Affordable Health Care For America Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. JORDAN of Ohio. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, how bad does it have to get? How bad does it have to get before we stop the out-of-control spending? A $1.4 trillion deficit, a $12 trillion national debt, a trillion dollars in bailouts and stimulus, and now here we come again with $1.3 trillion takeover of our health care system.

One of the things that makes this country so special, one of the things that makes this country the greatest Nation in history is this simple concept, that parents make sacrifices for their children so that when they grow up, they can have life a little better than we did, and then they in turn do it for the next generation, and each generation in this country has done it for the one that succeeds them.

And now, unfortunately, what we are doing is borrowing and spending and living for the moment and passing the bill on to our kids. It's wrong and it should stop here.

Vote this bill down. Support the Republican alternative.

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Mr. JORDAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, many of my colleagues from across the aisle have called this an historic day.

I wish it was an historic day!

I wish this was the day that the majority in Congress sat up and listened to the American people ..... not just the tens of thousands that stood at the steps of our Capitol to speak out in defense of protecting their health care ..... but the millions from around the country who called our offices, wrote letters to their newspapers, spoke at town hall meetings ..... or marched on Washington.

If they did, they would hear their deep and abiding concern for what will happen to their health care if this bill passes.

What will happen to the relationship between them and their family and their doctor when the heavy hand of government gets involved in medical decisions?

What will happen to seniors, and everyone taking care of their elderly parents or in-laws, when the overpromise of ``free health care'' meets the economic reality of ``rationed care'' when the federal government runs short on money?

What happens to Medicare Advantage customers whose services will be cut?

What happens to those using Health Savings Accounts whose health freedoms will be infringed upon?

What happens to the small business owner who desperately wants to hire back some employees or expand his business to provide more economic opportunities in his community? What happens when these individuals, upon whose success our nation will rise from this recession, have to pay the hundreds of billions in new taxes to pay for the massive government expansion in this bill?

Mr. Speaker, how bad does it have to get? How bad does it have to get before this Congress starts acting in a way that will help families, create jobs, and leave a better America for our children and grandchildren?

How bad does unemployment have to get? Earlier this week, it was announced that our nation has reached an unemployment rate of 10.2 percent, which is the highest unemployment rate in almost 30 years. Yet studies suggest that the taxes, mandates, and federal expansion in this bill will cost our nation another 5.5 million jobs in the private sector.

How bad does the deficit have to get? This year's deficit of over 1 trillion dollars was the highest in history. Yet this multi-trillion-dollar expenditure to take over the nation's health care system will explode the deficit, despite the fuzzy math that we've heard from the other side of the aisle.

The debt ..... it has reached a nearly insurmountable level of 12 trillion dollars. How bad does it have to get? Even without the massive uncontrolled expenditures involved with this health care bill, the national debt is projected to surpass the size of our economy in the next few years. Since when has the answer to an exploding national debt been an explosive expansion of federal government spending in areas that have always been a part of the private sector economy?

The one positive thing I can say about this bill is the pro-life victory we won with the amendment offered by my fellow pro-life colleagues, led by Mr. Stupak and Mr. Pitts. I was proud to support that amendment because it honored the fundamental truths that life is sacred, life should be protected, and taxpayer money should never be used to take the life of an unborn child.

But Mr. Speaker, the bottom line is this: H.R. 3962 is the wrong answer to what ails America's health care system.

It is too expensive. It raises taxes. It expands the reach of the federal government into the personal health care decisions that should be left between patients and their doctors. It is a job killer. It will cause millions of Americans to lose their coverage, while expanding coverage to millions of illegal aliens.

Despite the newly-enacted pro-life protections that I fought so hard to enact both in this bill and every relevant piece of legislation before this House, it is a bad bill.

Let me close here. We are blessed to live in the greatest country in history. Our country is great, in part, because of something called the American Dream. We're a country where people, through their own hard work, can pull themselves up and reach for their goals and dreams.

Mr. Speaker, the American Dream happens because generations of parents have worked hard and sacrificed so their children can have life a little better than they did. When their children become parents, they sacrifice for their children, and the dream lives on.

This bill is just another example in the recent years of our country of borrowing for now and sending the bill to the next generation.

If we want the American Dream to live on, we must reject this bill and return to the American principles that made our nation that shining city on a hill.

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