[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 19]
[House]
[Pages 25795-25796]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




PROPOSED HEALTH CARE REFORM WOULD BE HARMFUL FOR NORTH TEXAS BUSINESSES

  (Mr. BURGESS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, in August, in addition to the town halls in 
my district, I hosted two roundtables with small- and medium-sized 
businesses in North Texas. Parts of health

[[Page 25796]]

care reform are going to affect business, like it or not. They are 
going to see a tax increase, a new employer mandate, and penalties for 
noncompliance.
  The North Texas business representatives said they needed more tools, 
not more regulation, to make health care affordable for small and 
medium businesses. With regard to an employer mandate, one panelist 
explained this would add to the burden during what are arguably tough 
economic times.
  An individual who was the health benefits manager at a large 
manufacturing plant in Denton said, Our employees are already very well 
taken care of without mandates. If more gets mandated on us, then we 
are going to have to look at what we will cut, what we are going to 
take away in order to be competitive.
  Another individual said, If we had to furnish health insurance, if it 
is mandated on us, we just simply will not be able to afford to do so. 
We will have to cut jobs.
  I promised to take the lessons learned back to Washington, D.C., as 
we continue to work on health care reform. Most Americans today are 
actually concerned more about jobs and the economy than the current 
health care proposals that we are debating here in Congress.
  Washington should be working to help businesses create jobs, not 
writing penalties for those who are trying to provide employment.

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