[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 14396-14397]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         CONTINUING RESOLUTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Virginia (Mr. Connolly) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CONNOLLY. Mr. Speaker, I was sorry to hear that our colleague 
from Colorado has had his insurance canceled or threatened with a 100 
percent premium increase. That is precisely what ObamaCare was designed 
to stop--the capricious actions of cancellation of coverage, especially 
when you get sick, by insurance companies. That's exactly what it's 
going to do. It's going to end that kind of practice and give you more 
choices.
  Mr. Speaker, the majority of Americans object to House Republicans 
holding hostage the basic government services our citizens expect and 
need just so they can poke the President in the eye once again by 
trying to repeal the signature health insurance reform law.

[[Page 14397]]

  In a recent poll, 8 out of 10 respondents said it is unacceptable for 
Members of Congress to threaten to shut down the government in order to 
achieve narrow ideological goals. After last week's House vote on the 
Republican hostage plan, another poll found more than half of 
Republican respondents want Congress to keep the government open rather 
than shut it down over the Affordable Care Act.
  So why can't House Republicans accept the Affordable Care Act, which 
was adopted by Congress and reaffirmed by the Supreme Court and 
reaffirmed in an election just 10 months ago in this country? They have 
held 42 votes to chip away or outright repeal this signature law, and 
they have failed in every one of those attempts.
  Senator John McCain, a prominent and respected Republican, tried to 
counsel his Republican friends on the futility of this effort on the 
floor of the Senate yesterday by reminding them that elections have 
consequences. The man who lost the 2008 election to President Obama 
noted that a majority of Americans reaffirmed their support of this 
President and his agenda, and by extension his signature initiative, in 
last year's election.

                              {time}  1045

  What is particularly disappointing in this protracted debate is this 
false narrative that the Affordable Care Act is not working, that it 
will somehow cause an economic calamity, as the majority leader claimed 
last week. What truly worries House Republicans, one suspects, isn't 
that the Affordable Care Act will fail, but precisely the opposite--
they are frightened to death it will succeed.
  Just this week, we received further confirmation that, in fact, it is 
delivering on its promise to reverse the skyrocketing costs of health 
care, unlike the narrative of my friend from Colorado. When the 
insurance exchanges open for enrollment next week, the Department of 
Health and Human Services says consumers will find an average of 53 
health plans to choose from and premiums 16 percent lower--not higher--
than expected, and that's before any tax credits are applied. In my 
district, for example, a family of four, earning $50,000 a year, will 
be able to find a silver-rated insurance plan for less than $300 a 
month, and they could pay a zero premium with that subsidy for a 
bronze-rated plan.
  The Affordable Care Act is working for seniors. Premiums and 
deductibles for Medicare are lower, not higher, and seniors have saved 
more than $7 billion so far in prescription drug costs thanks to 
closing the doughnut hole of Medicare part D. Enrollment in Medicare 
Advantage plans has gone up 30 percent since 2010, and premiums have 
dropped 16 percent since that time. That's a far cry from the kind of 
demonizing and the ``wolf's at the door'' rhetoric of some of my 
friends on the other side.
  Mr. Speaker, it is not the Affordable Care Act that puts America at 
risk of economic calamity, but the reckless actions of my friends on 
the other side of the aisle who are willing, once again, to hold the 
American people hostage because they don't like it. They have an 
ideological agenda that is going to create deep hardship in every one 
of those households my friend from Colorado just discussed and in every 
one of the households throughout America.
  Let's get on with the business of America, and let's stop the 
practice of hostage-taking on the floor of the House.

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