[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15858-15865]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2013, the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Hartzler) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mrs. HARTZLER. Tonight the country is facing great challenges--the 
challenges of ObamaCare, of runaway spending here in Washington, and of 
our fiscal crisis that is increasing our debt over and over again. Now 
is the time for solutions, and now is the opportunity that we have to 
get things right and to turn things around. I am looking forward 
tonight to visiting with my colleagues about the challenges we have 
before us as well as the opportunities.
  You know, this situation that we are in today kind of reminds me of a 
story that I heard a few years ago. I think it is very fitting to this 
time in history. This is a true story. There was a man who went hunting 
with his dog many years ago; and as he walked through the great 
outdoors and came back from his hunting trip, he noticed that his pants 
were covered with something that in Missouri we call cockleburs. If you 
are not from Missouri or that part of the country, it is basically a 
weed, and it leaves very prickly seed pods that are about the size of a 
dime. And they will stick to anything from your clothes to your pet's 
fur, or anything else that happens to brush against it as it passes by 
the weed.
  So this man got to looking at all of these cockleburs on his pants 
and his dog when he got back, and he was trying to pull them off and 
clean them off. And then he stopped a minute and got to look at that 
cocklebur and he got to thinking: What is it that causes this cocklebur 
to stick so well? And he wondered, is there a way we could use that 
same format to help provide some solutions.
  He thought about some friends who had arthritis, that had trouble 
buttoning up their shirt or zipping things.

[[Page 15859]]

He thought about young children, and they have trouble fastening things 
together. And he thought, I wonder if we could take this challenge of 
this cocklebur and make an opportunity out of it.

                              {time}  1930

  Do you know what he did? He invented something we all use every day 
called ``Velcro.'' He laid the groundwork for what I think we need to 
do here in Washington: take the challenges before us and use them as an 
opportunity in this point in history to create a better health care 
system that addresses Americans' needs, that gets spending under 
control, makes government more efficient and more effective, and it 
also addresses our long-term debt and reverses course so that we will 
get out of debt as a Nation and balance the budget. This is the 
opportunity that we have before us.
  Before my colleagues share their thoughts on this, I want to talk 
just a minute about the challenges that we have in ObamaCare. There are 
so many reasons that at this time in history we have been taking a 
stand here in the House and saying: it is time to reverse this onerous 
policy, because the American people don't want it and it is hurting 
them.
  I wanted to share at least seven things that are challenging about 
this law:
  The first thing is that ObamaCare is causing an increase in premiums. 
I got last week an email from a constituent who sells insurance back 
home. They were very distraught because they had a customer come in who 
wanted to renew their health insurance. After they figured out what it 
would mean through ObamaCare, they discovered this customer was going 
to have to pay $1,500 a month. That isn't even the full premium. Their 
employer would pay some others. So when you added it all up, this 
family--she had to tell them--was going to have to pay $18,000 a year 
for their health care. This makes a difference in that family whether 
they can send a child to college or not. It is wrong. We need to have 
some solutions here.
  Something else I heard today: I was visiting with a constituent who 
told me that they went on the exchanges to see what ObamaCare would do 
to their health care premiums. What she found out is that her insurance 
next year is going to cost $200 more a month than she is paying right 
now, plus she is going to have to have a larger deductible and her 
coverage is going to decrease. So she was obviously very upset. 
ObamaCare is increasing premiums and increasing costs on Americans. 
That is wrong. It is time for solutions.
  Number two, ObamaCare is killing jobs. Despite what others on the 
other side of the aisle say, it is killing jobs. One in five small 
businesses report that they are letting employees go due to the new 
law. Others are deciding not to expand their business due to the new 
law. The Gallup survey this year found a staggering 41 percent of small 
business owners are holding off hiring new employees due to ObamaCare, 
and 38 percent have pulled back on plans to grow their business.
  I have an example I wanted to share with you from my own district. I 
was visiting with a small business owner the other day. They are doing 
pretty well. They have a small business that has been growing. The 
exciting thing is, they said: Representative Hartzler, we want to open 
up a second location, we want to hire some new workers, we are very 
excited about it. But they looked at ObamaCare and the requirements 
involved and they said: We cannot afford it. If we open up the second 
location and hire new workers, we are not going to be able to keep 
going. So they decided not to expand their business.
  Now, the thing that makes this extra tragic is, in this town there 
has been a manufacturing plant closed down over the last few years. 
There are hundreds of people in my district looking for work who would 
love to have that job, but because of ObamaCare they are not going to 
be able to do it. This business owner wants to expand, but they can't. 
That is wrong. ObamaCare is killing jobs. That is why it is time for 
solutions.
  Number three, ObamaCare is reducing the take-home pay. It has been 
many years since many Americans have got a raise. They are ``making 
do,'' but if anybody goes to the store like I do every weekend and buys 
groceries and other things for your family, you know that things are 
costing more and more. So we have a real problem here. Americans aren't 
getting pay increases and yet the cost of living is going up.
  There are many businesses that are cutting back on their employees' 
hours because of ObamaCare to get them under the 30-hour requirement. 
In fact, a U.S. Chamber of Commerce Small Business Outlook Study showed 
that 27 percent of businesses have and will cut hours to reduce from 
full-time employees to part-time. So we are becoming ``part-time 
America'' because of this law.
  Just today, I got an email from a large business owner in Missouri, 
and here is what they said. It validates this very point. It says:

       As one of the largest out of state employers in Missouri, 
     we are not expanding or hiring. Our health insurance costs 
     will increase by an estimated $800,000 in 2014 due to 
     ObamaCare, despite significant reductions in coverage for our 
     employees and reducing hours to less than 30 hours per week 
     where we can. Our taxes have gone up, regulations are 
     overwhelming, and there is no end in sight.

  It is happening.
  Number four, ObamaCare is jeopardizing our personal security and our 
privacy. How would you like to have your Social Security number made 
available to everybody? According to an August 7 Forbes magazine 
article:

       In order for ObamaCare to work, the government will need to 
     know a lot about your financial, medical, and employment 
     situation.
       And this could very well--ObamaCare's exchanges--end up 
     illegally exposing American's private records to hackers and 
     criminals.

  Just last week, when ObamaCare went online, McAfee, which is one of 
the Nation's premier Internet security companies, they tweeted out that 
ObamaCare is a ``hacker's dream.'' This is very, very concerning. It is 
clearly time for solutions.
  Five, ObamaCare is simply not working. I am sure many of you have 
heard the news reports. This is just a 4-page outline of all the 
different headlines from around the country about how this is not 
working.
  Florida:

       The glitches in the new electronic health care sign-up 
     system began almost immediately, and they never let up.

  Missouri:

       But in Kansas and Missouri, it was more fizzle than bang.

  North Dakota:

       North Dakota Insurance Commissioner Adam Hamm said he and 
     his staff were monitoring the Federal Web site Tuesday but 
     were unable to access it.

  West Virginia:

       Ten hours later--after two attempts at signing up and one 
     45-minute call with a consumer service agent--technical 
     glitches have prevented the 60-year-old grandfather from 
     purchasing a plan.

  It goes on and on. There are real problems there.
  Six, ObamaCare is unfair. President Obama has exempted Big Business 
from having to comply with ObamaCare for a year, and he has granted 
over 1,300 waivers, yet he hasn't given a waiver to the hardworking 
American public who deserves it. That is not fair.
  And lastly, something that a lot of people don't know, but a lot of 
people should care about, is that ObamaCare uses tax dollars to pay for 
abortions for the first time, and it hides the fact that people will be 
paying for abortions in their monthly bill.
  Here is how it works. The law says that at least one policy in every 
exchange has to cover abortion. But it also says--the law says--that 
they can only disclose that as part of the huge summary of benefits in 
all the fine print that is there at only the time of initial sign-up. 
So many people right now are going online, and they have got these 
policies that come up and there is all this fine print. They don't even 
know that that policy includes abortion.

[[Page 15860]]

  ObamaCare is going to have subsidies to help people pay for their 
premium. That subsidy comes from our tax dollars. Many Americans do not 
want their hard-earned tax dollars to go and pay for abortion, yet it 
will. Sadly, the people many times will not even know if their policy 
has abortion or not. There are many Americans who support life, and 
when they go to buy it directly, they will not know.
  Inside the bill, not only does it cover abortion, but ObamaCare has 
what is called a ``secrecy clause'' in it that specifically says that 
that charge for the abortion fee cannot be listed in their monthly 
bill. So many pro-life Americans who value life unknowingly will buy an 
insurance policy that is covering abortion, and every month they will 
be paying their own hard-earned dollars to go towards abortion. It is 
just wrong.
  So clearly, clearly we need some solutions. Republicans do have 
solutions. We are putting forth a health care bill that replaces and is 
better than ObamaCare. It allows for increased access and lower costs. 
You are going to be hearing more about it in the days to come. We call 
it the ``American Health Care Reform Act.'' There are better solutions. 
We have got a lot of challenges with ObamaCare, but this is our 
opportunity to make it better for the American people, and that is what 
we are going to do.
  We also have a challenge of a huge debt crisis at this time in 
history. I know many of my colleagues here are going to share about 
that. We have got to quit spending money we don't have. People at home 
are tightening their belt. It is time for Washington to do that too.
  This is where we are at tonight--Monday night, October 14, 2013. How 
this is going to play out, we don't know. But I know I am going to 
continue to fight for positive solutions that are good for the American 
people. I am going to be looking for opportunities to take the 
cockleburs of life and look at them and say: Is there a way to turn 
this around and make something good out of it?
  I believe that is where we are right now. We can make something good 
of this situation. It has been hard on Americans, it is hard on 
families, there is a lot of uncertainty. It has been hard on us as 
Members of Congress.
  But we can make something better than has ever happened before from 
this country. We can produce a health care bill that the American 
people deserve. We can rein in this runaway spending and get it right, 
make government more efficient and more effective, and we can address 
our debt crisis. We can do it. That is our challenge, that is our 
opportunity, that is why we are fighting, that is why we are here 
tonight.
  I want to thank my colleagues who stayed tonight to share their 
thoughts on this important time in history, this Monday night that we 
are at.
  I would like to yield to my friend from Utah, Chris Stewart.
  Mr. STEWART. I would like to thank the gentlewoman, Representative 
Hartzler, for sharing the floor with myself and other colleagues 
tonight. It is an honor, especially on a topic that all of us know and 
recognize that is so very, very important.
  Dean Acheson once said that ``Negotiation in the classic diplomatic 
sense assumes parties are more anxious to agree than to disagree.''
  For the past 2 weeks, President Obama and Senator Harry Reid have 
made it very, very clear that they are much more anxious to disagree 
than they are to agree with Republicans--a situation that has very 
honestly prevented sincere negotiations. It is impossible to work out a 
deal when one party just sits on the sidelines and won't talk, like we 
have experienced over the last few weeks with the President. Now, we 
heard rumors this afternoon that the President has finally begun to 
negotiate with Republicans. I hope that that is true because our 
Founding Fathers established a system that was intended to be 
deliberative.
  Whether you agree or disagree with the President, this much we know: 
he has been willing to push our Nation toward an economic crisis all 
for the sake of a political agenda. When this happens, every American 
loses. It doesn't have to be this way. It shouldn't be this way.
  For 14 years, I was an Air Force pilot--which was, by the way, the 
coolest job in the world. I loved doing that. At one point, I was 
selected to be a member of the START verification team--Strategic Arms 
Reduction Team. Of course, we were working with the Russians during 
this time. They would come to my base to verify that we had complied 
with elements of the START treaty.
  During the 1990s, the Russians were not our friends. By the way, Mr. 
Speaker, I would cautiously add that today the Russians are not our 
friends either. These were in some cases tense and very carefully 
orchestrated events, but we did them. We extended a hand of trust and 
fellowship between two nations that had very little in common and had 
much to lose if they did not develop a working relationship.
  Mr. Speaker, if we could do it then between the Russian and the U.S. 
militaries, surely we, with the Republicans and the President, could do 
the same thing now. The President is the leader of this Nation. He has 
a responsibility to lead. But part of leadership is being willing to 
sit down and in a sincere way be willing to listen to the other side. 
The President has failed in this responsibility and the Nation has paid 
a price.
  Before being elected to Congress, I was the president and owner of a 
small company. Being part of a small business means developing 
relationships that are built upon trust. With the disastrous rollout of 
ObamaCare, the President has clearly broken the trust of the American 
people.
  $634 million--$634 million--that is how much it cost to develop the 
ObamaCare Web site.

                              {time}  1945

  Facebook operated for 6 years on less money than that. Twitter was 
launched and operated for less than half the cost. Instagram, LinkedIn, 
Spotify all were designed, implemented, and operational at a fraction 
of the price of the ObamaCare Web page. And yet, in one of the most 
embarrassing moments in ObamaCare history, and I believe this will be a 
history that will be rife with embarrassing moments, news organizations 
had to search high and low throughout the country to find one person 
who could be verified that they had actually signed up on the ObamaCare 
Web page. And, of course, days later we had born the legend of Chad, 
something many people are very familiar with.
  Harkening back to my military days, if I had been given a mission and 
had so utterly failed to accomplish that mission, I would have been 
held accountable. So I ask, Mr. Speaker, when will Kathleen Sebelius be 
held accountable for this disaster? After more than 3 years and after 
more than $630 million and a failure to launch such as this, why does 
she still have her job?
  But let's remember this: at the end of the day, we are not talking 
about ObamaCare, and we are not really talking about a Web page or a 
sequester or a continuing resolution. What we are really talking about 
at the end of the day is our Nation's crushing national debt. Our 
national debt is now approaching $17 trillion. Now, President Obama 
congratulates himself on having reduced the debt by half; but listen, 
when you run up a debt after 1 year in office of $1.2 trillion or $1.3 
trillion, when you have nearly 4 years in a row of a greater than a 
trillion-dollar annual deficit, and then you congratulate yourself 
because you cut it $6 or $7 billion, that is not something to 
celebrate.
  Now is the time to work together towards a balanced budget and 
actually beginning to pay down that debt. Yes, this is a tough 
decision, but we were elected to make tough decisions. My plea to the 
Senate and to the President is: Please, come to the table. Let's start 
the conversation now about how we can put our fiscal house in order. 
Time is running out.
  With that, once again, Mrs. Hartzler, thank you for yielding to me.
  Mrs. HARTZLER. Thank you, Chris. I really appreciate your 
perspective. As a former Air Force pilot, I think what

[[Page 15861]]

you said about leadership is very true. It is time for the President to 
show some leadership and for us to get together and to talk about this. 
That is why it is time for solutions. Thanks for sharing those things.
  Now I would like to yield to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. 
Scalise), who is chairman of the Republican Study Committee and a real 
leader here in this House, and I certainly appreciate you sharing 
tonight.
  Mr. SCALISE. I thank the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Hartzler) 
for her leadership as the chair of the RSC Communications Committee for 
leading this effort to talk about real solutions. Of course, today we 
are in day 14 of a government shutdown, a shutdown that has seen 
Republicans bring proposal after proposal after proposal to fund 
government. In fact, Mr. Speaker, I want to point out, there are more 
than 20 bills now that have been passed by the House of Representatives 
to fund all or parts of the Federal Government--20 bills. This chart 
chronicles the timeline, going back to September 20, well in advance of 
the midnight hour where, today, on day 14, by the way, President Obama 
has still yet to even engage in conversations.
  In fact, we went to the White House Thursday to meet with the 
President, sat in a room with him for an hour and a half. The simple 
offer was: Mr. President, we will increase the debt ceiling. All we are 
asking is for you to start talking, just to agree to have 
conversations; and, unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, we left that meeting 
without the President even being willing to start talking.
  And so we are 14 days into a government shutdown that the President 
is decrying and calling people names. You have got people in the White 
House literally calling people suicide bombers, terrorists, and all 
kinds of other things that are so unbecoming of the Office of the 
President of the United States--again, a President who said he was 
going to change the tone in Washington allowing people in his White 
House to call people on the opposition terrorists and suicide bombers--
and yet he refuses to even sit at the table and negotiate our 
differences while we have passed 20 different bills to fund all or 
parts of government.
  What are some of those parts of government? A bill to fund veterans 
affairs. Mr. Speaker, for all the areas of disagreement we have in 
Washington--and clearly, with a divided Nation with a divided 
government, there are areas where we have disagreement, but we should 
all be able to come to the table and say we ought to fund our veterans 
while we are negotiating our differences on the things we disagree 
upon.
  And yet we sent the bill over to the Senate to fund our veterans, and 
Harry Reid tabled that bill, Mr. Speaker. We sent a bill to say that 
disaster aid shouldn't be something that we disagree over. We passed a 
bill with bipartisan votes and sent it over to the Senate. In fact, we 
saw one of the most disgraceful acts by a Commander in Chief, Mr. 
Speaker, where for days we saw this administration refusing to give 
death benefits to our fallen heroes, a moment I don't think we have 
seen in our Nation's history.
  And we passed a bill to say don't hold our veterans hostage, and yet 
you still see barricades--I call them ``Obamacades''--up in front of 
the World War II Memorial, an open-air memorial where, in normal days, 
there is nobody there being paid to guard or block this memorial. It is 
an open-air memorial built to honor our World War II heroes. And yet 
when our World War II heroes come from all around the country, some in 
their nineties, come to see their memorial, they are greeted by 
barricades by this administration. This is the kind of embarrassing 
leadership that we are getting out of the White House when all we are 
saying is let's negotiate our differences like has always been done.
  When Ronald Reagan was President, Tip O'Neill was the Speaker, and 
you had divided government. There were 12 different shutdowns during 
that time in our Nation's history. What Ronald Reagan did as a leader, 
as a great leader, one that we surely miss today, Ronald Reagan started 
having regular meetings with Tip O'Neill. They actually built a 
relationship, started getting things done. And we saw one of the 
greatest revolutions, economic expansion in our Nation's history 
because you had a real leadership in the White House.
  Mr. Speaker, again, we have sent 20 different bills over to the 
Senate, all chronicled, many of which had large Democrat votes out of 
the House. Still to this day, not one word from the President over 
whether he would agree to start talking. Of course, he wants to make it 
all about ObamaCare. Clearly, there are big areas where we have 
disagreement, but it is not just a partisan issue. It is not just 
Republicans who have issues with ObamaCare. Let's start with the 
occupant of the Oval Office.
  Barack Obama has problems with ObamaCare. He has issued over 1,200 
waivers to his signature law, as the gentlelady from Missouri pointed 
out. I have yet to find one small business in my district who got one 
of those waivers, by the way. It was handed out to a lot of special-
interest friends who could get access to the White House. Is that the 
way the government is supposed to run? In fact, he even worked out a 
deal to give Members of Congress an exemption from his signature health 
care law.
  So what we are saying, Mr. Speaker, is why don't we start with the 
basic premise of fairness. If this law is so good, make it apply to 
everybody. If it is not that good, if it is so bad you need to issue 
1,200 waivers to your friends, Mr. Speaker, then why not give that same 
waiver to all Americans until this thing is ready to work, which 
clearly it is not. As somebody once said, the failures of this law, 
October 1 was a date that for 3 years they knew was coming, where these 
exchanges had to be up and running, and now we are hearing debacle 
after debacle, people registering 12, 14 times without being able to 
get through. Somebody said it is like Flowers.com not being prepared 
for Valentine's Day.
  So as we stand here today talking about getting our economy back on 
track and talking about the 20 different proposals we have sent over to 
the Senate to get government up and running, most of which have not 
been given even a minute's consideration, literally tabled on party-
line votes by Senator Reid, what we are saying is: How about just 
fairness? Let's start with fairness and make ObamaCare apply to 
everybody. If it is that good, why don't we make it apply to everybody? 
Get rid of all these special waivers, all these special backroom deals 
to everybody from the President's friends to Members of Congress. Let's 
make it apply to everybody. Let's get the government back open, and 
let's start tackling our long-term spending problems that are causing 
programs like Medicare and Social Security to face bankruptcy where we 
have put good plans on the table to save those programs from bankruptcy 
and, frankly, Mr. Speaker, to save our country from bankruptcy so we 
can hand off to our kids and grandkids the same opportunity that we 
enjoy today in the greatest country in the history of the world, a 
country that is facing serious problems, a country, unfortunately, 
facing a lack of leadership from the President who, 14 days into a 
government shutdown, still to this day has not even agreed to start 
talking with people from the other party to work out those differences.
  I thank the gentlewoman from Missouri for creating this forum to talk 
about solutions, and my other colleagues in the Republican Study 
Committee who have been bringing forward solution after solution to get 
our economy moving again and restore the greatness that this country 
knows is there, that beacon of light that we are all fighting for here 
tonight on the House floor.
  Mrs. HARTZLER. I thank you, Mr. Scalise, talking about the leadership 
that we have been providing here in the House.
  I think it is very important that people know, we proactively worked 
to make sure that government stayed open. We passed these bills way 
before October 1. Unfortunately, we haven't

[[Page 15862]]

had leadership from the White House or from the Senate willing to come 
together. Thank you for bringing that up.
  In fact, something that a lot of people don't know is that, at this 
point in the House of Representatives, we have already passed one-third 
of all appropriations bills in the continuing resolution. We have been 
passing bill after bill to keep this government open, to fund it and 
make sure it keeps going and working for the American people. The 
Senate has not passed them. They haven't taken them up. So it is not us 
that has shut down the government or is responsible for this lapse in 
funding, and it is certainly not us that is keeping it shut. Thank you 
very much for sharing that.
  Now I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Weber). I am glad to 
have you here tonight and appreciate what you have to share.
  Mr. WEBER of Texas. I thank the gentlewoman from Missouri.
  Mr. Speaker, it is good to be here.
  Mr. Speaker, since 1978, the debt ceiling has been raised 53 times, 
and 27 of these increases have been used as a negotiating tool both by 
Congress and the President. So why not now, Mr. President? Can we not 
negotiate now? And to borrow a somewhat trite phrase from days gone by, 
yes, we can.
  Sadly, today we have a President who does not want to make any 
concessions with House Republicans. You know, Thomas Jefferson once 
said, ``Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold.'' Has pride 
gotten in the way, clouding the judgment of our President, do you 
think, Mr. Speaker? Has this President chosen party politics and his 
unworkable health care law over working with House Republicans toward 
fair solutions that would help hardworking Americans keep more money in 
their pockets?
  Mr. Speaker, think with me here for a second. During the debt ceiling 
debate in March 2006, then-Senator Obama said:

       The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's 
     debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that 
     the U.S. Government cannot pay its own bills. It is a sign 
     that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from 
     foreign countries to finance our government's reckless fiscal 
     policies. Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically 
     and internationally. Leadership means that ``the buck stops 
     here.'' Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad 
     choices today onto the backs of our children and 
     grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of 
     leadership. Americans deserve better.

  Yet, here we are, 7 years later, and we are debating the exact same 
thing. Why is that okay, now, I would ask him, Mr. Speaker. Why is that 
okay, now, Mr. President? Do we have a failure of leadership? Can we 
admit that? Yes, we can.
  It is a failure of leadership also for spewing such venomous rhetoric 
when the governing process doesn't go your way, calling Republicans 
names. It is a failure of not listening to the American people. Can we 
call this a failure of leadership? Yes, we can.

                              {time}  2000

  The American people want the government reopened. They want to make 
their own health care decisions. The shutdown the American people want 
is the out-of-control government spending, the $17 trillion debt that 
has been amassed that the President in his own words said ``is a 
failure of leadership,'' and then in another instance, ``unpatriotic.'' 
Mr. Speaker, House Republicans have put forth proposal after proposal 
to fund this government, to keep it open, to protect the American 
people from the President's hostile takeover of the health care system.
  Sadly, we still have a President and a Senate majority leader acting 
like petulant children, refusing to come to the table to negotiate, 
prolonging that failure of leadership. Each day that passes, with the 
Affordable Care Act going into effect, our Nation's fiscal health gets 
worse--a failure of leadership. I love America too much to let it fall 
under these circumstances. I will not stand by and watch as our country 
crumbles because of a President who is not willing to work with us and 
come to the table and to carry out this prolonged failure of 
leadership.
  I am Randy Weber, and America is worth fighting for. I thank the 
gentlewoman from Missouri for fighting alongside me and continuing this 
valiant effort.
  Mrs. HARTZLER. Thank you, Randy. It is an honor to stand beside you 
in this. This is a time for solutions. And people wonder, Can we get 
this right? Can we make things better? Can we keep the opportunity for 
the future? With you, I would say, Yes, we can, but we are going to 
keep working on it. Thank you very much.
  I now yield to my friend from the Midwest, from Indiana, Marlin 
Stutzman. What would you like to share with us tonight?
  Mr. STUTZMAN. First, I would like to thank the gentlewoman for 
yielding and organizing this Special Order about solutions. That is 
what the American people expect from us as Congress, whether you are a 
Republican or whether you are a Democrat. The American people are 
looking to Washington to find solutions, to work together, to make 
America strong again. So I want to thank you for your comments today 
and for representing your district so well.
  It doesn't take much to sort out and to realize the difficulty that 
we are facing in our country and what our Federal Government is facing: 
$17 trillion in debt, a struggling economy, a health care system that 
does need to be fixed. People are looking to Washington to gain 
confidence in the marketplace. And in spite of Washington, you will 
find bright spots throughout the country where good things are 
happening, but it is not enough. We can still do better. And it is time 
for Washington to find solutions for our economy, for the American 
people, for American families so that way when a family sits down to 
have dinner tonight, they are not going to be wondering if Dad is going 
to be going to work next week. They don't have to worry whether Mom 
will have her job the following month. What is going to happen after 
Christmas time? What is going to happen next year? They hear so many 
different stories about the new health care law and what it means for 
them. What is their insurance plan going to be like next year? There 
are so many unknowns and questions that are not answered because of the 
uncertainty that Washington has placed irresponsibly on the American 
people.
  While we know we have $17 trillion of debt, a deficit that is running 
out of balance, a health care law that is crushing the American people 
today, an Independent Payment Advisory Board that has 15 board members 
that are unelected and unaccountable who will be making health care 
decisions for Americans in the near term, we still have an unemployment 
rate of 8 percent and mandates from ObamaCare that are forcing 
companies to cut hours. Too much uncertainty is being created by our 
Federal Government.
  Small businesses are trying to figure out how they are going to make 
ends meet next year, how they are going to plan their budget when they 
know the mandates and the cost of insurance continue to crush them, how 
they are going to create new jobs and expand their companies if 
regulations continue to hamper them and the new health care law 
continues to sidetrack them.
  One of the taxes that is in the health care law that is driving jobs 
away from Indiana is the medical device tax, also known as the 
pacemaker tax, the wheelchair tax. Anything that is a medical device, 
such as a hip, a knee, a joint, these things are taxed now because of 
ObamaCare. It is over 20,000 jobs just in Indiana. Warsaw, Indiana, in 
particular, is the orthopedic capital of the world. It is the home to 
Zimmer, Biomet, DePuy, Paragon, and so many other companies that are 
doing so much remarkable work for the betterment of Americans.
  I know that my grandmother had her hip replaced before she passed 
away 10 years ago, and it changed her life. It gave her a new ability 
to enjoy life with her children and her grandchildren. This is an 
industry that is being harmed by ObamaCare, and it is time that we take 
a step back and reevaluate and find new solutions.
  Unfortunately, this tax is putting 2,000 jobs in jeopardy in Indiana, 
and I

[[Page 15863]]

believe that it is time for Washington, for the President, for the 
Senate, and for the House to come together. Let's stop stumbling from 
crisis to crisis. That is not the best way to govern. The American 
people are tired of the way Washington has these cycles of political 
stunts and fiscal cliffs and all these other manufactured crises.
  Hoosiers know, as many Americans know, that in order to get a job 
done, you have to sit down and figure out a way to get it done, talk 
about it, and then go out and do it. But Washington is broke because 
government spends too much and talks too little. So I think now is the 
time for us to get serious about our debt. We need to reform our 
entitlement programs. We need to work towards reforming our Tax Code. 
We have solutions. We have ideas. We can make things better for not 
only the American people, but for the world, if we would just trust the 
instincts of the American people. If we followed those instincts and 
followed the example of the American people, the Federal Government 
would be in a much better place today.
  It is time for solutions, and I want to thank the gentlewoman for 
yielding and for her leadership on this issue tonight.
  Mrs. HARTZLER. Thank you very much, Marlin. That is right: it is time 
for solutions. And I very much appreciate you bringing up the concern 
with the taxes. We haven't talked about that yet tonight, but there are 
20 new taxes in ObamaCare, and especially, as you pointed out, the 
medical device tax, which is very onerous and killing jobs all over.
  The statement you said that is going to stick with me most tonight 
that I hope the American people remember and that I love that you just 
said is that Washington is broke because it spends too much and it 
talks too little. Well said.
  Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts.
  I now yield to my friend from Michigan, Kerry Bentivolio.
  Mr. BENTIVOLIO. Thank you. I would like to thank the gentlewoman from 
Missouri for the opportunity to speak on this important issue.
  Mr. Speaker, I stand before this Chamber today to talk about the 
Democrat shutdown.
  In the House we are standing strong to prevent ObamaCare from hurting 
people. Just today, the Detroit Free Press, a liberal-leaning paper, 
reported that two health insurance companies are dropping the low-cost 
plans for 146,000 Michigan families due to ObamaCare. This will cost 
each of these families thousands of dollars per year, more to be 
covered by ObamaCare-approved health care plans. That is unacceptable. 
Our government is shut down because the extreme liberal Democrats 
refuse to negotiate and have rejected bills to keep most of the 
government open. This behavior reminds me of a spoiled child having a 
temper tantrum who runs to their room, slams the door shut, and refuses 
to come out until their demands are met.
  This is no way to behave and is a disservice to all Americans. Mr. 
Speaker, they are obsessed with forcing health care legislation, which 
they are exempt from, onto the American people. They want two classes, 
the majority who live under ObamaCare and the elite who use their 
connections to get waivers.
  By refusing to fund veterans, to keep the parks open, or support 
pediatric cancer research, Senate and House Democrats are showing whose 
side they are on, and it is not the American people.
  I plead with my responsible, adult Democrat colleagues that it is not 
too late. Let's move forward. Join the rest of the American people and 
support equality under the law.
  Mrs. HARTZLER. Thank you, Kerry. And thank you for your leadership. I 
know you have been going down to the World War II Memorial and helping 
to open up the barricades for our Honor Flights coming in. It is sad 
that we have to do that, but thank you for your leadership in that.
  I now turn to one of your colleagues from Michigan, Bill Huizenga, 
and yield time to him.
  Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. Thanks. I appreciate my good friend from 
Missouri putting this together and having this conversation.
  This is a conversation we need to have with the American people. 
There is obviously a lot of misinformation that is going out over the 
airwaves as we have talked about a number of times, and I think people 
are looking for that information. I know I have been tweeting out a few 
of the articles that I have come across on my iPhone here.
  For those of you out there watching, it is @RepHuizenga. I would love 
for you to follow me and take a look at this, this #Time4Solutions hash 
tag that we have going here because it is talking about some of those 
challenges, as well as the solutions that, I think, we are all looking 
for.
  I appreciate you pointing out to my friend and colleague from 
Michigan, Kerry Bentivolio, who is a great veteran himself of Iraq, as 
well as earlier times, and has done a couple of tours. For me, that 
World War II Memorial was something very special to be able to be a 
part of. That first day, there weren't television cameras around, there 
wasn't media. There wasn't anybody around except for those of us who 
cared about making sure that our veterans had an opportunity to go in 
and see a memorial that they earned.
  I will tell you, as someone who is the son of a disabled World War II 
veteran, a man who suffered a B-24 crash in Italy in 1944, I can tell 
you I know how powerful it is for him, how powerful it was for his 
buddies that he was able to go to the memorial, and how powerful it was 
for me as a family member to be along on that very special day. The 
least that we can do is to open that up.
  It is not just the World War II Memorial. It is the Korea memorial. I 
had a chance to bring a group of veterans from the Grand Rapids area in 
my district and in and around Kentwood and those areas. We went down to 
the World War II Memorial, and we also went down to the Korea memorial. 
That is where most of them were. They were greeted with no crowds, but 
the same barricades, as well as a park ranger who was in a very tough 
spot. He told me, Congressman, I am here to tell you that this monument 
is closed, this park is closed. I said, Well, respectfully I am here to 
tell you that I am going to help my constituents exercise their First 
Amendment rights and open up that barricade. We were able to get some 
people in there.
  Today, as I was coming in, I drove past the Martin Luther King 
memorial. It was the same thing. There were buses lined up on the 
street with their flashers going, and there was a tremendous number of 
people in there exercising their First Amendment right, that civil 
disobedience that had gone on. The gate was kicked open, and they were 
in there going and seeing that memorial to a great man the way that it 
should be, open and available, right now, without the excuses, without 
the rented barricades, without those other things.
  I also want to touch a little bit on the health care side as we are 
going through this. I appreciate you saying it is not just challenges, 
but also the opportunities. Frankly, we need to be talking to each 
other, to get to those solutions. This hash tag, #Time4Solutions, is 
very timely. We have had a Senate leader who has said absolutely no 
negotiations, none.
  Now we are finally getting there, I think because they are hearing 
from their constituents back home that we need you to be talking.

                              {time}  2015

  The same with the White House. I think the White House even came 
around a little sooner than what the Senate leader did. But it is time 
to make sure that we are having these negotiations and these 
conversations.
  A lot of us know the challenge, many of them are very well known, the 
signup glitches that happened. Glitches might be charitable, shall we 
say, for what was going on.
  But one of my colleagues from Michigan, the chairman of the 
Intelligence Committee, Mike Rogers, had put forward an op-ed not that 
long ago, and I have a copy of it here that I was reading. He is 
talking about the privacy threat.

[[Page 15864]]

  If you look at the hub, the data hub that is being built, you know, 
our health care records are going to be exposed to a tremendous number 
of people.
  Your privacy information, your private information, health care 
information, yours, mine, all the constituents that are out there 
watching this, their information, your information is at risk. Your 
information is at risk, and it is time that we do something about it.
  Now, who hasn't heard the ``if you like your doctor, you can keep 
your doctor?'' Well, maybe not so much.
  This is one of the things I just tweeted out. CNNMoney today was 
reporting about doctor choice and ObamaCare--not so much. This is CNN. 
This isn't me. This is CNN.
  They are saying that, for example, there was a major insurer that was 
offering policies in 14 different States, and what they are saying is 
that they are looking at the more heavier areas of population, 
eliminating up to half of the doctors.
  Think of that. Half of the doctors that currently you could go to if 
you had one of their off-exchange plans won't be available to you. In a 
lesser populated area, it is ``only'' going to be 10 or 20 percent of 
those same doctors.
  I can tell you, I sat, for a number of years, on the Michigan Rural 
Health Association board of directors as we were looking at health care 
issues in Michigan, especially in the rural areas. If you are starting 
to limit health care choices, even more so than what they already are 
in some of these rural areas, the damage that is going to be done to 
people and that relationship that they have with their doctor and with 
their health care provider--a place where you maybe have to do tele-
medicine just to be able to get the proper diagnosis and the things 
that are going on.
  We have all heard, ``If you like your plan, you can keep your plan.'' 
Maybe not so much.
  Oh, but the plans are going to be more affordable. Well, they had the 
number right. There was a discussion that this was going to save $2,500 
for the average family. Unfortunately, we now know it is the right 
number, but the wrong direction. So it is actually going to cost the 
average family, like mine--I have got five young kids--it is going to 
cost $2,500 additional. That is the wrong direction.
  Some of the lesser-knowns--I will give you an example. My nephew, 
Andrew, is putting himself through college. He is working as a waiter 
in a nice restaurant.
  A couple of months ago they called everybody in for the staff meeting 
and said, by the way, we are going to be starting this soon: No more 
than 29 hours per week. No more than 29 hours per week.
  And he said, you know, Uncle Bill, I can get through this. It is not 
going to be easy. It is not going to be my choice, but I can get 
through it.
  But he is looking at these colleagues, these single moms, these 
single moms that are saying, now where do I go for another 10 hours? 
Now how do I figure out where I am going to make ends meet and how I am 
going to make ends meet?
  I think that is why we have seen letters by those big Republican 
organizations like SEIU, the Teamsters, the AFL-CIO, not exactly 
institutions normally related and associated with the Republican Party. 
They have put in formal letters saying, Wait a minute; this is not 
being implemented the way that it was supposed to be implemented.
  They are afraid that there is an attack on the 40-hour work week, as 
well they should be afraid. That is exactly what is happening right 
now, and we need to be making sure that we are pushing back at that.
  The medical device tax has been brought up a little bit. This has a 
significant impact in Michigan. Stryker Corporation, out of the 
Kalamazoo area, they have said publicly that it is going to cost them 
1,000 jobs, 1,000 jobs. All right?
  It is also going to be hundreds of millions of dollars in new taxes 
that are being laid on. This ObamaCare tax, it has been deemed a tax by 
the Supreme Court, so let's talk about it in the terms of a tax.
  It is time that we repealed this tax. It is time that we not take 
those 1,000 jobs away from Stryker; time that we not take those jobs 
out of Ann Arbor, an innovative hub; time that we not take those jobs 
away from the next entrepreneur in Grand Rapids, on Pill Hill, Medical 
Mile, as it is sometimes called; that we make sure that they have got 
the same opportunities, not less opportunities, the same opportunities. 
That isn't going to happen under this.
  As you had pointed out, coverage, the mandatory, forced coverage of 
abortive services that is mandated in this bill, is absolutely wrong.
  I have a company that is gaining some prominence in my district 
called Autocam. John Kennedy, the majority stakeholder and president 
and CEO of Autocam, was just in Washington sharing his story last week.
  As a devout Catholic, he had made the decision that that wasn't going 
to be something that he would offer in his plans. They are self-
insured, and if his employees wanted to go do that, that was their 
choice, but he wasn't going to be forced to pay for it, until this bill 
came along and said: It doesn't matter what your personal beliefs are.
  It doesn't matter that you own the company. It doesn't matter that 
your religion says this is wrong. We know better. This government knows 
better, and we are going to force you to spend that money to provide a 
service that you wholeheartedly disagree with.
  Does that sound like the American way to you?
  Does that sound like the American way to any of us? Absolutely not, 
yet, somehow we are viewing it as acceptable.
  Waivers for the politically-connected, as has been talked about; as 
long as you have got a good friend that is either in the White House or 
at Health and Human Services, we can probably work something out for 
you.
  Now, how does that feel?
  Now, today though, we finally maybe got to the root of it. The Senate 
had been going along, no negotiations, no negotiations, no 
negotiations.
  Oh, but if you want to spend some more money, if you want to roll 
back those automatic, across-the-board cuts that we had agreed to 2 
years ago, maybe we will start talking about some reforms. That is what 
it is.
  As we talked about, this is about spending. This is about a group of 
people that want to see government grow. They want to see the footprint 
of the government just smash down on top of everything here and take 
control of our daily lives. That is really what the problem is.
  So now we are seeing what the Senate is really all about. It is about 
spending. It is about more spending and more control for them. Now, 
that has got to stop.
  Now, the opportunity side. I want to wrap up because I know we have 
got some other colleagues that are here, and we are having a great 
conversation and, again, I appreciate your hashtag, Time4Solutions, 
because this really is about those opportunities, as you talked about, 
the invention of Velcro and how we got there.
  I have learned that most of the times you learn more from the things 
in life that are tough, not the easy things. Major shifts in society 
are not easy. They might be simple, but sometimes those simple things 
aren't real easy. Well, this is neither simple nor easy, and it is 
because it is the wrong direction.
  First and foremost, we need the White House to acknowledge these 
problems. They won't even acknowledge these problems. It is all hunky-
dory, peaches and cream here in Washington, D.C. We are rolling this 
program out.
  Excuse us. We had to make sure that you don't worry about those 
``glitches'' that were in the system as we rolled it out. Please don't 
look at those exemptions and carve-outs that we have had. Please don't, 
whatever you do, please, oh, please, don't talk about how this is a 
growing frustration that the American people have, because that would 
somehow acknowledge that the American people might know better than

[[Page 15865]]

they do down at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
  We have to acknowledge those problems. Words speak louder--I am 
sorry--actions speak louder than words. The words are, everything is 
fine. The actions are very, very different though. The actions are 
very, very different out of this administration, as they have signed 17 
changes into this law, as we have seen these carve-outs, as we have 
seen them do things like make sure that the individual mandate is kept 
in place, but the other mandates are not put in.
  I know my colleagues are here too, and I want to give them time, so I 
am going to wrap up with this. My friend from Missouri, thank you for 
doing this.
  It is time that we do make those substantive changes and restore some 
faith, restore some faith with the American people, that we have their 
best interest, and make sure that Congress can live under the same laws 
that they vote for and that they pass.
  I appreciate you having this conversation tonight.
  Mrs. HARTZLER. Thank you very much, Bill. Those were very eloquent 
remarks. You really brought home the need that it is time for solutions 
and all the challenges that we are facing.
  Before I go to our other friends here, I do want to get this motion 
in.


                             General Leave

  Mrs. HARTZLER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks 
and include extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from Missouri?
  There was no objection.
  Mrs. HARTZLER. I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Keith 
Rothfus, who is new here but, boy, he hit the ground running.
  Appreciate your leadership, Keith. What would you like to share 
tonight?
  Mr. ROTHFUS. I thank the gentlelady for organizing this talk.
  Pennsylvania's 12th District in western Pennsylvania stretches from 
Beaver to Johnstown and to the northern suburbs of Pittsburgh.
  Last week we had a visit from HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who 
was in town to tout the benefits of the health care law. She also 
attempted to help enroll some western Pennsylvanians in the exchanges.
  According to press reports, however, those who showed up were not 
able to enroll, or even access the Web site. Apparently, glitches were 
to blame.
  As reported in yesterday's New York Times, however, one industry 
source said, ``These are not glitches. The extent of the problems is 
pretty enormous. It's awful.'' These problems took more than 2 years to 
build, and cost the American taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
  The health care law's troubles aren't limited, however, to the Web 
site issues. Many western Pennsylvanians have reached out to me to 
share stories about how they are seeing their hours reduced, or losing 
their jobs. Other western Pennsylvanians are seeing their health care 
premiums go up, or losing coverage altogether.
  A woman recently got in touch with me and told me that her family 
recently received a letter from their insurance company, and they will 
lose the health insurance they have had for more than 25 years on 
December 31. The alternatives they have been able to find will cost 
them three times what they pay today.
  Mr. Speaker, it is a time for solutions. We do have a new solution 
that we are proposing, The American Health Care Reform Act, which will 
actually lower costs, and I encourage our colleagues across the aisle 
and in our conference to take a look at that.
  I thank the gentlelady for the time.
  Mrs. HARTZLER. Thank you very much, Keith. Good point there.
  Now I yield to a friend from Kentucky, Andy Barr.
  Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlelady from Missouri 
for her leadership in leading this Special Order.
  Many Americans watching on TV right now are frustrated. They are 
angry with what they are seeing in Washington. They don't understand 
why political conflict has to get in the way of solutions.
  They are saying, and they are saying to all of us, why are the 
politicians putting their political agendas ahead of what is good for 
the country?
  I share that frustration and anger, and I understand what they are 
saying. They are saying, why can't the politicians get their act 
together?
  Why can't they reopen the government and avert default?
  But you know, as important as it is to reopen the government, and as 
important as it is to avert a short-term default, and those are very 
critical, it is equally important that we stop business as usual in 
Washington.
  It is important that Members of Congress do what they were elected to 
do, which is exercise leadership, stand up for what is right and what 
is in the long-term best interest of the Nation.
  What is in the long-term best interest of the Nation is to stop 
spending money we don't have. It is to stop racking up mounds of debt 
to end the reckless practices in Washington that are literally 
mortgaging the future of our children and our grandchildren and pushing 
this country to the brink of national bankruptcy.
  Now, some have accused House Republicans of holding the country 
hostage solely for the purpose of repealing or defunding the 
President's signature legislative achievement, ObamaCare.
  Why is this relevant?
  The President says ObamaCare should not be part of any negotiations 
to fund the government or raise the debt limit. But my constituents in 
Kentucky recognize the President's health care law for what it actually 
is, which is a massive increase in Federal spending.
  Its projected cost has more than doubled since the President 
originally claimed it would reduce the deficit. It will cost American 
taxpayers $2 trillion over the next decade, and its true cost will 
continue to grow.
  ObamaCare was rammed through Congress on a partisan basis through a 
process that was specifically reserved for budget-related bills, the 
reconciliation process. So for anyone to suggest that ObamaCare is 
unrelated to the budget is both cynical and inconsistent with Congress' 
ongoing responsibility to scrutinize Federal spending.
  After racking up $7 trillion in debt in just 5 years, the President 
stubbornly refuses to negotiate over ObamaCare. But make no mistake: 
Congress would not be doing its job if it ignored ObamaCare and its 
massive cost in the ongoing debate about how to save America from 
bankruptcy.

                              {time}  2030

  So, Mr. Speaker, let me just conclude by saying this. It would be 
unfair for young people and the next generation if we simply raised the 
debt limit without also addressing the underlying cause of our 
problems, without also addressing the cause of our fiscal situation, 
and that is runaway government spending. This is our opportunity. This 
is our moment. Let's seize this opportunity on a bipartisan basis. It 
is time for solutions.
  I thank the gentlewoman for her leadership in this Special Order.
  Let's not just raise the debt limit and keep kicking the can down the 
road. Let's solve America's problem and finally force the government to 
live within its means.
  Mrs. HARTZLER. I thank the gentleman.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________