[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9165]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           DESTRUCTIVE BEHAVIOR IN THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I believe it is important when we have 
an opportunity to discuss issues in a more deliberative manner to rise 
to the floor to remind Americans, who every day get up and work and 
provide the engine to this economy, of the destructive behavior that is 
about to begin in the United States Congress.
  The Affordable Care Act, ObamaCare, took 3 years-plus to engage with 
every health professional, Americans across the Nation, tens upon tens 
upon tens of hearings, and individual engagement with people who were 
sick and families who had lost loved ones because of lack of insurance.
  I remember hearing from parents whose children had died because they 
had no insurance, one mother of a young professional lawyer who had, 
unfortunately, steered toward drugs but had gotten himself 
rehabilitated but had developed hepatitis. Because he had no insurance, 
he wound up dying in the emergency room. There were endless stories 
like that.
  But the Affordable Care Act came in and provided dollars for 
preexisting conditions. It set a table of essentials that no health 
insurance could deny you the right to be covered, whether you were 
pregnant, whether or not you had a preexisting condition. They couldn't 
deny you hospital coverage.
  I don't know if Americans are realizing or our colleagues know that 
in days past, before the Affordable Care Act, you could be sold an 
insurance boondoggle that, when you got to the emergency room or the 
hospital and had to be admitted, they would say you have no coverage. 
That is the lifesaving aspect of the Affordable Care Act.
  I don't want anyone to be disabused of the fact that, after the House 
passed this heinous, terrible, dangerous, devastating bill, it would go 
away. The Senate now is going to pick up the same TrumpCare bill that 
will provide higher costs with less coverage; that will include 23 
million people losing their coverage; and as well, that will gut the 
priorities and the protections for preexisting conditions. If you have 
asthma, if you are pregnant, you won't be covered. And then, of course, 
there is a crushing age tax where those who are 50 and older may be 
paying $12,000 or more for their coverage in healthcare; and as well, 
it steals from Medicare and jeopardizes the Medicare trust fund.
  Let it be very clear: that is the same pathway of the Senate bill, 
which is then going to come back to the House. The Republicans continue 
to undermine the very needs of the American people.
  Now, let me explain why insurance companies are closing in various 
States like Ohio.
  It is not ObamaCare. It is the Republicans refuse to come together 
with Democrats and fix it. It is the devastating, destructive executive 
order from the administration that refuses to pay subsidies. The 
subsidies allowed working and middle class Americans to have insurance. 
And the insurance industry, the health insurance industry said, it is 
too unstable a market--not because of Americans, not because of people 
who are buying insurance, but because, directly from the White House, 
they have undermined it by stopping the payment of subsidies between 
the White House and the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
  What kind of mercy is that? Where is the kindness and the love and 
the honoring of the pact we make with the American people that we will 
stand as their protectors? Where is the basis for how we fought so hard 
under President Obama and finally got what had not been secured in a 
century: health insurance for Americans?
  Yet we also face a devastating, unstable government. The firing of 
Director Comey, the testimony under oath that says, by Director Comey, 
that he felt directed to end the Flynn investigation. I know that 
doesn't put food on the plates of Americans or their children, but it 
is the integrity of government.
  Where are the investigations in this House? Where are the fact-
finding investigations in this House?
  The rumor that is now proliferating that a distinguished professional 
like Mr. Mueller, a former Director of the FBI who served Republican 
and Democratic Presidents, there is a rumor that the special counsel 
will be fired.
  We are always told in our neck of the woods in Texas that where there 
is smoke, there is fire. Mr. President, are you going to begin 
Watergate all over again? The Saturday Night Massacre?
  This House needs to begin its investigation now, and this is a need 
to begin to move on directing the Judiciary Committee to begin an 
investigation of the facts. It warrants it because we have to clear the 
air before we can sit down at the table and do the work that needs to 
be done.
  In the midst of all of this, a destructive bill is being prepared in 
the Senate that is going to kill the healthcare of all Americans. It is 
time for all of us to wake up and take our government back.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to address their 
remarks to the Chair.

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