Providing For Consideration Of H.R. 3962, Affordable Health Care For America Act, And Providing For Consideration Of H.R. 3961, Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRAVES. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to this rule and the underlying bill.

Small businesses have struggled for years to obtain affordable health insurance for their employees. However, rather than embrace solutions that enjoy the unanimous support of the small business community, this bill takes a government-heavy approach that fails in its goal to make health insurance more affordable. What is more unfortunate is that the bulk of the funding for the health care bill is balanced on the backs of small business owners and entrepreneurs.

I offered an amendment to the Rules Committee to provide relief to these job creators by striking the mandate and tax on employers, but my fight fell on deaf ears.

The tax increases included in this bill are job killers, plain and simple. At a time when our Nation's unemployment rate exceeds 10 percent for the first time in 26 years, the first goal of this body should be improving the economy and creating jobs.

Real solutions exist to the problem of affordable health care. This bill is not that solution, and I would urge my colleagues to vote against the rule and this bill.

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