[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 149 (Wednesday, October 23, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H6762-H6766]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THE OBAMACARE DEBACLE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2013, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, as the ObamaCare debacle continues to 
unfold, there is more and more that is absolutely staggering that is 
now coming out. People in America need to understand who shut the 
government down September 30, October 1.
  The House of Representatives had voted out, first, a bill to 
completely defund ObamaCare because we could tell--many of us have read 
it. I read it before I voted ``no.'' I could see it was a disaster 
waiting to happen, that real Americans would be really hurt. So we 
offered a compromise.
  All right. This obviously, pursuant to notice by Democrats 
themselves, was a train wreck, nightmare. It was not ready for prime 
time. So we actually gave Democrats in the Senate and in the House that 
pushed it through without a single Republican vote, and the President 
himself, an easy out because that is, if you really want to get 
something done, unless it is ObamaCare that you want--that America 
knows is going to be harmful and totally against, or at least over half 
are against.
  Unless you are going to do something like that that is really 
totalitarian and against the will of the American people, it is good, a 
Chinese proverb notes, to give adversaries a way out.
  We gave a way out for Democrats in the House and the Senate that 
passed ObamaCare without Republicans. We gave a way out for President 
Obama. We said, okay, here is a compromise that ought to be an easy 
agreement. You know, we will give you money that you are demanding, 
with a gun to our heads, namely, the shutdown, and all we ask is that 
you do the right thing for America and suspend the implementation of 
ObamaCare for a year. Clearly, it is not ready now.
  Harry Reid, maybe he consulted with the President, surely he did 
before refusing to let that go anywhere.
  So we did what people are not supposed to do in a negotiation, 
continue to compromise against themselves. I didn't think it was a good 
idea. We should have waited for the Senate to vote on something, 
something. Do something, because being in a legislative body requires 
more than just saying no, no, no, no, which the majority leader in the 
Senate did.
  Nonetheless, our Republican leadership decided we would compromise 
against ourselves--yet again. All right, if you don't want to suspend 
the whole thing for a year, at least do for individuals in America what 
you are doing for Big Business. Big Business, basically, as set forward 
in ObamaCare, was anybody with more than 50 employees.
  And yet, again, Harry Reid and the President were a ``no'' on the 
compromise that would have just suspended, legally suspended, the 
mandate forced upon individuals that they are going to pay higher 
taxes, a fine of $95 or 1 percent of their income, going up to 2 
percent.
  But that was going to be implemented, they were going to be 
penalized, or as Chief Justice Roberts rewrote the ObamaCare bill and 
called it a tax after he called it nothing but a penalty. So Americans 
were going to get hammered. We could see that.
  At least, we implored the Senate and the President, give individual 
Americans the same break you have now, basically, illegally given to 
Big Business by saying yeah, the law says that, but we are just not 
going to enforce it for a year.
  Why not do that for individuals in America if you will do it for Big 
Business? Why not? It's the fair thing to do.
  Once again, it gives a legislative opponent a way out. It gives you a 
back door to say, well, okay, we are caving in. We are going to allow 
the individual mandate to be suspended for a year, like we, like the 
President did, legislating from the executive office.
  But, again, the answer was no. And in response to Majority Leader 
Reid's no and the President's no, the President, of course, had called 
people to the White House later on, after the shutdown, and made clear 
to the leaders of the House and Senate, you know, I wanted to make 
clear to you I am not negotiating. Give me my money. Raise my debt 
ceiling, and then maybe we will negotiate.
  Later on, in essence, it was give me my money. Raise the debt 
ceiling. You will be amazed at what I will be willing to negotiate once 
you give me everything I want.
  So it was indicated yesterday, by the administration, you know, gee, 
there is a possibility we may have to delay the individual mandate. And 
in an article today from Jim Wizner, the title of the article, 
``ObamaCare Mandate May Be Delayed. Official says deadline to have 
insurance could be postponed.''
  The article says, the Obama administration may gave Americans extra 
time to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, 
postponing when penalties for failing to buy coverage will go into 
effect, Market Watch has learned.
  Further down, it says, the administration declined to say whether 
people who purchase health insurance late in the enrollment period, 
say, on March 31, would be exempt from a penalty, even if their policy 
doesn't kick in until April or May; nor would the Department give a 
specific date by which people would need to buy coverage to escape a 
fine.

[[Page H6763]]

  The HHS, or Health and Human Services, official, however, indicated 
that the administration may extend the deadline beyond February 15: we 
are exploring options currently, and will issue guidance at a later 
date.
  The article at marketwatch.com goes on to say the potential extension 
comes as the Federal health exchanges are under fire for ongoing 
technological problems that are making it difficult for some people to 
enroll. The Obama administration has so far resisted GOP pleas to delay 
the requirement that individuals purchase insurance next year, but has 
lately expressed frustration with the technical difficulties. Those 
problems, perhaps the elephant in the room during deadline discussions, 
may influence a decision to provide an enrollment grace period to avoid 
fines.

  There is another problem that the penalty policy or, as rewritten by 
our Chief Justice, the tax policy, may be in flux. While Health and 
Human Services referred Market Watch's previous inquiries about the 
fine and the deadline to avoid it to the Treasury, a spokesperson there 
referred a request Wednesday back to Health and Human Services, 
suggesting that the health officials are now the ones writing new rules 
for the law.
  For this administration, for Democrats in any part of this body or at 
the White House to even consider out loud suspending for 1 year the 
individual mandate is absolutely outrageous, and it exposes, clearly 
exposes that there were games being played in Congress, and it wasn't 
by Republicans.
  It exposes that people knew there were problems with ObamaCare, with 
the Web sites. They knew that Americans were going to have a nightmare, 
and were having a nightmare in even trying to get online and review 
different policies, and they didn't care, just as, obviously, there 
were people in this administration who could have changed the policy.
  They didn't care about the veterans. They can say now, oh, yeah, we 
had a policy that World War II vets were going to get in, or people 
that were utilizing their First Amendment rights.
  Well, I was there the first day. There wasn't any mention of that. 
Those barricades were connected across in front of the World War II 
Memorial, across in front of the Lincoln Memorial, across in front of 
the Martin Luther King Memorial. There were barricades, for heavens 
sake, on the road that just made a loop around the Iwo Jima monument, 
the U.S. Marine Corps Memorial.
  They were out to make things as difficult as possible. Apparently, at 
least as early as Thursday, before the shutdown the following Tuesday, 
plans were being made to gather barricades. There was an indication at 
one point some of them may have been rented.
  We still haven't gotten to the bottom of where they all came from, 
where all the cones came from to interrupt people's lives around the 
country, as this administration sought to make it as difficult as 
possible on Americans. As one park ranger indicated, it was disgusting, 
the park ranger is reported to have said, but we have been ordered to 
make things as difficult for people as we can. Well, they were doing a 
good job.
  So, for them, anyone in this administration, anyone down the hall, 
anyone in Congress to now think about, gee, maybe we should suspend the 
individual mandate, is an outrage. It tells you that there were people 
in Congress and there were a lot of people down Pennsylvania Avenue who 
had no consideration for the American people.
  They were out to score political points. They didn't care. They 
wanted people to hurt and to suffer so maybe they could win the 
majority in the House next year, and the American people began to see 
through this.
  When the next-to-last compromise of a compromise continuing against 
ourselves was to suspend the individual mandate for a year, there was 
no excuse for rejecting that.

                              {time}  1900

  The Senate should have at least voted that through. What an 
incredible turn of events for this administration now to say, Yes, we 
are thinking about suspending the individual mandate. You have got to 
be kidding me.
  Nothing could make it more clear to the American people that games 
were played with the shutdown--and it wasn't by Republicans who kept 
compromising against ourselves, but it was with the people who kept 
saying, No, no, no.
  Then the last thing we did the night before things really shut down 
was to say, Okay, under the law, the rules, here are our conferees. You 
appoint your conferees, and we will have this worked out hopefully by 
morning before people even realize there has been a shutdown. And once 
again, the answer was, No, no, no. Obviously people in the majority at 
the other end of the hall wanted the government shut down.
  And I would expect that in the future, if someone were looking for a 
modern day Marie Antoinette, who reportedly, in response to the 
suffering of the people in France, had said, ``Let them eat cake.'' So 
out of touch with the suffering of the people, if that were actually 
said.
  Here is an article by Susan Jones, CNSNews.com, and it is dated 
today:

       In an interview with CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta Tuesday night, 
     Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said 
     she won't be enrolling in the problem-plagued health 
     insurance system that she was charged to implement.

  And this is the quote that the Secretary of Health and Human Services 
told to CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta. This is the person who is charged with 
implementing ObamaCare. This is the person who is charged with 
overseeing ObamaCare. This is the person who has been given--by an 
overreaching, oppressive ObamaCare bill, she has been given the power 
over people's lives, over their health care. There is nothing more 
personal than that.
  This person who will have so much control, if she is still in office 
at full implementation, says this:

       I have created an account on the site.

  Talking about the ObamaCare site.

       I have not tried signing up because I have insurance.

  Mr. Speaker, you had insurance. I had insurance. We had the same 
policy that every Federal worker in America had the chance to have. 
There were a number of different policies you could choose from in the 
Federal employee handbook, the ``Federal employee cafeteria plan,'' as 
they call it, a number of different insurance policies with private 
insurance. We had insurance just like Secretary Sebelius has now. The 
difference is that this bill, this oppressive, government-controlled 
ObamaCare business, took our health care insurance away.
  There has been a lot of confusion in America about whether or not 
Members of Congress are under ObamaCare. We are. As of December 31, we 
will have lost our insurance.
  I had a health savings account. I wasn't totally thrilled with it. It 
doesn't work like it should. There are some glitches that needed to be 
worked out, but I had a choice. I could choose to have a higher 
deductible, as I have, and a health savings account that I would 
manage, but Secretary Sebelius had authority to take that away, and she 
did.
  So she says, Gee, I have insurance. Well, so did I. So did all of us 
in here. Mr. Speaker, so did you. But an oppressive, overreaching 
Congress took it away. And those Americans were promised over and over 
and over, if you like your insurance, you can keep it. That promise has 
now been broken millions of times to Americans. People were told, if 
you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. That promise has been 
broken probably millions of times to Americans.
  The arrogance when millions and millions of Americans are having 
their insurance taken away from them, having to get different 
insurance, having to pay higher deductibles, having to pay higher 
amounts for their insurance, the arrogance to come back and say, I am 
not going to get insurance under ObamaCare. I already have insurance, 
that takes a lot of unmitigated gall. You might as well say, Let them 
eat cake. I have got my insurance. Let them eat cake.
  Maybe people want a different Health and Human Services Secretary as 
a result of the horrendous job that was done in preparing this rollout, 
but I would think the head of Health and Human Services, to have this 
kind of arrogance, should not remain in the position with an attitude 
like that. It would be like the president of American Airlines refusing 
to fly on anything but United.

[[Page H6764]]

  In the real world, people would care so much about their own product, 
that is what they would use. They would be embarrassed to refuse to use 
the product they were forcing on others. Airlines aren't forcing their 
products on us. This is being forced on us. And the one who is in 
charge of the forcing is too good to have ObamaCare insurance.
  Now, the difference was, the Office of Personnel Management had put 
into the law something that wasn't in the law, and that was that 
Members of Congress would continue to have the Federal Government, 
which are the taxpayers, paying for over 70 percent of our monthly 
health care costs. We pay a little over a third--well, actually, not 
quite a third--and the government, the taxpayers, pay over two-thirds, 
so OPM had issued an order that that could continue even though the law 
didn't provide for it.
  I have indicated that I am not going to accept that. Likely, I will 
be paying a fine unless the individual mandate is suspended for a year.
  Just to indicate how bad this rollout is, this is from the Washington 
Free Beacon, headline, ``HHS Finds Two Enrollees for Pro-ObamaCare Ads. 
Ad claims website is `very easy to use.' '' This is by Elizabeth 
Harrington. It says:

       New advertisements promoting ObamaCare by Health and Human 
     Services claim HealthCare.gov is ``very easy to use'' despite 
     a flood of reports about glitches and a dearth of users being 
     able to actually access the site and purchase insurance.
       President Barack Obama held a press conference on Monday in 
     defense of his health care law, saying it is ``not just a Web 
     site,'' which has been under scrutiny for its disastrous 
     rollout since October 1.
       Coverage of the site has been largely negative, with 
     pundits and reporters alike at news outlets from The 
     Washington Post to The New York Times to the Los Angeles 
     Times noting the problems with the Web site.
       However, Health and Human Services is out with new ads 
     touting its success.

  For heaven's sake, we ought to have a law against the government 
lying to the American people. We ought to start with a lie like that.
  The new ads ``feature two individuals who have received media 
attention for beating the odds to sign up.''

       ``The site was very easy to use, and the customer service 
     representatives were patient and helpful,'' she said.
       The woman was identified online as Deborah Lielasus, 54, a 
     self-employed grant writer, who has written grants for HHS.

  Well, how about that. One of the two people in the ads that they were 
able to find to talk about how wonderful the ObamaCare Web site was 
happens to write grants for HHS. How about that.
  See, back when I was a judge and chief justice, we would call that 
evidence that could be used to impeach her credibility. Because of that 
link with Health and Human Services, she has a direct interest in 
promoting how good things are at Health and Human Services so that she 
could potentially get favorable treatment. That is what you would call 
it in a court of law. And in a court of public opinion, reasonable 
people might be embarrassed that all you can find is somebody who has a 
pecuniary interest in promoting HHS.
  But this article points out:

       Her process for enrolling was not as smooth as the ad 
     suggests. According to the Associated Press, Lielasus was 
     only able to create an account from before the Web site 
     crashed on October 2.
       ``As a grant writer who does a lot of research on Federal 
     Web sites, Deborah Lielasus was impressed by how easy it was 
     to use the new online insurance market that launched 
     Tuesday--until it stopped working,'' the report said.
       ``They're telling me the system is down at the moment,'' 
     Lielasus said.
       Lielasus told the Washington Free Beacon that enrolling 
     took several days.
       ``On the first day, I was only able to register for an 
     account, but 2 or 3 days later, I was able to submit an 
     application and enroll,'' she said in an email.
       Lielasus said her experience with HealthCare.gov was 
     ``primarily positive.''
       `I expected some technology glitches in a rollout of this 
     magnitude, particularly on the first day when the site was 
     flooded with reporters as well as individuals trying to 
     enroll,'' she said.
       Lielasus appears to be one of the few who have successfully 
     enrolled in New Hampshire. An ObamaCare navigator tried to 
     sign up 45 people during the first week, ``but she wasn't 
     able to enroll anyone online because of the glitches,'' 
     according to the Concord Monitor . . . Lielasus said that she 
     does not recall who contacted her to be in the video for HHS, 
     only that, ``I believe I was approached for the video to 
     share my personal story.''
       A second HHS video features Daniel McNaughton, who was the 
     only person able to sign up for health insurance during 
     ObamaCare's first week, the Orlando Sentinel.
       McNaughton said in his ad that with HealthCare.gov, it was 
     ``pretty easy'' to shop for insurance.
       ``I already had health insurance, but I just wanted to see 
     if I could do a little bit better on the health insurance 
     marketplace, and I did,'' he said. ``Once I was on the site, 
     it was pretty easy for me to compare plans. I was able to 
     pick a much higher quality plan, and because of my income as 
     a student, I only pay about 70 bucks a month for it.''

  Well, the article goes on, and it says:

       On Facebook, McNaughton posted a link to the plan he signed 
     up for, which includes a $3,000 deductible, which doubles to 
     $6,000 out-of-network. McNaughton, a 22-year-old male, will 
     have maternity care covered, which is an ``essential 
     benefit'' mandated by the health care law.

  So another great thing, when the Federal Government decides to create 
a one-size-fits-all, single young men must pay for maternity care for 
themselves.

                              {time}  1915

       Because he only makes $15,000 a year, McNaughton is 
     eligible for a subsidy and will pay about $70 per month, 
     according to the Sentinel. He is known as one of the few 
     Floridians who have successfully signed up for ObamaCare. The 
     Miami Herald calls enrollees urban legends.

  He is only one of two people found by the Herald, which solicited 
readers for stories of enrollees in the first weeks after the launch. 
That's weeks, plural:

       Nearly 2 weeks after the Federal Government launched the 
     online Health Insurance Marketplace at HealthCare.gov, 
     individuals who successfully used the choked-up Web site to 
     enroll for a subsidized health insurance plan have reached a 
     status akin to urban legend: everyone has heard of them, but 
     very few people have actually met one.

  It is pretty sad, but that is what happens when the Federal 
Government takes charge of people's personal lives.
  Here is an article from National Review Online by Andrew Johnson:

       An Iowa City man may have the distinction as the Hawkeye 
     State's first ObamaCare enrollee, but it didn't come easy. 
     Edward Voss, a computer programer, told the Des Moines 
     Register he had to try more than a hundred times before he 
     was ultimately able to sign into HealthCare.gov.
       Voss said he didn't know whether or not he had actually 
     enrolled in a plan until CoOpportunity Health, one of Iowa's 
     two carriers in the exchange, called him on Friday to 
     congratulate him for being its first enrolled customer.
       Even though he was eventually successful, Voss criticized 
     the Web site for resembling one from the 1990s, saying it was 
     one of the worst he's seen. He recommended that the 
     administration consider shutting the site down for at least a 
     week in order to address the problems. It's hard to fix 
     things while you're up and running, he said.

  That's rather amazing. Over a hundred times to sign up. I guess he 
probably got maternity care, too, that individual young man.
  Here is an article from CNS News dated today--this afternoon--by Ali 
Meyer. The first line says:

       House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, Democrat from 
     California--

  Also, the Speaker who helped push through ObamaCare without any 
Republican input or votes, and who famously said, We'll have to pass it 
to find out what's in it, this article says she:

     --admitted Wednesday that the ObamaCare Web site is beyond 
     glitches, adding that somebody should fix it.

  Well, it seems to this person speaking that the somebody that should 
fix it should be led by the former Speaker, who shoved it through this 
House without America's support, without any Republican support, and 
without having any clue what was really in it. That is somebody that 
ought to work on fixing it.
  Another article from National Review Online, by John Fund. Hopefully, 
he wouldn't mind me calling him a friend:

       The no-excuse administration has a whopper of an excuse for 
     ObamaCare. President Obama told the Nation there is no excuse 
     for the disastrous rollout of the health care exchanges that 
     are central on ObamaCare. But that didn't stop Kathleen 
     Sebelius, his Secretary of Health and Health and Human 
     Services and in overall charge of the project, from making 
     excuses in a CNN interview with Dr. Sanjay Gupta yesterday.
       She claimed to Gupta that President Obama hadn't been told 
     of any potential problems prior to the launch of the 
     exchanges on October 1--a dereliction of duty any way one 
     defines it.
       But there was also this startling explanation of what went 
     wrong at HHS. We

[[Page H6765]]

     talked about having testing going forward, and if we had an 
     ideal situation and could have built a product and, you know, 
     a 5-year period of time, we probably would have taken 5 
     years, but we didn't have 5 years. And certainly, Americans 
     who rely on health coverage didn't have 5 years for us to 
     wait. We wanted to make sure we made good on this final 
     implementation of the law.

  Well, okay, she only had 3\1/2\ years since ObamaCare became law in 
early 2010 to oversee the design of the exchanges and the Web site 
accompanying them. So now she tells us she needed 5 years:

       Bruce Webster, a noted IT consultant to many companies, is 
     stunned that Sebelius thinks that she needed 5 years, but 
     only had 2, as somehow an excuse for this disaster. That's 
     like Boeing saying, We know the plane crashed, but we needed 
     4 years to build it and a year to test it, but we only had 2 
     years. Color me boggled.
       Bureaucratic baffle-gab like that was probably behind 
     yesterday's White House announcement that it had, as 
     Bloomberg reported, tapped former Acting Office of Management 
     and Budget Director Jeff Zients to work with the team 
     overseeing repairs to the ObamaCare Web site. Zients was 
     named last month as the director of the National Economic 
     Council, but his arrival there will now be delayed as he 
     takes on his new Sisyphean task.
       It is pretty clear that the White House has, as bureaucrats 
     say, minimal confidence in Secretary Sebelius to deliver a 
     functioning health care exchange system. I am told that, for 
     now, her job is safe because firing her would prompt cries 
     from liberals that she was the scapegoat for mistakes made by 
     higher-ups such as her boss, who signed the legislation 
     creating this mess and then failed to hire the proper people 
     to ride herd on its implementation.

  It also brings back to mind, through this disastrous rollout of 
ObamaCare, for which Republicans here in the House, with Speaker 
Boehner leading--he actually did a favor, with our consent, to say, 
Here's a way out: You want a CR, you want a continuing resolution, you 
just keep getting the same massive amount of money; you want the debt 
ceiling raised to who knows what; we'll do that. We'll give you an out 
on how bad ObamaCare is. Let's suspend it for a year.
  When that didn't work--let's suspend the individual mandate. That 
gives you an out and allows us to postpone some of the harm that is 
going to come to America from ObamaCare, and they still said, ``No.'' 
Shut the government down for over 2 weeks, hurting Americans, refusing 
to provide death penalty benefits to families of fallen warriors in 
combat, even though they had the power under the bill we passed before 
the shutdown; making it as uncomfortable and difficult for people as 
possible, all the while when they were given an out by Republicans to 
just suspend it for a year. It is an out. It saves grief for America 
for a year. They wouldn't have it.
  Now I know some have said, Well, the problem the administration is in 
is if they actually postponed ObamaCare for a year, after so many have 
already lost their insurance, there is no alternative. There is nothing 
we could do. Gee, what would anybody do? They have lost their 
insurance.
  Well, this is just a suggestion, but I bet we in Congress could get a 
majority. I can't imagine there wouldn't be friends across the aisle 
among our Democratic friends who would agree to this, as they see how 
problematic ObamaCare is for Americans, and knowing that people think 
Federal employees have had this gold-plated health insurance policy is 
okay. I had better before I came here. I had better when I was in 
private practice.
  But given where we are, there are private insurance companies that 
have provided insurance policies for what is called a cafeteria-style 
group of choices so every Federal employee in the country, before 
ObamaCare, could read through the thick handbook and say, Okay, I have 
studied the different insurance companies, the different plans, the 
different costs, and this is the one I choose or that's the one I 
choose.
  How about if for the next year, 2 years, give America a break? Let's 
say any health insurance company that is part of a Federal exchange or 
a State cafeteria plan or a local government cafeteria plan, we make 
those available to anybody. If it is a local plan, anybody in that 
area. If it is in the State, anybody in that State. If it is in the 
Federal plan, any insurance in that plan or any insurance company that 
wants to offer the same type coverage for the same price.
  Let's offer to every American across the country the same private 
insurance choices that Federal employees have until ObamaCare kicks in. 
But let's give them all of the choices that we had up through this year 
and just say we will suspend ObamaCare.
  Yes, Mr. President; yes, Harry Reid; you shut down the government for 
over 2 weeks to make life difficult for Americans when you didn't have 
to. We are more interested in helping Americans. So how about a 
compromise plan that just says, Hey, why don't we let Americans across 
the country choose from any of the Federal choices we had before 
ObamaCare, any State choices, local choices, and you can allow 
employers, since the President is suspending the business mandate, 
whether there are more than 50 employees, less than 50 employees, let 
them choose from those. If their employees choose the policy and the 
employer wants to pay for part or all, let them do that.
  Let's give them another year before we force them under the iron hand 
of the government. Let them choose from any of those, from private 
insurance companies. Let them make the choices Federal employees had 
until ObamaCare.
  It would still take away the problem of the preexisting condition 
because the market would be so wide, the people signing up would be so 
numerous, it could afford to take care of that. If you want to leave 
people on that are 26, heck, I don't care, 28. Normally, people in 
their twenties are in good health. So let them stay on.
  We offered to agree to a bill like that before ObamaCare ever passed, 
but the Democrats were so insistent on their way--not the highway, but 
their way, period--and now 3\1/2\ years later we see the consequences.
  We ought to have unlimited amounts. If you have got a health savings 
account under a Federal plan, State plan, local plan, or if your 
insurance company that provided the employer insurance plan and the 
employer wants to continue that next year, even though it has already 
been canceled, if the health insurance company wanted to re-extend 
that, let that be part of the agreement during the suspension period of 
ObamaCare.

                              {time}  1930

  Let's allow people to put pre-tax dollars--as much as they want to--
in Health Savings Accounts with the understanding that, once it is in 
there, it can't be used for anything but health care. I have a fear 
there will be people who might accumulate over the years $80,000, 
$100,000--well, I don't care. I will pay a 40, 45 percent penalty in 
interest. Man, just think. I could have two or three good bass boats 
for that, but we couldn't allow that because it is too important for 
people's health. Once that money is in a Health Savings Account, it 
can't be used for anything but health care. Let's do what Ben Carson 
suggested, and let's start encouraging young people to have Health 
Savings Accounts. Let's do that.
  Those who are in Medicare and Medicaid can stay there. If they have 
the wherewithal to sign up under one of the plans--the Federal 
options--the Federal employees have had until ObamaCare passed, let 
them do that if they would rather, but still they will be in Medicare 
and Medicaid. Let's suspend the hurt that is being done to Medicare 
through ObamaCare. Let's suspend the hurt that is being done to young 
people. If one is a young man, single, then until such time as we have 
a pregnant young man in his twenties, let's don't make him pay for 
maternity care. There is no need for it.
  Just when you think it couldn't get much worse--this is from the 
Washington Free Beacon dated today, this afternoon--then we also find 
out the NSA spied on 124 billion phone calls in one month, and those 
are the people who want to run our health care--the Federal Government.
  An article from The Washington Times from this afternoon, today:

       House Speaker John A. Boehner predicted Wednesday that, by 
     the end of the month, more Americans will have lost their 
     insurance by being kicked off existing health plans than the 
     number that was able to sign up in the flawed online 
     HealthCare.gov Web site, and the early numbers may back him 
     up.

  A massive number of people have now gotten their notices that they 
have lost their insurance or will effective January 1.

[[Page H6766]]

  Here is an article that is on the Breitbart Web site, but it is 
talking about a CNN story:

       CNN: ObamaCare site doomed. Riddled with security dangers.

  This reports that today, on the CNN Money site, there is a terrific 
story about the problems surrounding the ObamaCare Web site. The story 
includes all kinds of new information from a host of experts. Most of 
the news is flat-out terrible:

       A half billion dollar site needs to be rebuilt from 
     scratch. The site has an unwieldy 500 million lines of 
     computer code--it took just 500,000 lines of code to send a 
     rover to Mars--and that code of ObamaCare is riddled with 
     security holes that could result in one of the biggest 
     breaches in American history.

  That was quoting from CNN, that article by John Nolte. It is 
staggering.
  State exchange enrollments are mostly Medicaid, not private insurance 
plans.
  This is another story on Breitbart by Dr. Susan Berry:

       Defenders of President Obama's signature health reform 
     legislation claim the States that put effort into 
     establishing their own exchanges, mostly Democrat-led, are 
     signing people up successfully for ObamaCare. A new report, 
     however, indicates most of the individuals signing up in 
     these State-run exchanges are enrolling in Medicaid.

  Pretty disingenuous.
  Then just as you think you can't stand any more about the Federal 
Government--they are in your bedroom, your bathroom, your kitchen, all 
into your private lives; they will have your medical records, and they 
will be giving them to navigators who are not thoroughly vetted so as 
to keep it secure, and it will be put online where people are saying it 
is a dream for hackers to steal personal information--and just when you 
think you can't take anything more in the way of bad news, here is a 
story from the AP today. It is by Stephen Ohlemacher with the AP:
  The headline reads: ``700 IRS Contract Workers Owe $5.4 Million in 
Back Taxes.''
  It kind of reminds us of the old Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy 
Geithner. He signed four different documents, certifying--basically 
swearing--that if he would be given all of the money as an independent 
contractor instead of having money withheld, he would certify--he 
absolutely was swearing--that he would take care of paying his taxes, 
and he didn't do it until he got nominated to be the Secretary of the 
Treasury.
  As one Treasury employee told me privately--she didn't want to make 
it public because she didn't want to lose her job--if employees of the 
IRS were to have done what Timothy Geithner had done in not paying the 
taxes he swore he would pay, they would be fired on the spot at the 
IRS. Of course, that was before Lois Lerner and her crew weaponized the 
IRS so they could go after conservative groups.
  Anyway, it is bad news when it comes to ObamaCare; but, Mr. Speaker, 
like I say, we offered repeatedly to agree--in fact, we didn't just 
offer. We passed a bill that would allow ObamaCare to be suspended for 
a year to, if possible, get its act together and give an out to the 
President. The President and Harry Reid could have said, Well, those 
Republicans in the House--we didn't want to do it, but we needed a 
continuing resolution to keep the government going. We needed the debt 
ceiling raised, so we went ahead. We had to. They had us over a barrel. 
We agreed to suspend ObamaCare for a year. Gee, those pesky Republicans 
made us do it.
  That is a political way out that they had, that we gave as 
Republicans in the House, that we extended as a gift. We passed it as a 
House bill. We extended it as a gift and gave them an out. That would 
have given them an extra year to try to get the act together; but, oh, 
no, they were more interested in scoring political points because they 
knew the mainstream media would give them cover, that they would blame 
Republicans 100 percent even though it was 100 percent not Republicans. 
It was the people who refused to even appoint conferees to try to work 
it out before the shutdown really took hold. It was the Democrats who 
refused to agree to just suspend the individual mandate, and the 
compromise before that was to suspend the bill for a year. They 
wouldn't even do that.

  How sad for the mainstream media that the best question about 
ObamaCare and the horrendous roll-out of its Web site was not asked by 
somebody at the ABC, CBS, NBC evening news, but was asked by Jay Leno 
after finding out that the President said, We are putting our very best 
people on fixing this Web site. In essence, Jay Leno asked an entirely 
appropriate question:
  Wait a minute. We are talking about our own health care. Why wouldn't 
you have put our best people on starting the Web site instead of 
waiting until it crashed so miserably?
  The answer is unknown, but the American people deserve an answer.
  Are you so intent on having the Federal Government take over people's 
private lives--their most personal medical secrets--that you would 
force this horrible health care system upon them?
  I am certainly willing. I will bet you we could find a majority in 
the House, and if Harry Reid would let it come to a vote in the Senate, 
they would say, Okay. Let's suspend it for a year. Come on. Maybe make 
it 2 years. During that time, everybody in America--every employer--can 
either get their insurance back if the insurance companies will do it; 
and if they want, they can get the private insurance that we used to 
have as part of our cafeteria plan for every Federal employee in 
America. Let Americans choose from that. Don't force these ObamaCare 
exchanges on America. Let them choose like Federal employees have done. 
Let them choose.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to pay a brief tribute to a patriotic man 
who was devoted to the military, devoted to seeing that the military 
had what it needed, devoted to America. C.W. Bill Young will have his 
funeral tomorrow in Florida. He was 82 years old. There have been 
plenty of tributes written about Bill Young. There will be many more 
written and many more spoken tomorrow, and I will look forward to 
hearing those at his funeral, but there is nothing that could be said 
that could surpass the witness he was to who he was.
  I talked to him numerous times. Sometimes I had questions. Sometimes 
I had points to make. When I had questions, he always had time. He was 
always honest--completely honest, very sincerely honest. He was a kind, 
decent, honest man. We miss when we lose a kind, decent, honest man.
  Bill Young, you will be missed.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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