[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 13018-13019]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I come to the floor because this week 
President Obama is going to present his new jobs plan to the American 
people and to all of us. I am certain we will hear a lot of talk and a 
lot of promises.
  I remember when former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi famously announced 
in 2010 their White House health care summit. I sat around the table at 
that summit. In the discussion, she said the President's new health 
care law would create 4 million jobs. Here is exactly what former 
Speaker Pelosi promised on February 25, 2010. She said:

       . . . this bill is not only about the health security of 
     America, it's about jobs. In its life it will create 4 
     million jobs--400,000 jobs almost immediately.

  I ask, where are the jobs? The fact is, the President's health care 
law didn't create jobs. As a physician, I have come to the floor every 
week since the health care law has been signed and have given a 
doctor's second opinion about this health care law and why I believe it 
is bad for patients, bad for providers--the nurses and the doctors who 
take care of those patients--and terrible for the taxpayers.
  Here we are 17 months after the President signed his health care plan 
into law and the American people have yet to see job growth anywhere 
near the figures promised by Nancy Pelosi. In fact, the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics reported last week the American economy generated a whopping 
zero jobs during the month of August. This is sobering news when we 
have 9.1 percent unemployment in America.
  The New York Times, on September 3, had an editorial called ``The 
Jobs Crisis,'' and let me read from it. It says:

       The August employment report, released on Friday, is bleak 
     on all counts, but at least it leaves no doubt that the 
     United States is in the grip of a severe and worsening jobs 
     crisis. That should lend a sense of urgency to the speech on 
     jobs that President Obama plans to deliver this week.

  The speech is scheduled for tomorrow night. The New York Times goes 
on to say:

       The economy added no jobs in August--zero--and the anemic 
     numbers for June and July were revised downward. The 
     unemployment rate is stuck at 9.1 percent, but it would be 
     16.2 percent if it included the swelling ranks of those who 
     find only part-time work and the millions who have given up 
     looking for jobs that simply do not exist.

  Here we are looking at this sobering news, and it seems the only 
connection between the health care law and the jobs market in America 
is that the job creators--the people who create jobs in this country--
made it very clear they cannot afford the President's new health care 
law. Month after month we hear from more people in the private sector 
who explain they will either have to fire people or stop providing 
coverage in order to comply with the significant expenses of the new 
health care law. Let me repeat. This law encourages job creators not to 
create jobs but to fire workers, not to hire workers.
  To get around this problem in the short term, the administration 
began doing something I did not anticipate when the health care law was 
signed. They began to grant waivers from the President's health care 
law. They said: Oh, it doesn't apply to you. It doesn't apply to you. 
Come and apply for a waiver. During the month of August--this past 
month--the administration, once again, granted another round of waivers 
from the President's health care law. There were another 73 waivers 
allowing 105,000 people to get out of the mandates of the Obama health 
care law.
  Since October of 2010, the Obama administration has granted over 
1,500 annual benefit limit waivers. Now they are granting them for 3 
years. These waivers now cover over 3.4 million Americans. So the law 
and the mandates don't have to apply to them with regard to the 
benefits. Whom have over 50 percent of these waivers gone to? They have 
gone to union people, people who have gotten their health care through 
a union health plan. These are the same people who supported the 
President's health care law. It is startling that even unions cannot 
afford the President's law.

[[Page 13019]]

  Remember Nancy Pelosi saying: First, we have to pass it before you 
get to find out what is in it. As more and more Americans have found 
out what is in the health care law, they say we do not want this to 
apply to us. In fact, the Service Employees International Union said 
the law would be financially impossible; that it is financially 
impossible for them to comply with. I don't think any job creator or 
American family should have to bear financially impossible costs 
because of the President's health care law. Each time this 
administration releases yet another round of its health care law 
waivers, it reminds the American people how fatally flawed the 
President's new law is.
  As the President prepares for his speech tomorrow night, he needs to 
take a hard look at his health care law. He needs to face the 
unfortunate reality that his law actually makes it harder and more 
expensive for the job creators of this country to hire more people. We 
need to make it easier and cheaper for the job creators in this country 
to create private sector jobs, but yet the President's health care law 
makes it harder and more expensive. Tomorrow night, the President needs 
to change direction. Instead of giving waivers to businesses and 
unions, he should announce that all Americans can get a waiver from his 
health care law.
  The good news is, I have a bill he can support immediately. My bill 
will allow any individual--any American citizen--to submit a waiver 
application seeking relief from any or all of the health care law's 
mandates. The waivers will be granted to individuals showing that the 
health care law is either increasing their health care premiums or 
decreasing their access to benefits. The bill is simple. It is 
straightforward. It is S. 1395. It is called the Waive Act, and there 
are 16 cosponsors in the Senate. Basically, it says, if a person's 
costs go up or their benefits go down, they have the freedom to get out 
of the President's health care law. Health insurance premiums have 
risen 19 percent since President Obama took office.
  Tomorrow night, the President should announce that he will allow all 
Americans an opportunity to opt out of his health care law. If he did, 
this would be one of the best steps he could take to help America's 
economy. That is why I come to the floor, week after week, with a 
doctor's second opinion about a health care law that I believe is 
hurting our country.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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