[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6469]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1010
           MISPLACED PRIORITIES OF THE TEA PARTY REPUBLICANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. George Miller) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, let me begin by joining 
my colleagues on both sides of the aisle in praising President Obama 
and our military and our intelligence teams for their extraordinary 
work in the culmination of the killing of Osama bin Laden. His death is 
a very positive step for U.S. counterterrorism efforts. Bin Laden's 
death will not erase the pain he caused by his evil acts, nor does it 
mean that Americans are not still the targets of others bent on doing 
us harm, but hopefully his elimination will offer some comfort to the 
grieving families all over the world who have suffered at his hand and 
will diminish the capacity of his network to do us harm.
  Mr. Speaker, while Americans are expressing their appreciation over 
the death of bin Laden, they remain deeply anxious about our economy. 
They are suffering from high unemployment and high gas prices and they 
expect and need relief. That is why Americans must be really scratching 
their heads in disbelief over the choices being made here in the House 
of Representatives.
  While Americans remain focused on jobs and the economy, the tea party 
Republican majority has voted to end Medicare and to cut taxes for the 
richest Americans and the largest oil companies. And this week they 
will vote to make it harder for students and low-income workers across 
the country to have access to health care by bringing up two bills to 
end the funding for new school-based health care centers and for State-
based exchanges where workers and small business employees who cannot 
get insurance through their jobs will be able to look for health care 
benefits.
  Mr. Speaker, they are also bringing up a third bill, a sweeping 
measure that would, in effect, make abortion inaccessible to most 
women, despite the fact that the Supreme Court has ruled that women in 
the United States of America have a constitutional right to receive an 
abortion if they so choose.
  With sky-high gas prices and continued high unemployment, the 
Republicans must wake up in the morning and think the most important 
thing to do today is to take away health care from kids and hardworking 
Americans and trample on women's rights.
  Really? Time out, America. Time out.
  This Congress, under the control of the tea party, is making the 
wrong choices for our economy and for our future. They have 
accomplished nothing for the American people in more than 3 months that 
they have been in charge. No bill to help create jobs. Not one. 
Instead, what have they done? They voted to end Medicare. That is 
right. They voted to end Medicare and shift the cost of health care of 
current and future seniors onto seniors themselves, in some cases 
adding nearly $7,000 more in costs per senior starting in the year 
2022. They voted to reduce nursing home care for seniors and for the 
disabled. And they voted to make prescription drugs for senior citizens 
more expensive.
  To make it all worse, at the same time they voted to end Medicare, 
they voted to cut taxes for millionaires and billionaires and give tax 
breaks to the largest oil companies and to extend tax breaks to 
companies that ship jobs overseas and in fact pay no taxes to the 
American people, no sense of patriotism for the benefit these companies 
receive by being American corporations. They chose to give them 
additional tax breaks, even though they pay no taxes under current law.
  Their choices are clear--dangerously clear. End Medicare and make 
seniors pay more for health care, but give giant oil companies and the 
wealthiest in our country more tax breaks.
  One of the bills that they will bring up this week will eliminate the 
ability of Americans without insurance, including small business 
employees, to shop and to compare health plans in the State-based 
exchanges. They have determined to pursue policies to harm working 
families in order to cater to their insurance industry friends and 
radical right-wing supporters. They don't believe that every American 
should have access to affordable health coverage.
  Health exchanges are one of the most popular and important provisions 
of the health care law. They are vital for families and small 
businesses to be able to have access to affordable health care. These 
exchanges are market based, they foster competition, they reduce costs, 
and they provide access to health insurance for millions of Americans.
  Yes, Mr. Speaker, Americans must scratch their heads every day and 
wonder why the priorities of the tea party Republicans are not 
consistent with the needs of their families, their children, their job 
opportunities, their small businesses' vitality. They must wonder every 
day: Why can't this Congress start serving the American public?

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