[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Page 9478]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               OBAMACARE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, last year President Obama was asked 
about the lessons he has learned from his first term. Instead of 
focusing on errors in judgment or policy, he seemed to indicate that he 
needed to do a better job--just a better job--of telling ``a story to 
the American people.'' In other words, the policy was just fine, and if 
Americans did not get it, it was because they had a listening problem. 
Well, that is an attitude that has come to define this administration.
  I would say that is why folks will be rallying on the Capitol grounds 
today. They, like a growing number of Americans, are losing faith in 
government. They think it is working against them, not for them. And 
for good reason.
  Let's take ObamaCare. This law has been pretty unpopular for several 
years now. It is not as though the American people have not been 
exposed--probably overexposed--to the arguments on both sides of the 
issue. ObamaCare must have been discussed hundreds of thousands--maybe 
even millions--of times over the past few years. That includes 
political debates, more speeches than any of us care to count, issue 
ads both pro and con, and--guess what--Americans still do not like the 
idea of ObamaCare, not because they are unable to understand or because 
they have not ``seen the right messenger.'' It is because most of them 
like their health care plan and want to keep it. It is because they do 
not want to pay more to the health insurance companies. And it is 
because they do not think the law is going to work as promised.
  Yet the Washington Democrats' explanation for ObamaCare's enduring 
unpopularity still seems to be that the law is too complicated for 
their constituents to understand, and the Washington Democratic 
solution seems to be not to actually change the policy but to spend 
millions in a campaign-style PR--PR--blitz.
  So the news flash would be this: If you still do not think Americans 
are able to understand a law you passed more than 3 years ago, then 
there is something wrong with the law, not with the American people.
  Instead of going around the country trying to convince Americans why 
they are wrong, the administration could actually listen for a change. 
I think they should start over on health care and embrace the types of 
commonsense, step-by-step reforms that would actually lower the cost. I 
am not holding my breath that is going to happen.
  So at a minimum they need to at least do this: The President, members 
of his Cabinet, and the congressional Democrats--congressional 
Democrats who voted for this law--need to get out and explain to 
Americans what is headed their way. Do not feed them the sunny picture 
painted in the ObamaCare ads the President's campaign team is already 
running but actually explain the reality of the situation to them. For 
instance, Americans need to know about the coming wave of premium 
hikes. We have already seen projected double-digit increases in some 
States. They need to know we are likely to see even more Americans lose 
the health care they want to keep, just like the thousands of 
Californians who will probably have to look for new plans after Aetna 
pulled out of the individual market in their State, almost certainly 
because of ObamaCare. They need to know they could lose their jobs or 
see their hours cut or struggle to find work in the first place. In 
fact, a recent survey showed that about 70 percent--70 percent--of 
small businesses say the law will make it harder for them to hire. 
Americans need to know all of these things because they need to prepare 
for them.
  It is supremely unhelpful when the President claims that those who 
already have health care will not see changes, as he did just a few 
weeks ago. He knows that is not what many experts are saying. He owes 
it to the country to be frank about that. So it is time to get off the 
campaign trial, call off the PR spinmeisters, put down the 
communications plan. It is time to level with the American people.

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