Restoring Americans' Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act of 2015

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.

Mr. Speaker, this bill and the vote we are going to have today is, I
guess, a fitting end to an unproductive and shameful week in the United
States Congress.

Yesterday, we just witnessed an incredible abuse of power where a so-
called special Benghazi committee, funded by taxpayer money, conducted
their political witch hunt against Secretary Clinton. The Republican
majority leader in this own body told the Nation on television that it
was about bringing down Hillary Clinton's polls. That dishonors the
memory of the four Americans who were killed in Benghazi.

Then earlier this week, this Congress passed legislation that says,
you know what? The United States Government doesn't have to pay all of
its bills. We will just pay some of our bills. Forget about the full
faith and credit of the United States. We will decide we are going to
pay some people and not others.

It is as if, Mr. Speaker, one of us got up in the morning and said we
are just going to make our mortgage payments but forget about the car
payments, or we are going to pay this person but not that person. When
the United States Government tries to do that, the economy goes
downhill fast.

To add insult to injury, they said, when we are going to pay certain
people, we are going to pay the big bondholders first. The Government
of China and Wall Street, they are going to get paid. Our veterans
aren't going to get paid. Our soldiers aren't going to get paid.

I hope our colleagues are reading what they are passing here in the
United States Congress, because that is what they did earlier this
week.

So what are we doing here today? For the 61st time in this House of
Representatives, our Republican colleagues are moving forward on
legislation to dismantle the Affordable Care Act.

Now, the chairman is entitled to his own opinions. He is not entitled
to his own facts. All you have to do is read the report of the
nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that analyzed this bill, and
here is what they say: that, as a result of this legislation, insurance
coverage would decline by about 16 million people in most years; 3
million of those people would be children.

Why in the world are we here on the floor of the House of
Representatives passing legislation that is going to take away
affordable health care to 15 million Americans, including 3 million
children?

Look at this chart, Mr. Speaker. This shows the decline in the number
of uninsured people in the United States. As you can see, you see a
rapid drop in the number of uninsured Americans as a result of the
Affordable Care Act. Our Republican colleagues' bill wants to get rid
of that progress, put all those people back in the position where they
don't have affordable health care.

They also want to go after women's health programs, including Planned
Parenthood, where the testimony from the chairman of the Oversight and
Government Reform Committee, Mr. Chaffetz, is very clear. They haven't
violated any laws. He said it on national television. Here is what he
was asked: ``Is there any evidence, in your opinion, that Planned
Parenthood has broken any laws?''

``No. I am not suggesting that they broke the law.''
It is another political witch hunt, just like the Benghazi hearing.
You know what? When the regular committees found there was no
wrongdoing by Planned Parenthood, our Republican colleagues created a
special committee on Planned Parenthood as well.

Mr. Speaker, when the American people had been asked what they think
of Congress these days, this is a chart of the words they come up with
first: Ridiculous. Waste of time. Terrible. Frustrating.

You are just making this chart worse by coming here to this floor,
for the 61st time, repealing the Affordable Care Act, a bill that you
know has no chance of becoming law because, if it gets to the
President's desk, he has told this Congress long ago he will veto it
because the President doesn't want to get rid of affordable health care
for 15 million Americans and 3 million American kids. The President
doesn't want to do it.

I am really, really disappointed that our Republican colleagues
thought this was a good way to end an unproductive week. It is a sad
and shameful statement of the state of affairs in this body.
I reserve the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, with all respect to Mr. Woodall, we
don't celebrate legislation that takes away affordable health care to
15 million Americans, including 3 million American children. That is
not our definition of bipartisanship.

I urge all my colleagues to read the Congressional Budget Office
report. The Congressional Budget Office is headed by someone who was
chosen by our Republican colleagues, and their report tells us this
legislation will take away affordable health care from 15 million
Americans. That is nothing to celebrate.

I now yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms.
DeLauro), the very distinguished ranking member of the Subcommittee on
Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies
of the Committee on Appropriations.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 2\1/2\ minutes.
Mr. Speaker, this legislation, plain and simple, takes away
affordable health care to 15 million Americans, including 3 million
kids.

I keep hearing about how intrusive and awful the Affordable Care Act
is. The reality is the majority of Members gathered right here in this
Chamber are on the Affordable Care Act. The government is not dictating
to them their health insurance. They are on it.

All they are trying to do here, Mr. Speaker, is take away access to
affordable health care for 15 million Americans who would not otherwise
get affordable health care and, in the process, take away funding for
women's health programs, targeting Planned Parenthood as part of a
political witch hunt, the same kind of witch hunt we saw just yesterday
in the Benghazi special committee hearing, where, the majority leader
of this House told the public, it was simply about bringing down
Secretary Clinton's poll numbers.

It is no wonder, Mr. Speaker, that it has been so difficult for our
Republican colleagues to find a replacement for the Speaker. You have
got a faction of this House that wants no compromise, that thinks it is
a celebration to get rid of health care, affordable health care for 15
million Americans. That is nothing to celebrate, and this is a terrible
way to end an already unproductive week here in the House of
Representatives.

So I urge my colleagues to vote against this legislation. It is not
going anywhere because the President of the United States is not going
to sign a bill that deprives 15 million Americans of access to
affordable health care that they didn't have before.

So let's stop the games. We have got to deal with the debt ceiling.
We have got to deal with a way where we actually pay all our bills, not
just some of the bills, and when we decide which ones to pay, we don't
say we are going to pay China first. We have got to make sure we come
together to prevent a government shutdown. Instead, for the 61st time,
this House is voting to take away health care from the American public.
So, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote against this
legislation.
I reserve the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I don't have time to respond to all of
the misstatements that were made, but now I am going to turn it over to
the ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the gentleman from Michigan
(Mr. Levin) be allowed to control the next 15 minutes of debate time as
my designee.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.
I yield myself the balance of my time.
I have been listening to the debate, and I am sorry to report that as
I come here to close the debate, not much has changed from when we
started this debate this morning. This is still, in my view, an
unproductive end to an already unproductive and shameful week.

We saw in this House just yesterday the spectacle of a kangaroo
court-style special Benghazi hearing, using taxpayers' dollars, engaged
in a political witch hunt, abuse of power, misuse of taxpayer dollars,
and in fact the Republican majority leader himself, Mr. McCarthy, told
the country that that was all about bringing down Secretary Clinton's
poll numbers.

Then, just earlier this week, we pretended, in passing a piece of
legislation, that the United States doesn't have to pay all the bills
that are due and owing. We passed a piece of legislation that says we
will only pay some of our bills but not all of our bills. No American
citizen can get up in the morning and say: ``You know what? I am not
going to pay my mortgage bill. I will only pay my car payment.'' When a
country like the United States puts its full faith and credit at risk,
it puts the entire economy of our country and the international
economic order at risk.

But to add insult to injury, in passing a piece of legislation that
said the United States will only pay some of our bills, so forget about
that full faith and credit, we passed legislation that says, well, we
are going to pay the big bondholders first. So China gets paid first.
Wall Street gets paid first. Troops don't get paid. Veterans don't get
paid. Doctors providing Medicare services, they don't get paid.
Now here we are, for the 61st time, passing a piece of legislation to
dismantle the Affordable Care Act, which, according to the analysis of
the Congressional Budget Office, will cost 15 million Americans access
to affordable health care, including 3 million children.

Now, I have heard some of our colleagues come to the floor and say,
well, we want to improve the Affordable Care Act in certain ways. We
understand that the Affordable Care Act is not perfect, but a piece of
legislation that takes away affordable health care from 15 million
Americans, that is nothing to celebrate. That is nothing to be proud
of. We shouldn't be doing that here on the floor of the House, taking
away access to health care for women at places like Planned Parenthood,
when the chairman of the Oversight Committee, Mr. Chaffetz, has also
stated on national television that they didn't violate any laws and
later said that they hadn't engaged in inappropriate activity.

When our Republican colleagues got that kind of answer with respect
to Benghazi, when the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in the
House and the Committee on Armed Services in the House concluded that
there had been no wrongdoing in the tragedy in Benghazi, our Republican
colleagues invented the Select Committee on Benghazi. When they didn't
get the answer they wanted on Planned Parenthood, they invented a
special committee on Planned Parenthood that is going to waste taxpayer
money, just as the Select Committee on Benghazi has.

Mr. Speaker, I showed, earlier, a chart that shows just how fed up
the American people are with what is happening here in the House. The
problem is everything we have done this week, from the Benghazi
hearings to pretending the United States will only pay part of its
bills--and when we do, we are going to pay China first--to dismantling
the Affordable Care Act or attempting to do it for the 61st time. They
want us working on the important issues.

A few weeks from now, our national transportation infrastructure
system is going to run out of money. In just a few more weeks, the
Federal Government will shut down if we can't come together and work
something out. I have introduced the Prevent a Government Shutdown Act.
I tried to get a vote on it here on the floor today, but the Committee
on Rules said no. Their priority was not to prevent the government from
shutting down in a couple weeks. Their priority was, for the 61st time,
to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, even at the cost of 15 million
Americans' affordable health insurance.

Mr. Speaker, let's get on with the big issues of this country. Let's
invest in our infrastructure. Let's shut down some of the tax loopholes
that perversely incentivize American corporations to move jobs and
capital overseas and invest it here at home. Let's make sure we lift
the unproductive caps, sequester caps that are slowing down economic
growth right now, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Let's
invest in our kids' education. Let's invest in scientific research, and
let's do it while we shut down some of these ridiculous tax breaks for
hedge fund managers. We should end this inversion that is going on
where U.S. corporations just change their address to some tax haven
overseas to escape their responsibility to the American taxpayers and
their country.

We have got a lot of pressing issues to take care of--instead,
Benghazi, pay China first, pass this legislation to take away health
care from 15 million Americans, including 3 million American kids.
We can do better. We can do a lot better, Mr. Speaker. Let's defeat
this legislation and get on with the real work of the American people.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source