Senate Vote on Reid Health Care Bill

Statement

Senator Chuck Grassley issued the following comment about his opposition to the motion to proceed to H.R. 3590, the legislative vehicle for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2009. The text of Senator Grassley's floor speech is below the comment.

"This proposal is another big government spending plan, and after the bailouts for Wall Street and Detroit, a stimulus bill that left us with the highest unemployment in 26 years, and the Fed shoveling money out the door without any accountability, people across the country have had enough.

"Senator Reid's claim that the cost is $848 billion is the ultimate Washington gimmick, at taxpayers' expense. To pull off the ruse, the health care changes in Senator Reid's bill are delayed until 2014, even while his bill starts collecting new taxes, penalties and fees immediately. So it's 10 years of revenue for six years of expenditure. When that accounting game is over, this bill's full 10-year implementation cost is $2.5 trillion. This bill will pile on deficit spending and increase America's debt far beyond the $1.4 trillion the debt already has increased since President Obama took office. This debt will diminish opportunities for the next generation of Americans, our children and grandchildren.

"We ought to be doing everything possible right now to create jobs, and taxes should be decreased in a recession, not increased. Instead, Senator Reid's bill raises taxes, penalties and fees immediately, choking off economic recovery. The changes hit small business especially hard, and small businesses create 70 percent of new jobs. That's why the National Federation of Independent Business said this bill fails small businesses.

"It's irresponsible for Democratic leaders to use their filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and their control of the House and the White House to push through such massive legislation to reshape one-sixth of America's economy. The unintended consequences in this legislation could have a destabilizing effect at just the wrong time, as America's economy struggles to recover and working families are doing everything in their power to hold on.

"This bill isn't what people expected from health care reform. They wanted Congress to lower health care costs that are growing at three times the rate of inflation, but this bill makes health insurance premiums go up, not down, and that's according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. This bill also hurts seniors with Medicare cuts so extreme that Medicare's nonpartisan chief actuary concluded they will jeopardize access to care. And, the bill uses those Medicare funds to start yet another unsustainable entitlement program. With the bad fiscal shape that Medicare is in, it doesn't make any sense to make new commitments to new entitlement spending, which this bill does.

"Congress should take steps to improve the health care system. That includes common sense medical malpractice reform to stop wasting so much money on defensive medicine, ending discriminatory practices by health insurance companies, and empowering consumers to have a real choice of plans so that we can lower costs with competition, just like with other services we buy. Congress should make market reforms that help small businesses and the self employed access health insurance. These issues can be addressed without upending the entire health care system with a bill that really costs $2.5 trillion and means higher taxes, higher insurance premiums and an unsustainable tax burden for generations to come."

Source