[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 13471-13472]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               OBAMACARE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I did a lot of listening over the past 
several weeks in meetings and events all across Kentucky. Last week I 
participated in my 51st hospital townhall since 2011, and one thing 
kept emerging over and over: Kentuckians are really, really worried 
about ObamaCare. They read the same stories we have about businesses 
being forced to cut hours and eliminate health care and about people 
being laid off. They read about how the rollout of this massive law is 
becoming a massive mess and how their personal information could be 
compromised by scam artists. I know there are some who supported the 
law who are thinking: Well, they will learn to like it. But it is 
precisely the kind of ``we know what is good for you'' attitude that is 
so upsetting to my constituents. That is what got us into this mess in 
the first place.
  So let's at least get this much straight: The doctors, the nurses, 
the health care professionals, the patients, and everyday Kentuckians I 
have been speaking with on this issue are not ignorant of the facts. 
They know what they are talking about. A lot of them know more about 
health care than those who voted for this law ever will.
  The fact is that the more my constituents seem to know about 
ObamaCare, the more worried they tend to be. That is true for the 
business owners too. One small business owner in Murray wrote to me 
about how she is looking at premium increases of nearly 90 percent. I 
think she summed up the situation pretty well. She wrote:

       Government is crippling the businesses that are keeping 
     this country going.

  Another constituent wrote to me to say that as a matter of 
conscience, he doesn't want to let his employees go uninsured but that 
realistically he may no longer have a choice. One of Kentucky's biggest 
employers recently announced plans to stop providing health care to 
spouses of 15,000 of its employees--also due in part to ObamaCare.
  This is part of a growing trend across America. These are just some 
of the human costs of this law, and it hasn't even fully come online 
yet. So it is small consolation for business owners in my State that 
they will have a little more time to work through this mess after the 
President's decision to delay the so-called employer mandate for a 
year. They get a reprieve for a year, and then the mess comes along a 
year later.
  Interestingly enough, just yesterday the country's largest union 
federation, the AFL-CIO, outlined serious flaws in ObamaCare that could 
hurt its members too. Apparently, they came very close--very close--to 
calling for outright repeal. This is the AFL-CIO that came very close 
to calling for outright repeal. News reports suggested a lot of harsh 
words were said. I don't think I can even quote all of it on the floor. 
But one union leader implied that ObamaCare could lead to the 
federation losing three-quarters of its membership in just the next few 
years. This is the AFL-CIO--the biggest supporter the President had--
coming this close to calling for outright repeal.
  So we know Big Labor is leaning on the President. We know they want 
him to let them rewrite the same law they helped ram through, and 
apparently he is listening to them.
  But what about everybody else who is not in Big Labor? What about the 
single mom in Bowling Green who will not be able to cover rent if her 
hours are, in fact, cut as she anticipates they will be? What about the 
recent college graduate in Louisville who is barely scraping by as it 
is and who will not be able to afford a premium increase? What about 
the families from Covington to Paducah who are worried sick about this 
law? Doesn't the administration think those folks deserve some relief 
too? The same kind of delay at least businesses will get? Republicans 
do. That is why the Republican-led House of Representatives passed a 
bill on a bipartisan basis--that means Democrats voted for it too--
before the August recess to do just that. Last month I tried to pass 
that same bill in the Senate, but the Washington Democratic leadership 
blocked it. I am not sure why.
  This legislation is just common sense. It is the fair thing, the 
right thing to do. So today I am going to try again. Yesterday, along 
with a number of my colleagues, I filed an amendment

[[Page 13472]]

to the Portman-Shaheen bill that would provide the same reprieve for 
individuals the administration has already offered to businesses. This 
time I hope my colleagues on the other side will join me in supporting 
it, as a number of Democrats did over in the House.
  I know they all got an earful when they were home last month. So 
maybe they have reconsidered the wisdom and fairness of their earlier 
position. Maybe now they think individuals and families should be 
treated no differently than businesses when it comes to protecting them 
from ObamaCare. This same legislation, as I indicated, attracted votes 
from both Republicans and Democrats in the House, and there is no 
reason for blocking it in the Senate.
  We need to pass a 1-year delay--a 1-year delay--of ObamaCare for 
everyone. That is what the amendment I filed would do. Then we need to 
enact what Kentuckians and Americans truly need, a full repeal of this 
job-killing mess of a law--job-killing mess of a law; that is what it 
is--and what I intend to keep fighting for. As I said earlier, union 
members who pushed for this bill now are turning against it in droves, 
so are businesses and so are our constituents. I don't care what party 
people are in, we will hear from them. So let's take this first step 
together. Let's delay ObamaCare mandates for families right now, just 
as the White House did for businesses, while there is still time to do 
it. Then let's work together, Democrats and Republicans, to repeal the 
law for good and replace it with the kind of commonsense, step-by-step 
reforms that will actually lower costs.
  That is what Kentuckians want, that is what Americans want, and 
anybody who actually listened to their constituents last month already 
knows what I just said.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________