, we finally maybe got to the root of it. The Senate
had been going along, no negotiations, no negotiations, no
negotiations.
Oh, but if you want to spend some more money, if you want to roll
back those automatic, across-the-board cuts that we had agreed to 2
years ago, maybe we will start talking about some reforms. That is what
it is.
As we talked about, this is about spending. This is about a group of
people that want to see government grow. They want to see the footprint
of the government just smash down on top of everything here and take
control of our daily lives. That is really what the problem is.
So now we are seeing what the Senate is really all about. It is about
spending. It is about more spending and more control for them. Now,
that has got to stop.
Now, the opportunity side. I want to wrap up because I know we have
got some other colleagues that are here, and we are having a great
conversation and, again, I appreciate your hashtag, Time4Solutions,
because this really is about those opportunities, as you talked about,
the invention of Velcro and how we got there.
I have learned that most of the times you learn more from the things
in life that are tough, not the easy things. Major shifts in society
are not easy. They might be simple, but sometimes those simple things
aren't real easy. Well, this is neither simple nor easy, and it is
because it is the wrong direction.
First and foremost, we need the White House to acknowledge these
problems. They won't even acknowledge these problems. It is all hunky-
dory, peaches and cream here in Washington, D.C. We are rolling this
program out.
Excuse us. We had to make sure that you don't worry about those
``glitches'' that were in the system as we rolled it out. Please don't
look at those exemptions and carve-outs that we have had. Please don't,
whatever you do, please, oh, please, don't talk about how this is a
growing frustration that the American people have, because that would
somehow acknowledge that the American people might know better than
they do down at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
We have to acknowledge those problems. Words speak louder--I am
sorry--actions speak louder than words. The words are, everything is
fine. The actions are very, very different though. The actions are
very, very different out of this administration, as they have signed 17
changes into this law, as we have seen these carve-outs, as we have
seen them do things like make sure that the individual mandate is kept
in place, but the other mandates are not put in.
I know my colleagues are here too, and I want to give them time, so I
am going to wrap up with this. My friend from Missouri, thank you for
doing this.
It is time that we do make those substantive changes and restore some
faith, restore some faith with the American people, that we have their
best interest, and make sure that Congress can live under the same laws
that they vote for and that they pass.
I appreciate you having this conversation tonight.
Mrs. HARTZLER. Thank you very much, Bill. Those were very eloquent
remarks. You really brought home the need that it is time for solutions
and all the challenges that we are facing.
Before I go to our other friends here, I do want to get this motion
in.
General Leave
Mrs. HARTZLER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks
and include extraneous material on the subject of my special order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from Missouri?
There was no objection.
Mrs. HARTZLER. I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Keith
Rothfus, who is new here but, boy, he hit the ground running.
Appreciate your leadership, Keith. What would you like to share
tonight?
Mr. ROTHFUS. I thank the gentlelady for organizing this talk.
Pennsylvania's 12th District in western Pennsylvania stretches from
Beaver to Johnstown and to the northern suburbs of Pittsburgh.
Last week we had a visit from HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who
was in town to tout the benefits of the health care law. She also
attempted to help enroll some western Pennsylvanians in the exchanges.
According to press reports, however, those who showed up were not
able to enroll, or even access the Web site. Apparently, glitches were
to blame.
As reported in yesterday's New York Times, however, one industry
source said, ``These are not glitches. The extent of the problems is
pretty enormous. It's awful.'' These problems took more than 2 years to
build, and cost the American taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
The health care law's troubles aren't limited, however, to the Web
site issues. Many western Pennsylvanians have reached out to me to
share stories about how they are seeing their hours
[[Page H6587]]
reduced, or losing their jobs. Other western Pennsylvanians are seeing
their health care premiums go up, or losing coverage altogether.
A woman recently got in touch with me and told me that her family
recently received a letter from their insurance company, and they will
lose the health insurance they have had for more than 25 years on
December 31. The alternatives they have been able to find will cost
them three times what they pay today.
Mr. Speaker, it is a time for solutions. We do have a new solution
that we are proposing, The American Health Care Reform Act, which will
actually lower costs, and I encourage our colleagues across the aisle
and in our conference to take a look at that.
I thank the gentlelady for the time.
Mrs. HARTZLER. Thank you very much, Keith. Good point there.
Now I yield to a friend from Kentucky, Andy Barr.
Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlelady from Missouri
for her leadership in leading this Special Order.
Many Americans watching on TV right now are frustrated. They are
angry with what they are seeing in Washington. They don't understand
why political conflict has to get in the way of solutions.
They are saying, and they are saying to all of us, why are the
politicians putting their political agendas ahead of what is good for
the country?
I share that frustration and anger, and I understand what they are
saying. They are saying, why can't the politicians get their act
together?
Why can't they reopen the government and avert default?
But you know, as important as it is to reopen the government, and as
important as it is to avert a short-term default, and those are very
critical, it is equally important that we stop business as usual in
Washington.
It is important that Members of Congress do what they were elected to
do, which is exercise leadership, stand up for what is right and what
is in the long-term best interest of the Nation.
What is in the long-term best interest of the Nation is to stop
spending money we don't have. It is to stop racking up mounds of debt
to end the reckless practices in Washington that are literally
mortgaging the future of our children and our grandchildren and pushing
this country to the brink of national bankruptcy.
Now, some have accused House Republicans of holding the country
hostage solely for the purpose of repealing or defunding the
President's signature legislative achievement, ObamaCare.
Why is this relevant?
The President says ObamaCare should not be part of any negotiations
to fund the government or raise the debt limit. But my constituents in
Kentucky recognize the President's health care law for what it actually
is, which is a massive increase in Federal spending.
Its projected cost has more than doubled since the President
originally claimed it would reduce the deficit. It will cost American
taxpayers $2 trillion over the next decade, and its true cost will
continue to grow.
ObamaCare was rammed through Congress on a partisan basis through a
process that was specifically reserved for budget-related bills, the
reconciliation process. So for anyone to suggest that ObamaCare is
unrelated to the budget is both cynical and inconsistent with Congress'
ongoing responsibility to scrutinize Federal spending.
After racking up $7 trillion in debt in just 5 years, the President
stubbornly refuses to negotiate over ObamaCare. But make no mistake:
Congress would not be doing its job if it ignored ObamaCare and its
massive cost in the ongoing debate about how to save America from
bankruptcy.
{time} 2030
So, Mr. Speaker, let me just conclude by saying this. It would be
unfair for young people and the next generation if we simply raised the
debt limit without also addressing the underlying cause of our
problems, without also addressing the cause of our fiscal situation,
and that is runaway government spending. This is our opportunity. This
is our moment. Let's seize this opportunity on a bipartisan basis. It
is time for solutions.
I thank the gentlewoman for her leadership in this Special Order.
Let's not just raise the debt limit and keep kicking the can down the
road. Let's solve America's problem and finally force the government to
live within its means.
Mrs. HARTZLER. I thank the gentleman.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________