[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 18350]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        ALL JOBS ARE NEEDED NOW

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Minnesota (Mrs. Bachmann) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. BACHMANN. Madam Speaker, all jobs are needed now in the United 
States. We need jobs here and we need jobs now. Unemployment stands at 
a 26-year high at 9.5 percent.
  And what is the response of Washington, D.C.? Government is 
increasing the costs on job creators. By the end of this week, Madam 
Speaker, government will have mandated that the price of the minimum 
wage will increase another $0.70 per hour. This comes when teenage 
unemployment stands at nearly 25 percent, nearly another record. 
Employers expect to be cutting more minimum wage jobs as a result of 
this action, not adding more jobs. Teenagers in my district are going 
from day to day to day, many of whom have given up now that it's the 
end of July, looking for work. Unemployment stands at a high for 
teenagers. They're competing with 40-year-olds for jobs at fast food 
companies.
  So what else does Washington do?
  Washington is passing a crushing debt burden on to the 19- and 20-
year-olds with our $1.1 trillion stimulus plan. Clearly, the stimulus 
plan hasn't worked to create more jobs for Americans. Two million jobs 
have been lost since the stimulus law was passed earlier this year. The 
public was told that if Congress failed to pass the President's 
stimulus plan that we would see 8 percent unemployment. A lot of States 
today would love to see 8 percent unemployment.
  Try the State of Michigan. Last week they reported their unemployment 
stands today at 15.2 percent. We can do better, so much better. We have 
before and we can again.
  Let's ask every business owner in America, Madam Speaker, if it would 
help them if we would cut their costs of doing business with the 
Federal Government.
  Let's ask the average American if they would like to see government 
take less of what they make. Let's see if Washington would allow the 
American people the freedom to reclaim their lives, rather than waiting 
for a Washington bureaucrat to give them permission to move forward 
with their lives.

                              {time}  2000

  This last weekend, I spoke to a Minnesota businessman who has created 
four dozen jobs in my district. He would love to provide health care 
for his employees, but he simply can't afford to. Why? It's because of 
the government mandates.
  Do his employees go without health care? No, they don't. Almost all 
of them have health insurance either through a spouse or they purchase 
health care on their own.
  What would his employees like to see? They would like to have help 
with the full deductibility of their health care costs on their tax 
returns; also if they could purchase health insurance in the same way 
they purchase their car insurance in a competitive, free-market manner. 
Many of them would like to see the increased use of health savings 
plans. They want to own their own health insurance because they want to 
be able to take it with them in case they want to be able to change 
jobs.
  Madam Speaker, fully 77 percent of all Americans respond that they 
prefer their present health insurance. They like what they have, and 
they want to keep it, but they think, Madam Speaker, that they will be 
shocked if they learn that they could lose their private health 
insurance, and they would be shocked to learn if their only option 
would be the government as their only health decision-making.
  Page 16 of the House Democrat plan that was revealed last week of the 
government takeover of insurance is quite a shocker. Page 16 says that 
no new private health insurance policies will be allowed to be written 
after the passage of the bill. Government insurance is expected to be 
subsidized by taxpayers to the tune of 30 to 40 percent.
  Approximately 114 million Americans are expected to leave private 
health insurance. Why? Their employers will drop the insurance because 
the taxpayer-subsidized plan will be 30 to 40 percent cheaper. This 
action will collapse the private health insurance market, and then the 
Federal Government will own the health provider game.
  The problem is that every American will have to hope that the 
government will act benevolently toward their cases. Why? Because 
government will be the only game in town.
  We can do better, Madam Speaker. We have done better. We can take a 
plan that truly does represent compassion and that does represent the 
best interests of the American people by offering them freedom and true 
options.

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