[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 18478]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   DON'T TAX EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYMENT

  (Mr. BOEHNER asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, before I came to Congress, I ran a small 
business. And in that small business I offered a health insurance 
benefit to my employees. I offered a pension benefit to my employees. 
Both of these plans were as a result of a 1974 Federal law called 
ERISA, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, that allows 
employers to offer health plans to their employees and pension plans to 
their employees across State lines.
  Over the years, employers now provide health insurance to their 
employees, to the total of about 132 million Americans that today get 
their health insurance through their employer.
  But in the Democrat health care plan, I noticed this morning in an 
article from The Wall Street Journal there's a provision in there that, 
in their bill, after 5 years all employer plans will have to be 
approved by the Department of Labor and the new Health Choices 
Commissioner, who will set Federal standards for what is an acceptable 
health plan.
  Now, these employers are providing these plans to their employees. 
They're trying to provide a benefit their employees want and need. And 
now the Federal Government is going to decide what your health plan is 
going to look like.
  I would suggest that a lot of employers in America are going to look 
at this and decide, You know, this really isn't worth it. Under their 
plan, if you're an employer and you don't provide health insurance, you 
have to pay an 8 percent payroll tax to the Federal Government. Eight 
percent.
  Now, most employers probably pay more than this for their health 
care. And so, as a result, I would think a lot of employers are just 
going to pay the 8 percent tax and allow their employees to be shoved 
into the government-run plan.
  According to the Congressional Budget Office, some 23 million 
Americans would lose their benefits from their employers and be forced 
into government health care. According to the Lewin Group, 114 million 
Americans would be forced into the government plan.
  This is not what the American people want. And if you put an 8 
percent tax on payroll, guess what? Employers are going to hire less 
people. And most of my constituents are asking, Where are the jobs? And 
if you tax employment through this health care plan or you tax 
employment under this crazy national energy tax, you're going to create 
less jobs in America.
  At a time when we need jobs and we need our economy going again, we 
don't need to be taxing employers and taxing employment, because we're 
going to get a lot less of it.

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