[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 17204-17205]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               OBAMACARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2013, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Madam Speaker, I won't take long.
  I got this email from a constituent that, on Tuesday of last week, my 
89-year old mother-in-law fell and broke her hip. Her doctor gave her 
only a 50 percent chance of survival, but survive she did. He, the 
doctor, stated after the operation that she was lucky that it happened 
now, because ``in 2 weeks I could not have performed the same procedure 
because it is not an approved procedure under the new rules. It's too 
expensive.''

[[Page 17205]]

  We all wondered what her chances of survival would have been under 
Dr. Obama. That is from Jay, in my district.
  There are all kinds of terrible things that are happening as a result 
of the passage of ObamaCare. I voted ``yes'' on the bill today. 
Apparently, the Senate is not going to take it up. It just said if the 
insurance companies could allow them to continue on their policies 
without making it illegal, as ObamaCare does, to keep those policies.
  We have numerous proposals. Anybody that says Republicans don't have 
any solutions, we have got numerous solutions. I filed a bill that 
would have been a better, far better bill to ObamaCare back before 
ObamaCare passed. CBO wouldn't score it. They helped the Democrats all 
they could, but especially after the director was woodshedded at the 
White House.
  There are many solutions, and one solution now would be to allow 
insurance policies that have been approved for this year by State 
commissioners, let them go on, like those that are on the Federal, 
State, or local cafeteria plans for Federal, State or local workers.
  There are many things we can do to have a bridge to get us through 
the next year if we can just repeal ObamaCare. It did not look like a 
possibility a few months ago but, as Americans are finding out more and 
more about the disaster of this government taking over everyone's 
health care, they are finding, gee, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad 
idea, as we had 30-plus Democrats, in a bipartisan vote today, express, 
gee, maybe we should have allowed people to keep their insurance if 
they wanted it.
  One article today from FOX News, ``Obama's Insurance Plan `Fix' Stirs 
Confusion, Ridicule At the State Level,'' points out what a disaster it 
is. The President's even adding to the problems by unilaterally passing 
a new law, as he has done repeatedly. Normally it is reserved only to 
monarchs, kings, emperors, those kind of things, to step up and say, I 
am changing the law.
  He has done it with regard to immigration. He has done it with regard 
to ObamaCare. He ignores parts of laws or laws he doesn't like, and 
that has also been done at the Department of Justice.

                              {time}  1430

  Here is a headline, CNN: ObamaCare Enrollment Numbers ``Complete 
Disaster.'' And we are finding out that 26,000-or-so signed up and 
bought insurance when they needed 500,000.
  Here is one from McClatchy: ``Roiling Health Care Waters, Obama's Fix 
Could Make Matters Worse,'' by Anita Kumar and Lesley Clark.
  From the Weekly Standard, Daniel Halper: ```Fairy Tale' Continues As 
Obama Proposes Extralegal ObamaCare Fix.'' It is unconstitutional.
  And by the way, Madam Speaker, it seems like those who had the 
President for constitutional law are probably entitled to file a class 
action, wanting their money back. Because, clearly, the President is 
not familiar with the fact that the executive branch just can't 
announce or change laws as they wish without getting Congress' 
approval.
  Here is another, ObamaCare Architect: ``Could Be the Beginning of a 
Death Spiral'' from Today by Daniel Halper. In fact, it quotes the 
architect of ObamaCare being interviewed by Megyn Kelly. She asked, 
``Is that the beginning of the so-called death spiral?'' And he said 
``That could be the beginning of a death spiral,'' as people did not 
sign up for ObamaCare like they needed to.
  And then one from Human Events: ``There is No `Fix''' for ObamaCare. 
And, Madam Speaker, I think that is the bottom line here. We have got 
to repeal ObamaCare. People are already being dramatically, adversely 
affected. It has changed the 40-hour workweek. It has changed people's 
ability to have their own decisions about their own health care.
  We need to move, as Ben Carson suggested, toward health savings 
accounts, encouraging those higher deductibles with cash to take care 
of the difference. There are all kinds of great solutions. Many of us 
have them. We just need to repeal ObamaCare for the good of America.
  And it is deeply saddening to know that our government is not even 
warning people about going on ObamaCare, that when they enter their 
personal information, it is subject to being stolen by identity thieves 
and may put them in great personal identity quandaries and difficulties 
legally. So I bring that up because somebody needs to warn people about 
the problems of registering with the ObamaCare Web site, if they can 
get through.
  My hope and prayer is that we will do the right thing by America. We 
will get back to acting within the Constitution. And friends like our 
leader, who spoke moments ago, expressing profound ignorance of what 
has gone on here on the floor, as he has stated that we had Paul Ryan 
and many other Republicans voting for the government not to pay its 
bills.
  There is no Republican I know of that has voted that way. Apparently, 
he has paid more attention to mainstream media that has misrepresented 
the truth than he has to what has actually gone on here. No Republicans 
voted for America not to pay its bills. In fact, Republicans are the 
ones who voted repeatedly to compromise before the shutdown.
  But Harry Reid had it in his mind that if there were a shutdown, if 
he could refuse to compromise on anything, force a shutdown, then 
Americans would get misrepresentations as to what occurred. They would 
blame the Republicans, and then they would get the majority back here 
in the House next year.
  But a funny thing happened on the way to that plan. Many people are 
starting to find out: wait a minute, Republicans compromised 
repeatedly. Harry Reid is the one that wouldn't bring a compromise to 
the floor, wouldn't even allow negotiations to occur with a conference 
committee. And then people are finding out why Republicans were so 
concerned about ObamaCare, because it is a disaster. It is affecting 
people's ability to get the health care they need.
  It is so grossly unfair. It is putting people at risk. It is time to 
stop the figurative bleeding of America and repeal ObamaCare.
  And with that, I yield back the balance of my time.

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