[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 21]
[Senate]
[Page 27905]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, at a time when unemployment is at a 25-
year high and with a Federal deficit breaking the $12 trillion mark, 
the House of Representatives passed a health care bill that raises 
taxes more than $700 billion. This is the House-passed health care bill 
on this desk. I expect the Senate version, which may be produced today, 
will be of similar size.
  Who gets taxed under the House-passed bill? Let's take a look.
  At the top of the list is small business. A small business surtax in 
the bill takes $150 billion out of our job creators. That is on page 
344 of this massive 2,000-page House bill. We all know small businesses 
are the biggest job generators in the country. They employ well over 
half of those who have employment in our country.
  Second, we have an employer tax. The employer tax raises $135 billion 
in taxes through a new mandate on employers. That is on page 281 of 
this massive 2,000-page bill. The NFIB, the National Federation of 
Independent Business, which represents small business, estimates that 
mandate would cost about 1.6 million jobs. That is a 1.6 million job-
killing tax at a time when the national unemployment rate is 10.2 
percent.
  Insured Americans, item No. 4 on this chart--let's look at the tax on 
insured Americans. Billions of new taxes to pay for comparative 
effectiveness research rationing in this 2,000-page bill. That is on 
page 1179, a tax on those who are insured.
  Then we have attacks on those who are uninsured, item 3 on the chart. 
They get taxed as well, a 2.5-percent income tax on the uninsured. That 
is on page 303 of this roughly 2,000-page bill.
  Medical devices, upon which those who are sick depend heavily, will 
also be taxed. People needing lifesaving medical devices will also 
receive a tax increase, on page 347 of this massive 2,000-page bill. 
There will be a $20 billion tax on medical devices. Of course, that 
will be passed straight on to the consumers. So that will, in effect, 
be a tax on those Americans who are sick and who need medical devices.
  There is also a tax on the chronically ill. On page 332 of this 
2,000-page effort to restructure the American health care system, we 
find flexible spending accounts would be capped at $2,500 and phased 
out over time. How does that affect the chronically ill? As a result, 
tens of millions of families, many of whom are managing chronic 
illnesses, will see billions in tax-saving benefits from these FSAs 
wiped out, right here on page 332 of this 2,000-page bill.
  What does all this mean to small business? David Boland is the 
manager at Boland Maloney Lumber, Louisville. He wrote to my office to 
say what it means:

       Health care reform that does nothing to control costs--

  And we already know from CBO and from the actuaries that the Health 
and Human Services bill does not control costs--

     but merely increases the burden on small businesses through 
     mandates and tax hikes is a dangerous and risky proposition 
     that will imperil my company and our national recovery.

  Don't take it from me; listen to David Boland. He gets it. He knows 
that slashing Medicare, increasing premiums, and raising taxes in a 
recession is not reform.
  It was actually a front-page story in the Washington Post this 
morning, a company in Louisville that kind of underscores what I am 
talking about. The front-page story in today's Washington Post 
describes the ongoing struggles of a small manufacturer in my hometown 
of Louisville who is fighting to save jobs. This business owner wants 
to be more productive so he can hold onto his workers. But all of these 
crushing taxes, many of which would apply to his company, are simply 
not going to be helpful.
  Finally, yesterday I spoke about Medicare cuts, the massive Medicare 
cuts in this bill we are shortly going to be considering. It is 
important to remember that Senate Democrats recently tried to pass a 
so-called doc fix that would have forced seniors to pay higher premiums 
on top of $\1/2\ trillion they want to cut from Medicare. Fortunately, 
this bill was rejected by a wide bipartisan majority. While we all 
think this problem needs to be addressed, this is not the way to do it. 
I am confident that should a similar bill pass the House later this 
week, we will reject it again on a bipartisan basis.
  I yield the floor.

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