[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 23]
[House]
[Page 31009]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              THE LINK BETWEEN JOBS AND HEALTH CARE REFORM

  (Mr. YARMUTH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, our colleagues have asked a question, and 
many of the American people are asking a question which deserves an 
answer, and that is: Why should we worry about health care reform? Why 
don't we focus on jobs? Well, the truth of the matter is that no job 
strategy can avoid a health insurance reform strategy.
  As Ezra Klein pointed out in The Washington Post earlier this week, 
the history of the last two decades have shown, when health care 
premiums go up, wages go down. Every dollar that is spent on health 
care in my district can't be spent to buy a Ford, can't be spent to buy 
a GE refrigerator, can't be spent to buy a package that UPS will ship.
  The unavoidable truth is, if we don't get a handle on health care 
costs, jobs will never improve the way we need them to. We already know 
the automobile industry in this country has lost tens of thousands of 
jobs because of the unaffordable cost of the health care for their 
employees. No. A successful employment strategy must include a 
successful health care reform strategy, and that is why it's so 
critical that we pass that in this Congress.

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