[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 159]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1400
            THE MINDLESS REPEAL OF THE ACCOUNTABLE CARE ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, we have a new leader in the House and a 
new majority, and next week they are going to begin their legislative 
activity with a stunt. It is a stunt they are bringing out here to 
pretend that they are repealing the Accountable Care Act that was 
passed in the last session. They know it won't pass the Senate, they 
know the President isn't going to accept it, so it is being done simply 
for their base. Now, I object to doing stunts like this when they 
affect real people's lives.
  I just would ask you for a minute to consider what the repeal of this 
means to middle class families in this country. I am a physician. There 
are other physicians on the floor. They know how this repeal will 
affect people in this country.
  In September, we already had go into effect the ability of families 
to put their children on their health insurance up to the age of 26. 
This repeal will say, if you have got a 25-year-old who has cystic 
fibrosis and is on your health care plan and getting their medications 
through your health care plan, we are going to take it away from you. 
That is what they are saying in this.
  They are saying for preexisting conditions, if you were trying to get 
a health care plan and your wife or your son or you have a preexisting 
condition, you can be denied by an insurance company. We have already 
passed a law that says that can't happen. It went in in September. Yet 
the Republicans are going to come out here and say to the middle class 
in this country, we are going to take away your protection against 
insurance companies denying you coverage.
  It goes on and on and on, but I want to focus on one particular part 
of this bill. This bill has the largest middle class tax cut in 
history--the largest tax cut for the middle class in history--because 
the tax cuts in this health care bill to help the middle class are used 
for giving credits to people when they buy insurance. People buy 
insurance, they get a tax credit. It is the largest one in history.
  Let me say that again so you get it: They are going to vote next 
week. They are going to stand out here with a straight face and vote to 
repeal the largest middle class tax cut in the history of this great 
Nation that will be worth $110 billion that they will take away from 
the middle class.
  Now, a few weeks ago we passed a tax bill out of here and we had to 
give tax cuts to people who make millions and millions of dollars--
millions. They said if you don't give the tax cuts to the rich, we are 
not going to give them to the middle class. The entire Republican 
Caucus voted against tax cuts unless millionaires got them. Well, we 
should have learned from that that this repeal will be just more of the 
same--take $110 billion away from the middle class by taking a repeal 
of this law.
  You don't have to take it from me. This isn't me making this up. 
Families USA, a nonpartisan group, has put out this information, and 
everybody understands it. Now, upstairs in the Rules Committee right 
now, I could be up there talking but I decided I will talk here first 
and then go up there and try to get this amendment offered in the bill 
that will be on Friday. Allyson Schwartz and Gwen Moore are up there 
already working on this. But it would prevent a repeal effort from 
increasing taxes on moderate-income or low-income individuals, 
including through the elimination of tax credits for health care 
premiums as provided under the health care reform law. We would exempt 
that one part out of the repeal.
  I don't know what success I will have up there, but we will go and 
try, because it is worth trying. It is worth pointing out how 
absolutely unthinking this is. It is a mindless thing to come out here 
with this repeal.

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