Obamacare

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

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.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source