Breaking the Gridlock Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, I agree with points that are being made on both sides. The fundamental point of our side is undeniably true, which is that our healthcare system is broken and costs continue to spiral out of control.

However, it is also true that suddenly withdrawing premium support from 22 million Americans is going to force those folks into a terrible dilemma: either paying hundreds or thousands of dollars more, so they face hard trade-offs for their families, losing their insurance altogether in a way that will impact the employer-based market of 150 million Americans, or working less in order to remain eligible in a way that will reduce their discretionary income as well as be bad for our economy as a whole.

We need a solution to this, but this bill is obviously not a solution. Everyone knows that. It is a political exercise that has been engineered by the minority leader at the expense of pursuing an actual solution.

Now, once again, it is falling on the Senate to do the real policymaking, but I am heartened that they seem to be close to a deal that roughly mirrors the compromise bipartisan bill that I have offered with the gentleman from California (Mr. Liccardo) that does a temporary extension with reforms and cost controls to provide runway, so then we can begin the real hard work of fixing our healthcare system in this country.

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