[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 16100]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  THE IMPACT OF OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn) for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam Speaker, I want to visit with my colleagues 
this morning for a few minutes about the impact of our Federal 
Government and what it is doing to our country's future and to future 
generations. That is something that has been foremost in my mind this 
week.
  This week, our family has welcomed a new baby. Georgia K. Graham was 
born in New York City at 2:25 Monday morning. So as we have welcomed 
her, as we think about her future, one of the things we are discussing 
is: What kind of America will she have to grow up in? How solvent will 
we be? Will we still be the country that celebrates the American Dream? 
Will we be the country that focuses on opportunity, that looks to 
entrepreneurs and innovators to create a better day, not only for 
America, but for the entire world?
  This is also the time, Madam Speaker, as we look at what has happened 
with our Nation's budget, with our Nation's spending, that we look at 
the long-term effects of so many of the programs and entitlements that 
are placed before us. One of those is a program that is commonly known 
as ObamaCare, and some of my colleagues say: Why is it that we talk 
about ObamaCare in conjunction with the budget? I would like to remind 
my colleagues it is because it is a very expensive program. And I have 
a chart that shows what has happened with the cost of that program 
since the law was passed and now as we are focusing on implementation.
  You will see we were told this was to be a program that would run 
about $900 billion over a 10-year period of time. It was to be access 
to health care insurance for those that did not have that access. But 
when we look at the chart that reflects the Congressional Budget 
Office's findings--this is a chart that was prepared on the Senate 
side--what we see is the cost estimate over that same 10-year period of 
time from when the law was passed. Remember, we had to pass it in order 
to read it and find out what was in it? From when it was passed, there 
at $900 billion, to today, as we look at the implementation of 
ObamaCare, it has become a $2.6 trillion-over-10-year program. It is a 
tripling of costs, and we don't even have it out of the starting gates 
yet. This is why we are looking at the total cost of health care.
  In the Budget Committee, as we look at the long-term outlook for our 
Nation and the implications that our budget will have on the private 
sector, on hardworking taxpayers, what we find with the cost of health 
care is that those programs are expected to double in their impact on 
the budget. We have to remember that every single dollar the Federal 
Government has comes out of the pocket of taxpayers, men and women who 
go to work every day and earn that dollar and then have to send more 
and more of that dollar to the Federal Government.
  As we look at the challenges that face this Nation, we focus on what 
we will spend, how we will use that money, and we think about the 
children, the grandchildren that we have and their future and the 
impact our spending habits today will have on their tomorrows.

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