[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 103 (Thursday, June 25, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4633-S4634]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
KING V. BURWELL DECISION
Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President, today's decision in King v. Burwell is
judicial activism, plain and simple. For the second time in just a few
years, a handful of unelected judges has rewritten the text of
ObamaCare in order to impose that failed law upon millions of
Americans. The first time, the Court ignored Federal law and magically
transformed a statutory ``penalty'' into a ``tax.'' Today, these robed
Houdinis have transmogrified a ``Federal exchange'' into an exchange
``established by the State.'' This is lawless.
As Justice Scalia rightfully put it, ``Words no longer have meaning
if an exchange that is not established by a State is `established by
the State.' '' Justice Scalia continues: ``We should start calling this
law SCOTUScare.'' I agree.
If this were a bankruptcy case or any other case of ordinary
statutory interpretation, the results would have been 9 to 0, with the
Court unanimously reversing the Obama administration's illegal actions.
But instead, politics intervened. For nakedly political reasons, the
Supreme Court willfully ignored the words that Congress wrote, and
instead read into the law their preferred policy outcome. These
Justices have joined with President Obama in harming millions of
Americans. Unelected judges have once again become legislators--and bad
ones at that. They are lawless, and they hide their prevarication in
legalese. Our government was designed to be one of laws, not of men,
and this transparent distortion is disgraceful.
These Justices are not behaving as umpires calling balls and strikes.
They have joined a team, and it is a team that is hurting Americans
across this country. ObamaCare is the biggest job killer in America.
Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, have been forced into part-
time work, have lost their health insurance, have lost their doctors.
Millions of Americans have seen their health insurance premiums
skyrocket, and it is a direct result of President Obama, of Democrats
in the Congress, and of lawless Justices at the U.S. Supreme Court who
have joined the team of the Obama administration. If those Justices
want to become legislators, I invite them to resign and run for office.
That is the appropriate place to write laws--on this floor, not from
that courtroom.
I began my career as a law clerk of the U.S. Supreme Court, clerking
for Chief Justice William Rehnquist, one of the greatest Chief Justices
ever to serve our Nation. I have spent the majority of my adult life
litigating before the U.S. Supreme Court, both on behalf of the State
of Texas and on behalf of private parties. What this Court has become
is heartbreaking. If Chief Justice Rehnquist could see this Court
today, he would be filled with sorrow at what has become of the Supreme
Court of the United States.
The obligation of fidelity to the Constitution and fidelity to law
matters. We are not living in a platonic oligarchy with philosopher
kings governing us who believe they get to write the laws, interpret
the laws, and enforce the laws. That is not the American system of
governance.
At the same time, crocodile tears are flowing here in our Nation's
Capital over the Supreme Court's decision to illegally rewrite
ObamaCare, which has been a disaster since its inception. But one day
of faux outrage from the Washington cartel won't fool the millions of
courageous conservatives all across our country. They know that far too
many career politicians--Democrats and Republicans--in this Nation's
Capital are quietly celebrating the Court's decision. If they believe
this issue is now settled so they don't have to address it, they are
sorely mistaken.
I have made repeal of this disastrous law a top priority since the
very first day I entered into this body, and I have made its repeal
central to my tenure in office. Republicans all across the country,
including my friend the Presiding Officer, campaigned on repealing this
law and were elected in a historic tidal wave year--historic majorities
in both Chambers of this Congress and in statehouses all across the
country. It is now up to us to keep our promises.
I believe 2016 will be a national referendum on repealing ObamaCare.
This law is profoundly unpopular. It is unpopular with Republicans, it
is unpopular with Independents, it is unpopular with Democrats, it is
unpopular with young people, it is unpopular with Hispanics, and it is
unpopular with everybody it has hurt, and there are millions being hurt
by this law.
The Court adopted and put its stamp of approval on the IRS's
blatantly unlawful reading of the statute to make subsidies and taxes
applicable to individuals on Federal exchanges when Congress explicitly
provided the opposite. Jonathan Gruber famously said Obamacare was
built on exploiting the stupidity of the American people. Well,
unfortunately the Supreme Court is now complicit in that deception. The
Supreme Court has joined President Obama, whose statement ``if you like
your health insurance plan, you can keep your health insurance plan''
was rightfully noted as the lie of the year as millions of Americans
lost their doctors. Now those rogue Justices are complicit in that lie,
in setting aside their oath of office to lie to the American people.
After today's ruling, ObamaCare will now be responsible for imposing
illegal taxes on more than 11 million individuals and for burdening
hundreds of thousands of businesses with illegal penalties on their
workers, killing jobs and further slowing economic growth.
You are a young person right now. You come out of school. You have
student loans up to your eyeballs. You are struggling. You don't know
if you are going to get a job. The dismal Obama economy means your
future is bleak. You have no hope or optimism of actually getting a
career, getting skills, moving towards the American dream. Well, today
the U.S. Supreme Court has joined arm in arm with President Obama and
the IRS in illegally imposing taxes on you--you, that young person
starting your career, struggling to make your student loan payments.
Working as a part-time employee making coffee doesn't pay those
payments, and yet you are stuck with the individual mandate, which is a
tax, so says the Supreme Court and so the Obama Justice Department
argued. Right after President Obama told the American people it wasn't
a tax, the Obama Justice Department said yes, it is a tax. The Supreme
Court agreed. You, the single person, the single mom trying to feed
your kids, are paying an illegal tax because of the lies emanating from
Washington, DC.
You, the teenage immigrant, as my father was 58 years ago, washing
dishes, making 50 cents an hour--he couldn't speak English, but he was
filled with hopes and dreams. He was filled with an aspiration for the
American dream. Ours is the greatest Nation in the history of the world
because people can start with nothing and achieve anything. That is the
promise of America.
ObamaCare is strangling that promise. You, the teen, are paying
illegal taxes right now today because of President Obama's deception,
because of the IRS's lawlessness, and because of the Supreme Court's
judicial activism, violating their oaths of office.
I remain fully committed to repealing every single word of ObamaCare.
Mark my words. Following the election in 2016, the referendum that we
will have, in 2017, this Chamber will return and we will repeal every
word of ObamaCare. We will bring back economic growth, we will bring
back opportunity, and then we will pass commonsense health reform that
makes health insurance personal, portable, and affordable and that
keeps government from getting between us and our doctors.
We will recognize that this horrible experiment has failed. When
millions of Americans lose their jobs, are forced into part-time jobs,
lose their health care, lose their doctors, when millions of Americans
see their premiums skyrocket, it is incumbent on Members of this body,
it is incumbent on the Federal Government to fix the wreckage they
caused, to fix the wreckage the Supreme Court has now embraced
lawlessly.
We will repeal ObamaCare, and I will fight with every breath in my
body to make sure that happens in 2017.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
[[Page S4634]]
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, first I have to say that clearly there
are two Americas on how we view health care, that is for sure, after
hearing my colleague speak about the ``disaster'' of providing tens of
millions of people health insurance, affordable health insurance.
Where I live in Michigan, it is great that families no longer have to
put the kids to bed and then say a little prayer: Dear God, don't let
the kids get sick. For millions of Americans, the Supreme Court
decision has reaffirmed the fact that they will have that peace of
mind.
When Chief Justice Roberts, writing for the majority today, said
``Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance
markets, not destroy them,'' I think he was absolutely right. I commend
him and the majority--substantial majority--for understanding that in
the competitive, private marketplace that we set up through insurance
exchanges, we meant for all Americans to have the opportunity for the
tax cuts that allow them to be able to purchase insurance, most people
purchasing insurance for under $100 a month, which, contrary to
destroying America, I think is making incredible differences in
people's lives and creating the opportunity going forward for a
competitive marketplace for small business.
Certainly now, I hope from here that we will go forward and stop all
of the repeal discussions and get down to the business of improving
health care because I think there are still things we need to do. We
need to look at how things are working and make sure things are going
as well as possible, particularly with small businesses, and I feel we
have some work to do. But it would be nice if we could get beyond the
unfortunate commentary that has gone on for too long that somehow
providing affordable health insurance for Americans is going to be the
end of our country.
I certainly think that on something like health care, where nobody
controls whether they get sick or mom and dad get sick or the kids get
sick or their friends get sick--we are in a situation where our job is
to figure out the best way to support people taking responsibility to
purchase insurance and make sure that it is affordable, high quality,
and low cost. And that is something which we--in the greatest country
in the world, with all of the innovators, all of the smart people we
have, the wonderful doctors, the wonderful hospital facilities we have,
certainly we can do that.
That is, in fact, what is happening through health reform. Right now,
16.4 million Americans who were without insurance before the Affordable
Care Act now have the confidence and security of knowing they have
health care coverage. Now, 6.4 million Americans, because of the
Supreme Court decision, will be able to keep the tax credit. They are
not going to see their taxes go up. They are going to be able to keep
the tax credits that are going to allow them to make sure that
insurance is affordable. That includes over 228,000 people in my home
State of Michigan. That is a lot of people.
What is also so incredibly important is that of those people who
already have insurance--the majority of Americans--they are having
better opportunities to keep it, not be blocked, not be dropped, not
have caps.
Some 129 million Americans have preexisting conditions, whether it is
diabetes, juvenile diabetes, cancer. Colleagues here have been in
situations of announcing various kinds of cancer, diseases, and so on.
Some 129 million Americans--including 17 million children--no longer
have a risk of being denied coverage because of the insurance company
being able to stop them if they have a preexisting condition.
``Beat the Press'' Softball Game
I was with a wonderful group of women from Congress--if I can just
divert from that serious moment to say that last night we raised money
for breast cancer survivors in a wonderful game between the press and
the women Members of Congress. Despite both teams doing a great job--I
was very impressed with both sides, but the great news is that the
Congresswomen won. We called it ``beat the press.'' It was great. But
what was most important last night was seeing all the breast cancer
survivors who were there, women who had been able to get that checkup,
been able to get that treatment, knowing that going forward, wherever
they work--if they move from one job to another, if they change
insurance, they are still going to be able to get the coverage they
need. They are going to be able to get that mammogram with no copay as
preventive health care. They are going to be able to get the care they
need. If they need treatment, they are not going to arbitrarily have an
insurance company come in and say ``We don't really care what your
doctor says about how many sessions you need or radiation treatments.
You get 10 and that is it'' or ``You get 5 and that is it'' or whatever
the number is.
Mr. President, 129 million Americans with preexisting conditions
today can breathe a sigh of relief because they are going to be able to
continue to have the health insurance they need. Some 105 million
Americans no longer have a lifetime cap on coverage, including mental
health and substance abuse coverage, which is so very significant, and
76 million Americans with private coverage are eligible for expanded
preventive services, such as mammograms and prostate screening.
We all wish our wonderful friend and colleague Senator King all the
best as he gets his treatments next week. We know he will come back
strong, as well as all of our colleagues who have been in similar
situations.
This is a big deal. This really is about saving lives. That is what
this is all about. It is not a political game. It is not just going
back and forth between Republicans and Democrats. This is health. This
is medical care. If you get that horrible diagnosis--you are sitting in
a doctor's office, and you are told you have cancer or a heart
condition or any number of other things--you are going to be able to
get medical care.
We also know that consumers have saved $9 billion since 2011 because
the law requires insurance companies to spend at least 80 cents on
every dollar we give them on medical care. That was not always the
case. You can get a rebate if they don't.
So I hope that at this moment in time, we will stop the efforts to
repeal health reform. I know it is in the budget that passed. The
Republican budget--House and Senate--sets up a process to be able to go
back and one more time try to repeal health insurance for tens of
millions of Americans. I hope we will not do that. I hope the other
side will not do that. We certainly will not do that. I hope that,
instead, we will get about the business of making sure it works as well
as possible and that we are strengthening the quality measures, the
opportunities for competition, and continuing to bring rates down.
We know that if health reform is repealed, it will increase deficits
by hundreds of billions of dollars and cause 19 million Americans to
lose their health insurance just next year, according to the budget
office--19 million people--and 24 million people in the next few years.
The Congressional Budget Office says that a repeal would result in a
$353 billion increase in the budget.
I congratulate the Supreme Court for common sense today and for
understanding what we meant, what legislative intent was all about, and
urge that we now decide we are going to work together on health care
moving forward.
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