[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 15001-15006]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      IMPLEMENTATION OF OBAMACARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2013, the gentlewoman from Kansas (Ms. Jenkins) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Ms. JENKINS. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to be here this evening with my 
colleagues to host the Republican leadership hour. We are going to talk 
to the American people about the damaging taxes levied against them by 
the President's health care law, the cost to consumers, the IRS' role 
in enforcement of these tax provisions, and the rocky implementation of 
the law.
  The President's health care law contained 21 new taxes, many of which 
will impact low and middle-income earners. Together, these taxes 
represent a $1 trillion tax hike at a time when American families 
certainly cannot afford it.
  And although it became law in 2010, the two linchpins of the law, the 
employer mandate and the individual mandate, were not scheduled to be 
implemented until 2014. My colleagues and I have consistently expressed 
our concerns to the President and our Democrat colleagues that these 
two taxes would present both an undue economic burden on our 
constituents, and a logistical nightmare for the administration to 
implement.
  On July 2, the administration announced in a Treasury blog post that 
it would delay enforcement of the employer mandate by a year, until 
2015. One administration official said that the President justified 
this decision to delay this tax on business because it began, and I 
quote, ``listening to businesses about the health care law.''
  I've been hearing from businesses about this tax for 3 years, and I'm 
sure the President has as well. I'm glad that he saw the light. I'm 
also pleased that the House came together, in a bipartisan manner 
yesterday, to pass a bill reaffirming the decision to delay the 
employer mandate tax for a year.
  However, a delay of the employer mandate will not give any relief to 
individuals who do not have employer-sponsored health care, nor will it 
give any relief to employees who have already been converted to part-
time status by their employers in anticipation of the employer mandate.
  These American families will still face this excise tax, even though 
the President is giving Big Business an escape hatch. We believe the 
administration has set up a double standard for compliance with this 
unpopular law, and that is why the House is working to delay the 
individual mandate as well until 2015.
  As things stand now, on Day 2 of open enrollment, the health care 
exchanges, in many cases, have simply not been ready. A report issued 
this summer by the Government Accountability Office found that many of 
the State health care exchanges will not be operational and will 
complicate individuals' efforts to comply with the law.
  I know that many of the Members speaking today will share stories 
they've gathered so far, and my State of Kansas has been a good example 
of the confusion that these delays are causing. Officials are already 
counseling my constituents to wait to purchase benefits for a few weeks 
until the exchange's kinks are worked out. I find this unacceptable.
  Additionally, the administration has announced that the subsidies 
available to individuals, when purchasing insurance, will not be 
verified by the Federal Government, and that individuals will have to 
self-report information regarding their income. This paves the way for 
fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars.
  Finally, at the heart of this law is the IRS' role in enforcement of 
the President's health care law. This is an agency we all agree is 
mired in scandal, or maybe even worse, a culture of incompetence. We do 
not think this is the appropriate time to be increasing the IRS' 
workload with enforcement of these new taxes, and questions abound 
about the security of taxpayers' information in the Federal data hub.
  I look forward to spending time with my colleagues this evening 
discussing these issues.
  At this point, I yield to my friend and colleague from Oklahoma (Mr. 
Mullin).
  Mr. MULLIN. Thank you for this opportunity to stand up and, not just 
represent our side of the aisle, but represent the business owners that 
are having to go through this struggle of the shifting sands constantly 
underneath their feet, and take time to maybe take a different approach 
that this House, this body, those that are sent up here to represent 
the American people, maybe we can look at a little bit different and 
take a business approach to it.
  You see, I've been sitting, literally, at negotiating tables since I 
was 20 years old. Because of some family circumstances that came in, it 
forced me to, in a sense, grow up quick. I took over a very small 
plumbing company and at that time I had to immediately start going for 
work.
  And when I started going to work, I'd show up at a table, a bid 
table, and I'd be going across other contractors, and we would be 
negotiating. The only problem is, I didn't know how to negotiate.

[[Page 15002]]

  See, I'd sit down with my proposal and I'd say, this is what I'm 
going to do. And they'd said, okay, but we've got to talk about it. I'd 
say no, I'm not going to talk about it. This is what I'm going to do. 
You can take it or you can leave it.
  And I started leaving. And I started realizing, as I was leaving, I 
was going broke. Literally, I was going broke because I wasn't getting 
the jobs. Somebody else was getting the jobs.
  And then I started figuring out, you know, I've got to figure out how 
to negotiate. There's a technique to negotiating, and that means you've 
got to know two things when you're going to a table to negotiate. 
You've got to know, one, what is it that you want. That's vitally 
important. But what's more important is, 2, what is it you can accept. 
And that's called negotiating.
  Of course, we always want everything. But we've also got to know what 
we can accept. And if I never figured out how to accept that certain 
amount, I would have went flat broke.
  And what's going on with this country?
  Let's think about the comparison between the two. This body of 
elected officials has forgotten how to negotiate. We are sitting there 
pointing fingers at each other while our country is literally going 
flat broke, because we all want something. But what is it that we can 
accept?
  We've been so blinded by party politics that we forgot how to sit at 
a table and negotiate. I'm literally sitting back, as a business owner, 
thinking, are you serious?
  Are we really putting our company, are we really putting America's 
best interests, at mind?
  Here's what the Republican Party wanted. We wanted to repeal 
ObamaCare. We came to the table and we said, we don't want it. Take it 
back.
  Sent it over to the Senate. The Senate says no. They say, we want a 
clean CR or nothing.
  So we came back to the table, and we negotiated among ourselves and 
said, okay, let's delay it for 1 year. We know it's not ready for prime 
time. We know this thing's going to be disastrous. Let's delay this 
thing for 1 year. That's it.
  Sent it over to the Senate and the Senate said no. We want a clean 
CR, or that's it.
  Then we decided, okay, let's at least delay the individual mandate, 
the penalty to the individual. That's the heart of this. Let's not 
penalize those individuals that can't afford it. Let's not penalize 
those individuals that this administration is constantly saying he's 
trying to protect.
  Let's not, at least let's not penalize them. If they don't want it, 
let's believe in the American freedoms that we have and not force it 
upon them, and delay it and make sure we get it right.
  What did the Senate say?
  No. It's my way or the highway.
  At the same time, our country is going flat broke.
  We have three legs of government. We have the House, we have the 
Senate, and we have the executive branch. But, unfortunately, the 
executive branch is leading the Senate, and they're giving them their 
marching orders. And they won't even come to the table with us to 
negotiate, even though they're constitutionally bound by that.
  It says that if the House and the Senate can't come together, they're 
supposed to go to conference and talk it out. And the Senate says, no.
  Who's losing here?
  Who's losing is the American people. That's who's losing, while both 
sides are trying to figure out who's going to win.
  And we're playing with real people's lives. We're playing with 
individuals' lives, and we think it's just politics.
  It's not just politics. We have to drop the labels, and we have got 
to figure out what is best for this country.
  If I never figured that out, I wouldn't be the largest plumbing 
service company in the State of Oklahoma today. I wouldn't employ over 
120 people with just that one company. I wouldn't be that entrepreneur 
that is the backbone of this country. Instead, I would have been flat 
broke.
  There are lessons to be learned, and we're not. We're going 
backwards. It's time we stand up and do what's right for this country.
  It's time for the Senate to come to the table. Don't just tell us 
what you want; tell us what you will accept, and let's start a 
conversation, and let's negotiate.
  Thank you so much for yielding the time to me. It's such an honor to 
represent the great State of Oklahoma.

                              {time}  1915

  Ms. JENKINS. Thank you for your words.
  At this point I yield to Congresswoman Renee Ellmers from North 
Carolina.
  Mrs. ELLMERS. Thank you to my distinguished colleague from Kansas, 
vice chair of our Republican Conference. Thank you for yielding time to 
discuss this situation that's at hand right now.
  Right now, we're faced with this government shutdown. Right now, 
millions of Americans are thinking to themselves, What on Earth is 
happening in Washington? There's a shutdown. There's the implementation 
of ObamaCare exchanges that took place starting yesterday.
  The interesting thing is that 47 States are receiving frequent error 
messages on the Web site. In my home State of North Carolina, the Obama 
navigators were grounded as the exchanges and the computer system was 
shut down. Americans across this country are faced with error messages 
on both exchanges run by the State and those run by the Federal 
Government.
  Day one. Day two. Failure of ObamaCare.
  So despite 3 years of time, countless dollars, countless 
administration officials testifying in hearing after hearing after 
hearing in the Energy and Commerce Committee and in the Ways and Means 
Committee that everything would be ready to go on October 1, for sure, 
right on track--those were the things we were told, We are moving right 
on track; consistently, we were told--and this is what the people of 
the country are seeing.
  This is what we're seeing in North Carolina. This is day two of 
ObamaCare exchanges. They changed up a little bit from day one. They 
added some cute little icons here. It says:

       We have a lot of visitors on this site right now. Please 
     stay on this page.

  As if you have nothing else to do. Just hang out. Just stay here.
  We checked this site throughout the day just about every hour to just 
check and see if it would be up and running.
  And it goes on. It says:

       We're working to make the experience better.
       We don't want you to lose your place in line.
       We'll send you to the login page as soon as we can.
       Thank you for your patience.

  Well, yes, America is going to need a lot of patience with ObamaCare. 
Because if this terrible law--and, yes, it is law, but there are bad 
laws that get passed--if this law is fully implemented, health care 
will be changed forever. You will have to have a lot of patience 
because you are going to be waiting at the doctor--if you can even find 
a doctor to go to. You will be waiting at the hospital, in the 
emergency room, or wherever you seek care, because the care will not be 
available. And the care that you will receive will be diminished.
  Yes, we're all going to have to have a lot of patience.
  One of the things that I've been doing in my office is trying to get 
firsthand accounts of what my constituents are experiencing as they're 
learning about their health care coverage; if they have health care 
coverage right now, what's happening to them. And I'd like to share a 
few of those with you.
  A nice lady by the name of Judy emailed me saying she received a 
letter from Blue Cross & Blue Shield stating that the plan she 
currently has would no longer be available.
  Now, if you can flash back a couple of years ago, our President--
President Obama--said repeatedly, You will be able to keep the health 
care you have. You will be able to keep the doctor that you have.
  Well, our worst fears are once again realized. Judy has had a change, 
and she didn't choose it--someone else did.

[[Page 15003]]

  And she goes on to say that a new plan was chosen for her where her 
premiums will go up from $151 a month to $589 a month. My question is, 
Chosen by whom? It certainly wasn't Judy who chose that. It was someone 
else. It was Blue Cross & Blue Shield. Somewhere along the way, someone 
else dictated to Judy what she would be able to have.
  The reason she was given--and this actually was stated in the letter:

       While rates often change due to rising costs of health 
     care, the new rules and regulations of the ACA, effective 
     January 1, 2014, contributed to the majority of the increase.

  It literally stated in the letter that the reason her premiums were 
going up so significantly was because of the implementation of the 
Affordable Care Act.
  Another constituent wrote:

       Our self-employed son's insurance went up from $430 a month 
     to $900 a month.

  That's almost double. That's almost a 100 percent increase.
  We were promised lower costs and more competition. President Obama 
said our premiums would be decreased by $2,500. Yet I am hearing the 
opposite from my constituents.
  One of the other issues that's happening in North Carolina right now 
has to do, again, with the exchanges. One of the things that we found 
out about a week ago was that the number of insurance companies that 
were going to be offering plans on the exchange is two--two insurance 
companies are offering plans.
  There are 100 counties in North Carolina. One insurance company has a 
monopoly, essentially. They can offer plans throughout North Carolina; 
and in 61 of those counties, they have a monopoly. They're the only 
plan being offered. They're the only insurance company being offered.
  To that, they counter by saying, We're offering multiple plans. But 
that's not competition. Competition is amongst the insurance companies 
that should be provided. We were promised lower rates. You receive 
lower rates with competition. It's very simple.
  So only two insurance companies are providing health care coverage on 
the exchanges in North Carolina. One has a monopoly throughout. The 
other covers 39 counties. So you can see 61 counties having a monopoly. 
That's not fair. How is that fair?
  As my colleagues and I have been saying over and over again, this law 
is not ready for prime time, And it never will be. That's the sad part. 
It is never going to measure up to what we were promised. Even as 
changes have been made to it, it still is lacking. It's filled with tax 
increases. It's filled with mandates. This isn't the plan that we 
should be following for health care.
  I'm a nurse. I dedicated my life to health care. I came here to 
Washington to fight ObamaCare. I never wanted to run for office before; 
but in the summer of 2009, the President was on the road telling us all 
about the health care plan that he wanted for America. My husband is a 
general surgeon. We practice in our small town. We said we've got to go 
out, and we've got to speak on this.
  One of the things that the President also said was that, 
overwhelmingly, doctors and nurses were in favor of this plan. We said, 
No, Mr. President, this is not true. And we started speaking out 
against it.
  The same issues that I was raising with the people of North Carolina 
that I was speaking about back then are the fears and the realities 
that we're faced with now. The cost, the overreach, the inefficiency, 
all affecting health care, all affecting our economy.
  The workforce alone, as we know, is going to be changed from a 40-
hour work week to a 30-hour work week. We're going to become a part-
time America. That's not what our country was built on. And yet that's 
what we're faced with with the implementation of ObamaCare.
  That's why we've asked for a delay. That's why we believe that every 
individual, every American should be receiving the same options that 
Big Business has gotten with the 1,500-plus waivers given. Every 
American should be able to say, I think it's a good idea and I'll take 
it; or, No, I don't. Why should we not have that choice? Why should 
every American not have that choice?
  We need to delay it; but more importantly, we need to put a better 
system in place. And the system that I support, at least at this point, 
is the Republican Study Committee's plan for health care reform. It's 
an alternative plan. It's the American Health Care Reform Act that we 
rolled out a couple of weeks ago. It puts in place all of the pieces 
that we know, one, that the American people want, that the American 
people feel they need; but at the same time, it puts forward 
flexibility, affordability. It's patient-centered. It's not government-
run.
  They're the reforms that have been necessary, complete with tort 
reform, liability reform that is such an essential piece, health care 
savings plans, tax credits for individuals who are buying health care 
insurance.
  It is the answer to health care reform. You should be able to 
purchase insurance across State lines. You shouldn't have to be told 
that there are only two insurance companies that you can choose from.
  These are the solutions in health care that we really should be 
looking for--not given something, not told you have to have something, 
not told that you will be penalized if you do not participate.
  The whole point of an online marketplace was to provide options; but 
as we are seeing, this couldn't be further from the truth.
  And I thank my colleague from Kansas for allowing me to speak my mind 
on this issue. It's so important to America, so important to these 
times, with this government shutdown.
  Ms. JENKINS. Thank you, Congresswoman Ellmers.
  At this point I yield to my good friend from the great State of 
Kansas, Representative Pompeo.
  Mr. POMPEO. Thank you for yielding. I appreciate the time.
  I imagine, Ms. Jenkins, you're hearing some of the same things as I 
am as you return to Kansas and talk to our constituents.
  This is serious business. We're standing here tonight with a partial 
government shutdown, and I don't think anybody thinks that's the best 
outcome for America. I think we all want America's essential vital 
services and systems to be functioning and up and running, but what 
we're dealing with in the Affordable Care Act is also a very serious 
matter. It's very real. It's not a game.
  I've heard some across the aisle suggest that by trying our best to 
fund the pieces of the government that matter and not fund the 
Affordable Care Act, we're taking hostages. I find that language, in 
one sense, offensive. But most importantly, I find it inaccurate. It 
doesn't represent what we're trying to do. We're not taking hostages. 
What we're trying to do is take account of what our constituents are 
telling us, and I want to talk about that just a little bit.
  I tried to get online yesterday myself to enroll in the Affordable 
Care Act. I was met with a bit of a blank screen and a long pause. I 
did manage to get through to the 1-800 phone number that was provided 
on the screen. I was told if I stayed on the line, 20 minutes later I'd 
get a live voice. Some hour and 40 minutes later, I did manage to get a 
live voice. There was great music in the interim.
  And I got a live voice. It was a young lady who told me she was from 
Louisiana. She said, Why did you call? I said, I'm calling to comply 
with the Federal law. She said, I'm not going to be able to help you 
with that today. My system is down, too.
  She was a government contractor working out of Louisiana. I asked her 
how long she'd been working on this. She said, Quite a while.
  In fact, yesterday wasn't the first day of the Affordable Care Act. 
We're now some 3 years into it. It's not the case that the bill was 
passed and there wasn't enough time to have this system ready. I 
imagine some of the kinks will get worked out. The President calls them 
hiccups. I hope the hiccups are the worst medical ailment that comes 
from the Affordable Care Act, but I fear that they won't be the worst 
ailment.

[[Page 15004]]

  In fact, I've already heard countless stories. I'll recount just 
three of them.
  Just today, I received an email from a small employer with about 60 
folks throughout Kansas. He indicated to me that he just received this 
week a letter indicating that his health insurance premiums for his 
business--he's the number two guy in the company--were going to be up 
somewhere between 30 and 40 percent. He reminded that his health care 
premiums had gone up before, but he said he'd never seen anything like 
this.

                              {time}  1930

  A real impact, there will be a real impact. He's trying to figure 
out, what do you do? How much of that cost gets passed on in copays and 
deductibles to the employees? How much of that cost does the company 
eat, making them less competitive in the global environment in which 
they're trying to compete. A real story from a real Kansas business 
impacting real lives.
  I spoke 3 weeks ago, when I was last back in Kansas, with a number of 
folks from some smaller hospitals in the rural part of south central 
Kansas. Those are called critical access care hospitals. They serve 
vital functions for less densely populated parts of our country.
  I was talking about the impact of the Affordable Care Act and they 
said, you know, things have been tough at some of these hospitals 
before. There are times when it's difficult to make ends meet and to 
provide all the services that people need. Docs come in from Wichita 
and from Kansas City and from other places to help part-time to provide 
these services in rural parts of the State. They said that after the 
Affordable Care Act it would be even more difficult, almost impossible, 
to keep these hospitals open and functioning and providing these 
valuable services. Real lives, real Kansans, real people with a real 
impact from the Affordable Care Act.
  Finally, I met with a young couple during that same trip home. Both 
of them work. They work at jobs where they were working for 40 hours a 
week and have now been told it's likely that they won't. They were 
still working 40 hours a week at the time. Their employer had just put 
them on notice and had suggested then that they begin to look for 
second jobs, or that maybe one spouse should leave that company and go 
work someplace else. Of course the rationale that had been provided by 
these people's employer was that if they continue to have full-time 
employees--what America has always had, full-time employees, 40-hour 
workweeks--that there would be an enormous cost that would flow to that 
employer where they simply couldn't keep the business running with a 
full-time work staff.
  So here's two folks that had pretty good health benefits, great jobs, 
40-hour-a-week jobs, jobs they were very happy with, jobs that 
permitted them to take care of their families, and their life is going 
to be changed. Real Kansans, real lives affected by the Affordable Care 
Act.
  We've seen this kind of thing all too often. I suspect that some of 
these glitches at the beginning will probably get worked out, but you 
can't fix provisions like that without fundamental changes to the 
Affordable Care Act. I think that's pretty evident.
  The President had seen this all coming. The President chose to 
provide waivers for lots and lots of groups. Lots of folks who have 
come and said: This is harsh; this is penal; this is not working; and 
the President said: Here's a waiver. Here, you can have a change.
  That's just not the American way. It's not the way that we operate 
here, where we try to provide health care systems that are the same and 
fair and equal for all American citizens and all American employers and 
everyone who is trying to make their way and take care of their own 
families. These are very real issues.
  I have seen this fight over these last few weeks. It's no different 
than the same discussions that have been taking place for 3 years. I've 
been here almost that long in Congress where we've been talking about 
what we thought would happen when this day came, when, for the first 
time, people would have to begin to think about what real costs were, 
what it was really going to look like.
  And I wish, I truly wish that we had overblown the risk, we had 
overdramatized what was really going to happen, that we had falsely 
alerted the American people that the Affordable Care Act was going to 
be a train wreck or a disaster; but, sadly, I think the evidence, as it 
mounts, as it comes in, demonstrates that we may have underestimated 
the risk. We may have underestimated how badly this is going to impact 
the American economy. We may have underestimated how many primary care 
physicians are going to just say ``I can't make a go of this anymore'' 
and leave the practice. After all, right, it's not about insurance; 
it's not about having a piece of paper or a card that says you're 
entitled to health care. It's about receiving health care. It's about 
being fixed when you've got something broken. It's about being cured 
when you've got something that's made you sick.
  This isn't about paper. This isn't about politics. This is about real 
lives and kids who need treatment. It's not enough to say: It's 
wonderful. I have this thing called ObamaCare, but I can't find a 
physician who will treat me.
  These are the kind of things that we need to work on and need to try 
and fix.
  I will say this lastly. There has been some suggestion that this is 
partisan, this is about Democrats versus Republicans. For me, this is 
not it at all. The President made a statement yesterday. He said this 
bill was popular; this is why the system was overcrowded and you 
couldn't get on. It's not popular; it's a law. These people didn't go 
on this health care system because they like it. They did so because 
they were required to do so on pain of penalty by the Federal 
Government.
  I saw today someone who had been told that if they didn't comply, 
they might end up with a tax lien because they didn't pay a penalty. 
This is not the American way. This is not a health care system that's 
going to work.
  I hope my colleagues will help us. I hope they will come to see that 
all we're asking for at this point in time is not what we'd really 
like--we've compromised already. What we would like to see at this 
point is we are happy to compromise and settle just for a short time, 
just for a delay, to try and make it better, to try and impact those 
real people, those real Kansans who are going to be really impacted by 
a law which won't do what it is the President promised it would do.
  Ms. Jenkins, thank you for yielding the time.
  Ms. JENKINS. Thank you, Congressman.
  Speaking of Kansans, when President Obama originally touted this 
health care law, he promised that Americans would see their health care 
costs go down. With the rollout of the health care exchanges on 
Tuesday, Kansans in my congressional district have finally been able to 
see that their worst fears have been confirmed and this promise simply 
isn't true.
  Healthcare.gov has a county by county breakdown of health insurance 
premiums offered by the two insurance carriers who agreed to 
participate in the federally run exchanges. For a 27-year-old seeking 
the least expensive insurance option in Crawford County or Cherokee 
County in southeast Kansas, they will see over a 100 percent increase 
in their insurance premiums over the State average for this past year.
  Things don't get much better in other parts of my district. The same 
person who lives in Topeka or Lawrence or Leavenworth will see a 62 
percent premium increase over the State average for that same insurance 
plan for this past year.
  These are examples that are happening all over Kansas and all over 
the country, and it makes it clear that the President's health care law 
will continue to fail to control out-of-control health care costs.
  With that, I would be happy to yield to my esteemed colleague from 
Michigan (Mr. Walberg).
  Mr. WALBERG. I thank the gentlelady for yielding time and for leading 
this discussion of a way forward.

[[Page 15005]]

  I appreciate the fact that we are now in a shutdown of government 
that I fear has been intentionally perpetrated in order to force 
something further on the American people.
  I remember between my first term in office, after being defeated in 
2008 to come back here and spending time for the next 2 years back in 
my district, and in watching my colleagues--my former colleagues and 
now my present colleagues--battle and debate on the floor of this great 
Chamber, in this great House, this great Capitol, in the people's 
House, the issue of what then was called the Affordable Care Act. I 
remember reading about it and listening and speaking with colleagues 
and asking what their impression was, and then ultimately hearing the 
Speaker of the House say: Let's pass this, let's pass it and then we 
can find out what's in it; and reading the comments of fellow 
legislators who had not even read this full bill and understanding that 
there was much in it, much that ultimately would be found out later on 
to be an extreme problem, not just to carry out, not just to regulate, 
not just to implement, as we've seen in the last couple of days--and we 
can certainly assume that there will be break-in problems to get 
something this massive, this intrusive, this complicated up and 
working--but more so the problem of looking at a takeover of one-sixth 
of our Nation's economy, the problem of challenging people with 
something so complicated that even experts and consultants wouldn't be 
able to tell them for sure what this would mean to them, but more 
importantly, the impact upon liberty, freedom, the American ideal.
  In the last 2 days, as we've debated the issue of a continuing 
resolution, because of the unwillingness of the Congress of the United 
States to ultimately get a budget in place to move ourselves forward--
we come to continuing resolutions to just move it forward a little bit 
longer. That's not the way we should be doing it. That's not the way 
this side of the aisle has requested and fought to make it happen. But 
when there is an unwillingness to come in alongside and negotiate, come 
to a table and work something forward, to put through appropriations 
bills that implement the programs and pay for them, we have a problem.
  So now here we are in a shutdown, a shutdown in the making of an 
unwillingness of the Senate, yes, but I think more so the unwillingness 
of leaders to listen to their people.
  We've read the reports in the polls. We've heard before we went into 
this battle the last few days that the American people want this 
government to fund its basic services and not to shut down. We've also 
read in those polls the same people, a majority, have said we want to 
delay or defund or repeal the Affordable Care Act. So we have that as 
our task and, at the very least, to delay to a point that we can see 
what's in it and take action to amend, to repeal, or to completely go 
to a plan that will work.
  So we have veterans of the Second World War being locked out of going 
to their war memorial, except for the fact that Members of Congress 
have gone and opened up those gates.
  I just got a call from a constituent of mine who is here in the 
Capital today and wanted to go over and see the 9/11 Memorial at the 
Pentagon. We assumed that that was open; it always is. There's no 
guard. You can walk into that memorial. But that's closed. Why? Is it 
because we want to make this problem harder for our citizens than it 
should be in order for them to get over the idea of reading the bill, 
knowing what's in it, and then asking for redress from their Members of 
Congress who represent them?
  I went to the E-Verify site yesterday and I saw E-Verify, a computer 
program that's in place. It doesn't take a person to run it. It's 
operating. It's a system. It's connected to all sorts of data systems. 
Yesterday and today it says:

       Alert. E-Verify is unavailable due to the Federal 
     Government shutdown. For more information, please click here.

  This is what is being done to the citizens of the United States to 
produce the pain through the shutdown experience in order to ultimately 
say: Uncle, I will give in to a law. Yes, it is a law, but a law can 
always be redressed and changed. And they're asking for us to take the 
time to look at the Affordable Care Act, now known as ObamaCare.
  A lady in Jackson, Michigan, in the heart of my district, called in 
to our office, our local office and, in tears, said: Here's my problem. 
This morning, my employer, a local provider of home health care who I 
have worked for for a number of years for 35 hours, and then I make up 
the difference of my 40 hours that I need and beyond by working in a 
restaurant on the weekends, this employer of mine told me today that 
they're moving me now to 25 hours instead of 35. And why? Because of 
the Affordable Care Act. She said: It's not affordable to me because 
now I will have less income, less hours. How do I pay my mortgage, and 
how do I buy health insurance?
  Or it's the autoworker in Monroe, Michigan, on Lake Erie in my 
district, a hardworking guy who said to me at a town hall meeting just 
a week and a half ago: Mr. Congressman, I want you to know that times 
are tough. I have some great concerns. My wife is sick and I have a 
$900 a month health care bill that I have to pay. But I want you to 
stand firm. And I said: Sir, what do you mean by ``stand firm''? He 
said: Shut down ObamaCare. Give us back our choice, our freedom.
  The 54-employee business in Adrian, Michigan, who told me last week 
that--and they're beyond the level of being able to just simply toss 
off the insurance to the employees. They're not wanting to cut from 
their 54 employees down to below 50. But they received a notice from 
their insurance company that they were being canceled, and when 
approached, they were told it was in preparation for the uncertainties 
of the Affordable Care Act.

                              {time}  1945

  That shouldn't be the experience in the State of Michigan or any 
other place in this great country. That shouldn't be the experience--
that employers are encouraged to downsize as opposed to continue to 
expand. I could go through testimony after testimony similar of the 
challenges that have come from the Affordable Care Act that has become 
unaffordable and unmanageable.
  All we are asking for is the opportunity to work together to 
negotiate toward a compromise on the way forward, Mr. Speaker. That's 
possible.
  We passed a bill the other day unanimously to fund our military. The 
Senate passed that. That shows that if we want to, it can get done.
  This summer, 35 Democrats voted with Republicans to delay the 
employer mandate and 22 voted to delay the individual mandate. 
Seventeen voted to repeal the medical device tax last week, as recently 
as last week.
  We can get things to work if we are willing to sit down and negotiate 
toward a compromise that speaks to the concerns of our constituents. 
Seven of the more than 40 bills the House has approved to repeal all or 
part of the ObamaCare have been signed into law.
  We could go on and on, Mr. Speaker.
  But I get to a final point of concern for me. With the Affordable 
Care Act, otherwise known as ObamaCare, we also have crossed the line 
into the areas of our personal freedoms and our rights of conscience. 
Yes, I was a minister by training and background before going into 
politics. I understand there are religious beliefs, there are 
denominational beliefs, and there are a lot of differences. But the 
beauty of this great country, Mr. Speaker, is that we have always 
espoused the opportunity for freedom of religion and rights of 
conscience regardless. We have truly had plurality in our country.
  Yet this one act is tromping down on the individual rights of 
conscience and religious liberties, our First Amendment in the U.S. 
Constitution. A former Prime Minister of the Netherlands back in the 
1900s by the name of Abraham Kuyper really made this point of where I 
am going, Mr. Speaker, when he said:

       When principles that run against your deepest convictions 
     begin to win the day, then battle is your calling and peace 
     has become sin. You must at the price of dearest

[[Page 15006]]

     peace lay your convictions bare before friend and enemy with 
     all the fire of your faith.

  When we hear of the little Sisters of Mercy being told that they are 
not religious enough to carry on their rights of conscience in 
relationship to the Affordable Care Act, Mr. Speaker, we have a 
problem. When we have a devout Catholic business owner who employs 
several hundred employees in the west part of Michigan who, because of 
his rights of conscience, has chosen to say we will provide insurance 
for our employees under the Affordable Care Act or any act, but we 
cannot provide insurance that violates our long-standing, strong-held 
rights of conscience, and courts say, because of this act, no, you 
can't do that.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time to identify the challenges here, to read what 
is in the bill, to implement the changes necessary or go back, I 
believe, to the first and foremost principle of this great country, and 
that is liberty and justice for all, and develop a program that expands 
choice, opportunity, responsibility, variety, competition, and 
ultimately the ability for our citizens, our constituents, the people 
we serve, to care for their lives, their health in the best way 
possible with their government standing on their side, not in their 
way.
  I appreciate the opportunity to speak to this issue. It needs to be 
spoken to over and over and over again until ultimately we win the day 
and give back that liberty and opportunity to our American citizens.
  Ms. JENKINS. Thank you, Congressman Walberg.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank you for allowing my colleagues and 
I to speak to the American people about the destructive provisions of 
the President's health care law, the constant stream of delays that 
have come from the President's administration, the costly effect it 
will have on folks all over the country, and the rocky implementation 
it has experienced so far.
  I believe we have made it clear that this law is simply not ready to 
meet the needs of the American people. It is unfair to punish regular 
folks while giving preferential treatment to big businesses, unions, 
and Members of Congress. We hope our Democrat colleagues will work with 
us to provide fairness for all and say ``no'' to special treatment.
  I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________