[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 18492]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   DOING NOTHING HAS A PROFOUND COST

  (Mr. CONNOLLY of Virginia asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CONNOLLY of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, we have heard some interesting 
rhetoric today about the impacts on small businesses and health care 
reform. Here's a statistic. If we do nothing, the cost of health care 
on our small businesses in the United States over the next 10 years 
will increase to $2.4 trillion. That's going to have a crushing burden 
on the ability of small businesses to do what they do best, which is to 
create jobs.
  Only 48 percent of our small businesses currently provide health 
care. If we allowed those cost increases to occur by doing nothing in 
terms of health care reform, we're guaranteeing fewer Americans will 
have health care, we're guaranteeing fewer successes among small 
businesses that are the job generator in this economy.
  Doing nothing has a profound cost. That's why we need health care 
reform. We need it now. We've waited 6 years. The time has arrived.

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