[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Page 8851]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               OBAMACARE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, sometimes the divide between the White 
House and reality can be stark. That was evident yesterday when 
President Obama told us that Obamacare was ``working'' and that 
essentially ``none'' of the warnings of the law's failures and broken 
promises had come to pass. I imagine the families threatened with 
double-digit premium increases would beg to differ, as would the 
millions of families who received cancelation notices for the plans 
they had and wanted to keep. That is especially true considering 
something else the President said--that Obamacare ``hasn't had an 
adverse effect on people who already had health insurance.'' That is 
what the President said, that Obamacare hasn't had an adverse effect on 
people who already had health insurance. President Obama actually said 
that. It may border on the absurd, but he did say it.
  Perhaps the President will make even more bizarre claims today as he 
tries to bolster the image of a law that only 11 percent of Americans 
say is a success--only 11 percent of Americans say Obamacare is a 
success--or perhaps he will keep realities facing the middle class in 
mind. Instead of jousting with reality again, perhaps he will consider 
the concerns of constituents who write in literally every day to tell 
us how this law is hurting them. Maybe he will remember the Kentuckian 
who wrote to tell me this: ``I cried myself to sleep.''
  ``I cried myself to sleep,'' said this Kentuckian who wrote to me 
about this law. That is how she felt after losing health coverage with 
her employer and then being forced--forced--into an exchange plan she 
called ``subpar'' with a nearly $5,000 deductible. How helpful to most 
middle-class people is a health insurance policy with a $5,000 
deductible? She said, ``I work hard for every penny I earn, and this is 
completely unacceptable.'' It is also another example of a law that has 
failed, and the sooner President Obama can come to grips with that 
reality, the sooner we can work together to replace the fear and 
anguish of Obamacare with the hope and promise of true health care 
reform.

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