[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 11028-11030]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  2130
                     REPEALING AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 5, 2011, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Tonko) is recognized 
for 30 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. TONKO. Madam Speaker, for a great number of hours today in this 
Chamber, there has been a great debate on whether or not to repeal the 
Affordable Care Act when we know fully that the chances are slim to 
move forward and the measure would not be signed into law. Is it 
political posturing? I believe it is, of a grand style.
  There's a pattern being established here. There's been an attack--
outright attack--on Social Security, attempts to privatize the system. 
It's been under attack for the last 76 years. It's been the 
underpinning that provides stability for working families across this 
great Nation. It has been a security piece that has enabled many to 
have at least assurances that there would be some support in family 
budgets as they move month to month. We know that that measure, Social 
Security, has been dealing with its enemies for a long time--since 
before it was made a law.
  Likewise, Medicare, which came to us in the mid-sixties, enabled our 
senior community to have its health care needs met, provided 
predictability and stability for retired households, enabled people to 
enjoy a quality of life, a better quality of health care. We know that 
before Medicare, many of those who had retired expected to see their 
economic security dip south because of the expected cost of providing 
health care when they, perhaps, could not get that coverage in an 
insurance context.
  So Medicare, as we know it today, would be undone by the Republican 
majority in this House. They would prefer to privatize Social Security, 
allow us to reach to the financial sector to, perhaps, see a repeat of 
what happened to so many individuals and families out there with this 
past recession, where they saw their lifetime savings wiped away, 
trillions lost in the American economy, pain and suffering endured by 
families across this land. They'd rather see a voucher system for 
Medicare, handing it over to the insurance companies, to leave seniors 
digging deeper into their pockets.
  So the pattern has been established here, and now a repeal of the 
Affordable Care Act before its full implementation, before given a 
chance as we arrive as the last industrialized Nation in the world to 
provide a universal health care coverage program. Unacceptable. 
Progress is struck. A decision is rendered by the highest court in the 
land, a conservative-leaning Court. Before the ink is dry on that 
decision, a move to repeal. The Court spoke. It has spoken to America 
and said the litmus test for constitutionality was debated and a 
decision rendered that said, yes, in fact, it meets the 
constitutionality test.
  And so this evening, on the eve of the attempts to repeal the 
Affordable Care Act as it stands, is a very telling moment. It is one 
that suggests to us that there is this outright attempt to undo 
programs that serve our middle class so very well. And without a 
thriving middle class, our Nation is not prosperous. Without that 
thriving middle class, there's not purchasing power strong enough to 
provide the recovery of our economy. Without a strengthening of our 
middle class, there is not a confidence in the economy, a confidence 
that is needed so as to grow more customers for our business base.
  And so the Affordable Care Act is offering promise and hope to 
millions, tens of millions, of Americans across this land. Whether 
you're insured, underinsured, uninsured, all categories will see 
strengthening because of this measure.
  Think of it. I represent a large proportion of senior citizens who 
are concerned about their pharmaceutical costs. Many dealing with that 
doughnut hole have reached that threshold that requires them to dig 
into their pockets. We close that doughnut hole. We make more 
affordable the prescriptions that are required for people to stay well 
and, in some cases, to have the medications that keep them alive. We 
deny that opportunity to our Nation's seniors.
  We deny the respect that we offer. We deny the dignity in the 
equation that speaks to affordable outcomes for the pharmaceuticals 
that our senior community requires. That doughnut hole would have been 
closed by 2020.
  Further, at the other end of the age spectrum, many young adults, 
finding it difficult in this recession--and now the recovery period--to 
gain a job as they perhaps leave high school or college, are given the 
opportunity with the Affordable Care Act to remain on their family's 
policy until the age of 26. Therein lies a strong benefit for some 6.6 
million young adults, denied with the repeal measure, denying access 
and affordability to health care situations. How many cases of young 
adults impacted by catastrophic illness or accidents will it require to 
turn the hearts and the minds in a positive direction, that would not 
forego this opportunity for our Nation's young adults? A strong benefit 
associated with this package.
  What about those who have a preexisting condition? Some 17 million 
children in that category. And that's not to account for the many 
adults who would be denied because of preexisting conditions. Asthma in 
children, diabetes in our senior community, being a woman, utilized as 
a preexisting condition, an opportunity to deny coverage and the basic 
core need that we should consider to be truly American. Another benefit 
lost to the greedy notion of repealing success that was achieved in 
this House and the United States Senate and signed into law by this 
President.
  What about the efforts to deny lifetime benefits as a threshold? 
Cutting people off of an insurance coverage at perhaps a very demanding 
time in their lives. Games played with people and their lives and their 
recovery; hope pulled from working families across this Nation because 
of an insensitivity of this Congress. A deplorable situation.
  Assistance to our small business community. Now, if we profess our 
small business community to be the economic engine that is part and 
parcel of our economic comeback, our economic springboard, then would 
we not want to provide assistance in that basic core need area? Would 
we not want to allow tax credits to come the way of our small business 
community? Many, a majority of those businesses will remind all of us 
as Representatives that they want to provide for their employees.

                              {time}  2140

  They want a productive workforce. That means a strong and well 
workforce. And so they see it as a strong investment; one, however, 
that they could not afford in recent years because of the escalating 
costs, 18 percent larger bill than industry and perhaps weaker 
coverage.
  They wanted that turned around. They wanted a smart approach, a 
businesslike approach, a sensitive response. They got it with the 
Affordable Care Act.
  Progress denied, the small business engine weakened by this sort of 
neglect that could be advanced in this cited pattern of undoing Social 
Security, privatizing Social Security, changing Medicare as we know it 
forever, now repealing the Affordable Care Act. We see the pattern. We 
see the gross neglect, the disrespect for America's middle class, her 
working families.
  So we go forward and we understand that, with the opportunities of an 
exchange, small employers, our small business community understands 
that if they're unable to enter into an exchange where all the private 
sector

[[Page 11029]]

participants agree to play by the rules, to sharpen their pencils, roll 
up their sleeves, provide the service, live within the parameters, and 
allow for the many to enter into a common exchange to provide 
corresponding benefits.
  Think of it. If 1 of 10 in that employee firm of 20 were to be 
impacted with catastrophic illness, it's devastating, an actuarial 
impact that hits that small business owner hard in the pocketbook 
because of the premium increase for that 1 person of the 10 you employ.
  If those same 10 employees were allowed to enter the exchange, a 
better outcome, a different outcome, a stronger outcome for the 
economic recovery of this Nation because the gross majority of jobs 
being produced in this comeback are being done by our small business 
community.
  And so, you know, the formula is quite obvious. We want a comeback. 
We want that strongest response here from Washington for that kick that 
we endured from a recession that drained us of 8.2 million jobs.
  The best way to do it, first of three principles, small business. 
Provide for the strengthening of small business, which the Affordable 
Care Act does, because that small business community has forever been 
the pulse of American enterprise.
  Secondly, invest in that entrepreneur, the dreamer, the mover, the 
shaker. It always stretched us, since our days of pioneer spirit with 
the Industrial Revolution and the westward movement, very familiar to 
the district I represent, which is the donor area to the Erie Canal in 
upstate New York in the capital region, Mohawk Valley. That pioneer 
spirit exists in our fabric today. It's our DNA. Invest in the 
entrepreneur. To be the ideas economy kingpin, we rely on these wizards 
to build us, sustain us, stretch us, empower us.
  And then finally, invest in a thriving middle class, which the 
Affordable Care Act does. It enables us, as a middle class community, 
to be bolstered by the confidence, the security, the stability that has 
come with this success story in guaranteeing access and affordability 
to quality health care that will underscore the value of wellness and 
not just deal with illness, that will put together efforts to cost 
contain, that will bring people into a structured program so that we 
can monitor their activities and connect them to a system.
  You know, you'll hear from some on the floor, we don't want to pay 
for this. It's going to cost us too much.
  We're paying today for the neglect, for the consequences of a not-so-
perfect system. Status quo will not cut it, and so we need to go 
forward with progressive policies, with the soundness of reform, with 
the boldness of transition, with the confidence we can instill, with 
the progressiveness of policies that we can draft.
  And so it is a sad note here echoed in this Chamber, that would 
attempt to unravel, dilute, destroy, deny the promise we can make to 
America.
  As I look at this effort for a comeback, the containment of health 
care costs is just one of those areas that we need to help control. 
Create that better environment in which to grow jobs, cultivate a 
prosperity. It's important. It's important for us to understand that it 
is part of an economic recovery equation.
  But there's also the wisdom of investing in education, in higher 
education, again, under attack by a system that does not always profess 
the strength of research and education and patents and discovery.
  We understand that we are in the midst of a global race on 
innovation, clean energy and ideas and high tech. To be outstanding 
competitors, to arrive at that race ready to conquer, we will need to 
be strong and fit in order to be the winning agent on that global 
scene.
  We saw that order of passion. We saw that order of investment in the 
global race on space just decades ago. This Nation, impacted by a 
Sputnik moment, dusted off its backside and said, Never again. Never 
again.
  And what was the result?
  Together, a Nation grew in its commitment to winning the global race 
on space. We are going to be that agent, that Nation, that proud people 
that would stake the American flag on the Moon. And we won that race 
because of a commitment, because of investment in the soundness of the 
people of this great country and her business community. We embraced 
research. We embraced science. We believed in our strength as a people, 
and the confidence exuded was the elixir that brought us to the 
victory.
  Where is that like passion today? Where is that leadership?
  A rather youthful President that led us in the sixties and challenged 
us, in almost replication today, finds us, interestingly, to be 
challenged by a rather youthful President asking us to enter into the 
global sweepstakes, committing with passion to the cause.
  And so we need that investment in education, in higher education and 
research. Just today, in Schenectady, New York, in the 21st 
Congressional District of New York that I'm proud to represent, we 
announced formally the creation of the advanced battery manufacturing 
center at that facility of GE.
  CEO Jeff Immelt traveled for the celebration, came to town to 
announce this wonderful, wonderful addition. That is America at work 
with her genius activity. That's America determined to win the global 
race on ideas.
  Advanced battery manufacturing, the battery, the linchpin to so much 
potential out there, to grow domestic supplies of energy, to grow jobs 
as we grow our energy future, to reduce the gluttonous dependency on 
fossil-based fuels, oftentimes imported from some of the most 
unfriendly nations to the United States, sending hundreds of billions 
of dollars annually to those foreign treasuries that are then used to 
train troops to fight against our own daughters and sons on the 
battlefield.

                              {time}  2150

  Unacceptable. There is a better way, and this Congress knows it.
  We invest in jobs. We invest in health care. We invest in education. 
We invest in research. We do it in a way that promises our best attempt 
as a Nation to generations yet unborn. Someone was there for us, and we 
need to be there for future generations of Americans to provide the 
sort of cutting-edge opportunity that will spell America at her best. I 
look at that opportunity for not only battery manufacturing but 
nanotechnology and semiconductor signs, chip manufacturing.
  The newly designed 20th Congressional District in New York that 
comprises a good portion of the now existing 21st District that I 
represent is probably one of the most technology invested-in 
congressional districts in the country. It is happening because there 
is this belief in the worker, a belief in the entrepreneur, a belief in 
the small business community, a belief in the industrial context of the 
district, and knowing full well that America's needs--be they for the 
environment or energy's sake or business creation, job creation, 
business opportunity--are inspiring this remarkable progress.
  It requires our moving forward with a plan. It requires our moving 
forward academically with the soundness of policy and with the 
corresponding resource advocacy that will yield lucrative dividends. I 
see it all the time. I see it in energy-efficiency programs that 
produce jobs, that enable us to capture waste heat. That is part of the 
energy process, enabling us to be much more efficient. Efforts that 
enable us to create more and more patents in a world that has grown 
much more competitive, much more sophisticated we can ill afford to 
weaken in our attempts to be the kingmakers of the international 
economy.
  The old American spirit, the history of this Nation replete with 
those rags to riches scenarios, that became the reason and the 
inspiration for the compilation of journeys made by our ancestors to 
these shores, because the opportunity called the ``American Dream'' 
became the prize for which they searched. I see it in my own roots. The 
proudest label I carry in life is as the grandson of immigrants. Their 
journey gave me great opportunity, and it gave my family great 
opportunity. Those journeys chased after the American Dream.

[[Page 11030]]

  We need, beginning in this House Chamber, to reignite the American 
Dream, to go back to the core essence of who we are as a people, to 
reach into that American heart and soul that has forever relied on its 
passion that we can achieve because we have opportunity, and that we 
will not deny that opportunity, that we will strengthen the boldness of 
those dreams and enable us to respond to the needs of the moments and 
the future and to write our legacy as a generation of Americans.
  Let us not fail in that attempt. Let us continue to reach deep into 
that American spirit. At a time when we were challenged and our economy 
was brought to its knees by failed policies that did not manage well, 
that did not provide for the stewardship of our resources, and when we 
tripped and fell, let it be known that, in the recovery, we were 
stronger than ever before. Because of that belief that our best days 
lay ahead of us, the belief that those best days were in the future, we 
moved forward, and we dug deep into that American spirit to respond 
with the respect for America's middle class. Our middle class--all of 
us in that middle class--have always understood if you play hard, if 
you abide by the rules, if you roll up your sleeves and do your best, 
you could rightfully anticipate the taste of success.
  That is America in her most shining moments, and that is an economy 
that we can produce. It begins with the soundness of a strong and 
productive workforce that went through training and retraining, that 
got to taste the potential for success by that self discovery that 
comes with education, and to then understand our gifts so that we could 
share them in the most profound way, and then to provide for the 
wellness of that workforce so it could be most productive, so that the 
conditioning that came with that sort of commitment and that order of 
respect and that potion of dignity could then allow for us to speak to 
a Nation that was humbled by its own beginnings, where the rightful 
stories of so many who made it their journey were written by a Nation 
that believed in her people.
  So, tonight, on this eve of an attempt to repeal the Affordable Care 
Act, let us understand that our budget here in Washington, our actions 
with legislation, our responsiveness to the needs of the American 
people are an establishment of our priorities--a prescription of what 
we see our future to be--a reaching into the heart to say that we are a 
truly caring lot. That's what separates us from other nations. It is 
the uniqueness of America and her greatness. The Affordable Care Act is 
a measurement of not only sound policy; it is a statement of a 
compassionate society that understands it's not about oneself, that 
it's about neighbors, that it's about community, that it's about The 
Great Society.
  It has been the history through the decades, through the vintages of 
time, that has enabled us to reach to the greatness of our government, 
to reach to the soundness of ideas and innovation, to respond to the 
challenges that have enabled us to build upon those who preceded us, 
always anticipating that the next generation would be made stronger.
  We owe it to our children and grandchildren and generations yet 
unborn. Let them look at this moment in history, American history, 
knowing that America was challenged, that she stepped up to the plate 
and said ``yes'' to her people and truly made a difference, and allowed 
people to understand full well that the best days of this great Nation 
lie ahead of us.
  With that, Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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