Health Care
Floor Speech
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Mr. LATTA. Well, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I really appreciate him hosting this Special Order late this afternoon. I think it's very, very important that the American people absolutely know what's going on here. As we all were home over the Christmas holidays, I know that I had a lot of events that I had to attend. I don't care if I spoke at a Chamber of Commerce or a Rotary, you name it, people were very, very concerned with what's going on in this Chamber. They're worried about a lot of things. They're worried about the health care that's been passed by this House, they're worried about jobs, they're worried about the cap-and-tax legislation, they're worried about the EPA and other mandates that are being forced down their throats. But I think it's important probably to start off talking about the health care a little bit here.
I don't think there's anybody in this Chamber, there's not one person in this country that would say that we shouldn't do something about having some meaningful debate on health care in this country. But when we're looking at it, what we've seen happening is we've seen, as has been mentioned by my colleagues from Texas and also from Pennsylvania, it's been a one-way street. And the American people don't care for that. They want an open debate, and they want to make sure that they know what's going on.
But as we're talking about this health care, I think it's important that we also hear what the people back home are saying. When I'm home--I represent the largest manufacturing district in the State of Ohio. I also represent the largest agricultural district in the State of Ohio. In 2008, I represented the ninth-largest manufacturing district in Congress. Because of what's happening in this economy, I've dropped to 15. And I don't even want to know when the next numbers come out to find out where the Fifth Congressional District is located in that long list.
But when I go out and go to the different factories and go to the small businesses, and I really want know what is going on, that's the best way I can gauge what is going on in the economy. When I'm out there--one visit to one factory in particular sticks with me. A gentleman came up to me who was a press operator. He came up and said, I really don't understand what you guys are doing in Washington. And he said, You know, you all talk about health care. If I can't put a roof over my family's head, if I can't put food on that table, why do I care about health care right now? I worry about jobs, and I worry about my job.
And I think that that's something that has been lost in this. I know one of our colleagues from the Senate recently said that maybe in the past year that the Congress here should be really concentrating on not health care but on job creation. Because let's just talk about these jobs and what's happening out there, not just from that individual that works on that factory floor, but just an individual like everybody you know that might work in a factory across this country.
But also I remember walking and being in one of my small business owner stores in the district, and after I was in the store and I bought some things, I was walking out and he said, Can I talk to you for a little bit? We stood out, and it was pretty darn cold that afternoon, but we stood outside for a good long period of time. He said, Let me tell you something. If you all pass this health care legislation, I'm out of business. He said, There's no way. He said, Even though your bill was over 1,000 pages long, and I know that the Senate bill is going to be several thousand pages--a couple thousand pages long--he said, What I've been able to get out of it and figure out in the newspaper, I won't be able to stay in business. He said, Look around here. Look at the people running the cash register, stocking the store in here. They're all going to be without a job. And it's going to be one more store on Main Street USA that's going to be vacant. And we can't have that happen.
I think that what we need to do in this body is really go out and talk to these individuals. I have advocated what we need to do is instead of trying to do a few hearings down here--and I don't think we had enough hearings when we talked about health care and during this debate--I think what we should have done is taken these hearings across America. And we wouldn't have done anything but help the American people to, first of all, have their say in what is going on, and two, that the Members of this body would be able to hear it directly from the American people.
I know when I served in the Ohio Legislature for 11 years--you know, when you're representing the State of Ohio, it's not that large of a State, and many times we would have all of our hearings in Columbus. But many times, we would take our hearings out across what we called the four quadrants of the State and hold hearings in different areas. And that's so that people can actually come nearby to where they live. They didn't have to drive down to the State capitol.
I think that's what we should have done with this whole debate on health care. Let's bring these hearings to the American people, and let them have their say. That is where we are going to find out what they are going to have to say about this. That is where we are going to find these things out.
When you're talking about jobs killers--you know, with the model that was being advocated by Ms. Romer, we could lose up to 5 million jobs in this country. The National Federation of Independent Businesses, just from the employer mandate on small businesses across this country, they're estimating 1.6 million jobs could be lost. That's on top of the millions of jobs that we've lost since the beginning of this recession and also the almost 3 million jobs since the beginning of last year that have been lost just from the beginning of this administration.
We can't afford to lose more jobs in this country, because where are these people going to go? It's not that hard to remember back to 1982. In 1982, during that very tough recession that we can all remember, President Carter, during his administration from 1977 up to 1981, during the campaign when he was elected, had created what he called the misery index. And that misery index took the unemployment rate, the inflation rate, and the interest rate. It was toward the end of his administration. You know, we saw in this country 21.5 percent interest rates. We saw unemployment rates in double digits, and we saw the inflation at double digits.
Well, where we are today, when we look at having over 10 percent unemployment in this country, and we're talking about losing millions more jobs because of this bill, we can't afford it. When you're talking to the small businesses and small factory owners out there about what's in this piece of legislation besides all these mandates--but just talk about the taxes.
This was prepared by an analysis done by the Committee on House Ways and Means from Ranking Member Dave Camp. Since the increases in 2009, just in general, the net taxes that were passed by this House were $1.71 trillion. And just the estimate on this health care bill alone, they're looking at over $732.5 billion. That's billion dollars.
And who's going to pay for this? When they're looking at that 5.4 percent surtax placed on a lot of the small businesses that are the ones that create jobs out there and on certain individuals at a certain higher level, when you're looking at $460.5 billion in taxes, when you're looking at these employer mandates at $135 billion, and you go right down the line, this is what's going to kill incentive in this country. This is what's going to kill the entrepreneur.
This is what is going to kill people who will say, Why even get up in the morning and try to go out and create jobs? Because one of the things that is lost here in Washington and in these Halls of Congress is that this body does not create jobs. This body spends the wealth of this country.
You know, the American people are really out there, and they understand it. When you look at this, it was mentioned a little bit earlier about what is happening with the increases, when you're talking on the Senate side about a 40 percent tax on those individuals out there with a quote-unquote Cadillac plan. Well, a lot of people say, Oh, Cadillac, they must be rich individuals. Well, I'll tell you what, in the State of Ohio, we have a lot of auto plants, and when you're looking at these auto plants, a lot of these folks are the auto workers who are going to end up paying 40 percent on an individual premium or will spend $8,500 on their health care plan, a family plan at $23,000. When you put these together, it's like, how are they going to pay for this as a small family?
When you take all these costs that are being associated under this piece of legislation, it's unfathomable. When we talk about unfathomable, I did read the health care bill. I sat down one weekend. I think it was 1,028 pages. I read it, tabbed it, underlined it so I could really get a good understanding. You are looking at a couple thousand pages on the Senate side.
But I think what is missing in this whole debate is, you know, here is what someone gave me not too long ago, the Constitution of the United States. But you know, as that little commercial on TV says: But wait, there's more. In this little book that's in about 10-point type, there's the Constitution, the Convention, the Congressional Resolutions, all of the amendments, the Virginia Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the Massachusetts Bill of Rights, the Articles of Confederation, the Virginia Statute of Religious Liberty, the Annapolis Convention, the Virginia Randolph Plan, the New Jersey or Patterson Plan, the Hamilton Plan and The Great Compromise, right there. That is America in a nutshell.
How is it that we end up today putting out thousands of pages that people can't comprehend, but America, our government, and how we were founded is right there. Put it in your pocket, and read it at any time. And I think that's what the American people are very concerned about, and I appreciate the gentleman for yielding.
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I thank the gentleman for yielding. I think you would be very hard pressed to find it. I know that when I went out in my district--I know that Members going across their districts, across this country have found the same questions being asked, Where does it say that? Especially a question, as the gentleman from Texas has mentioned, that under this bill that was passed by the House that there was a $2.5 percent, quote-unquote, fine on individuals, plus that individual mandate that you have to have it or civil or criminal penalties could be imposed.
How can we do that? You know, it's unfathomable that this would be able to withstand a challenge in court that an individual would be forced to have to do this. Again, I think if you just read this little document, you are going to be very hard pressed to find it. If I could just mention--and also what the gentleman from Texas was talking about--what it's going to do to the States. In the Columbus Dispatch, there was an article that broke it down for the State of Ohio. We are running about an $850 million deficit. And unlike this body, we have to balance our books. It is constitutional that we have to make sure that we're in balance. So Ohio is out of balance by about $850 million, but there was also a story by the Columbus Dispatch, in their calculation, that this bill would impose a Medicaid debt upon the State which would increase that deficit by another $900 million.
I think that this is what people need to find out. This is not just going to affect small businesses or large businesses or individuals. This is going to affect your State government, your local government, if they can even function. Because all of a sudden, these mandates are going to come down from Washington, and good luck.
I thank the gentleman for yielding.
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Just talking about these numbers, how are we going to pay for this? We are looking at 21, 22, $23 trillion in the outyears here. The question is how are we going to pay for this. We owe $3 trillion to foreign governments, over $800 billion owed to the Chinese alone, our largest creditor. Down the road when the Chinese and the Italians, all these governments are now saying, Wait a minute, America, you have got to do something about your spending. You have got to get this under control. They are worried about something. They are worried about getting paid back, and they don't want to see this debt that we owe them become cheap money, and so they are getting concerned about this.
But if you just go back to 1981, 1982, if we go to those years when the Federal Government was out there borrowing heavily, we had 21 1/2 percent interest rates in this country. I was just starting to practice law back then, and we had to write land contracts if a person wanted to sell a house. You couldn't go to the bank and get a loan because there was no money. The seller would meet with the buyer and they would say, In 3 years time, you are going to pay me so much interest and principal. And hopefully at the end of that time there would be a balloon payment to try this pay this thing off if they could get a loan.
But when we are looking at these numbers, it is going to be unfathomable how we are going to pay this off, because the Federal Government is going to have to go out there and borrow every penny that is out there and somehow do this. But then when you look and talk to these private enterprises out there, the small businesses, they are having a hard time getting credit today, and we are not in that situation. It is bad, but it is not going to be anything like this that you show in your chart.
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I appreciate the gentleman for yielding. I would be remiss if I didn't bring this up. As I mentioned a little earlier, I represent the largest agricultural district in the State of Ohio, along with manufacturing. When we are talking about all these numbers about what could occur with all this massive debt that we are going to be accumulating, what is that going to do to the farmers out there? How are they going to get their crops out? How are they going to be able to buy land? How are they going to be able to buy machinery?
The last thing that we want to be in this country, not only do we not want to be a debtor Nation, but we don't want to become dependent on the rest of the world for our food. Because once we lose that ability to grow our own food, to supply it for ourselves, we are done. And if the American people think the times are tough now when we are worried about where we get our energy or who is going to be buying our debt, you throw food into that mix, and that will be pretty much the end. I think that is why you take all these things together and why this debate is so important. And that is why I think really that we should have had this debate going on across the United States. I appreciate the gentleman for yielding.
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