American Jobs And Closing Tax Loopholes Act Of 2010

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I come to the floor to visit about the continuation of revelations to the American people about the health bill that has been signed into law by the President. I come as someone who has practiced medicine in Wyoming, taking care of the families of Wyoming for the last 25 years. I come as someone who is the medical director of the Wyoming Health Fair, offering low-cost blood screens, low-cost preventive services to let people identify health problems early so they can get early treatment, keep down the cost of their medical care. This is something we have done all around the State of Wyoming for almost a quarter of a century now.

I come today to offer a doctor's second opinion. I have done this every week since the health care bill became law because every week there is a new revelation, a new finding, something that once again affirms what those of us who opposed this health care bill and this law had said would happen if this actually became law.

I come to the floor to tell my colleagues what I have found in the last week. After all, the goal of health care reform was to lower costs, to increase quality, and to improve access for patients around the country. I continue to believe week after week, as Americans learn more and more about this law, that this is a law that is going to be bad for patients--I heard that as I traveled the State of Wyoming this past weekend talking to folks; bad for providers, nurses and doctors taking care of patients; and something that is going to be bad for payers, people who are going to have to pay the bills for their own health care, because costs are going up, people paying for their own health insurance because costs are going up, taxpayers who are going to have to pay for this because those costs continue to go up.

I come to the floor having just taken a look at the Sunday New York Times, an article by Robert Pear: ``Changing Stance, the Administration now Defends Insurance Mandate as a Tax.'' I stood on this floor week after week hearing people on the other side of the aisle say: No, this isn't a tax. Now, all of a sudden the administration says differently. But then who can forget Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, who said: You don't get to find out what is in the bill until the bill is passed.

There have been so many broken promises made by this administration and this President to the American people. It is no surprise that a majority of the American people continue to want to have this law repealed and replaced.

Well, let's review a couple of those promises. One is the President said:

The plan I'm announcing tonight--

and he said this to a joint session of Congress, with those of us here attending--

The plan I'm announcing tonight. .....will slow the growth of health care costs for our families, our businesses, and our government.

Well, the Chief Actuary for Medicare and Medicaid said, of course, the President is wrong.

Then the President said: If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan, period. He said: No one will take it away, period. He said: No matter what, period.

But then the Chief Actuary of Medicare and Medicaid said 14 million Americans would lose their employer-sponsored health coverage under the law. And when the White House came out with its own recommendations and rules and regulations, even they have said a majority of Americans who receive their health coverage through work will not be able to keep the coverage the President of the United States promised them they could keep.

And now the one where the President said: I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase.

He went on to be specific. He said: not your income taxes, not your payroll taxes, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.

That is what the President happened to say.

Well, that was not just a candidate speaking that way. Even as President, in September of 2009, in a speech before Congress, President Obama again promised the American people:

The middle class will realize greater security, not higher taxes.

What a difference a year makes. The President's new health care law does contain tax hikes--lots of them. In fact, there are at least 18 new taxes in the health care law, and it raises approximately $500 billion over a 10-year period.

Here are a couple of examples: new taxes on medical devices and supplies, new taxes on brandname prescription drugs, new taxes on health insurance providers, increased Medicare payroll taxes on employers. But the most egregious is the individual mandate tax. That is the one that the American people are so concerned about right now. The new health care law requires all Americans to buy Washington-approved health insurance, and they have to do it by the year 2014. If they do not, they have to pay. Some call it a penalty, others call it a fine. For the first time in our Nation's history, the Federal Government is ordering the American people to use their own hard-earned money to buy a specific good or service.

Most people I talk to, who see through all of the games and the wording, say this is a tax. Even ABC News's George Stephanopoulos clearly pointed this out during a September 2009 interview with then President Obama. In that interview, Mr. Stephanopoulos pressed President Obama, pressed him to admit that the individual mandate is a tax. He asked President Obama:

But you reject that it's a tax increase?

And the President responded:

I absolutely reject that notion.

Well, Mr. President, apparently your own administration disagrees with you. And clearly your Justice Department disagrees with you. Because as the New York Times reported, on July 16--just this past Sunday--it said:

Administration officials say the tax argument is a linchpin of their legal case in defense of the health care overhaul and its individual mandate, now being challenged in court by more than 20 states and several private organizations.

It is so interesting. Just the first paragraph:

When Congress required most Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty, Democrats--

In this very Chamber--

denied that they were creating a new tax. But in court, the Obama administration and its allies now defend the requirement as an exercise of the government's ``power to lay and collect taxes.''

So there you have it. The article says the Justice Department now believes--the Justice Department takes direction from the President--the Justice Department believes the individual mandate penalty is a tax precisely because it generates money, $4 billion per year through 2017. That is according to the Congressional Budget Office. So you have the President promising the American people one thing and directing his Justice Department to say exactly the opposite.

Well, you might say, is this partisan? No. We are talking about a New York Times article. The New York Times goes on to quote Jack Balkin, who is a professor of law at the Yale Law School. This is somebody who actually supports the health care law. This is a supporter of the health care law. What does he say about President Obama? He said he ``has not been honest with the American people about the nature of this bill.'' He says: ``This bill is a tax.''

So here you have a supporter of the health care law, a supporter--a Yale Law School professor--who goes on to say of President Obama, he ``has not been honest with the American people about the nature of this bill.'' He said: ``This bill is a tax.''

We have President Obama's own administration now admitting the individual mandate to buy health insurance is a tax increase. Well, this clearly violates the President's repeated promises that no one--no one--making less than $250,000 a year would see a tax increase.

Congress's Joint Committee on Taxation confirms the tax hikes in the health care law absolutely will hit millions of middle-class, working-class families struggling in this economy.

Once again, we see and hear the President of the United States promising the American people one thing and delivering something entirely different.

The President went on national TV and said his individual mandate was not a tax. Now the President's administration says it is.

So I come to the floor again today with a doctor's second opinion, outlining the broken promises of this health care law--the broken promises made by this President and this administration to the American people, and forcing through, cramming down their throats, against the wishes of the American people, a law the American people did not want, and still do not want. Because if you go to any senior center, if you go to any civic organization, if you travel around this country and you ask the question: Under this law, do you believe the cost of health care will go up, all the hands will go up. And if you ask the question: Do you think the quality of your own care under this new law will go down, the same number of hands continue to go up.

That is why it is important we repeal and replace this health care law with something that is patient centered, with something that focuses on patients, not Washington bureaucrats and not insurance company bureaucrats. There is no reason to not allow Americans to buy insurance across State lines. There is no reason not to allow Americans who want to buy individual insurance to get the same tax breaks. They should be able to get the same tax breaks as those who get their insurance through work from the big companies with those tax breaks.

We have to allow people to have individual incentives if they stay healthy and take measures to keep down the cost of their own care. We have to deal with lawsuit abuse, which was essentially neglected in this over 2,000-page health care law. We need to encourage and allow small businesses to join together to get the cost of their health care down and the cost of their insurance down.

Those are the things that will get the cost of care down--not this monstrous bill that is bad for patients, bad for providers, and bad for the payers of health care. That is why week after week I continue to come to the Senate floor to once again go over what we have learned in the past week. This week we have learned the President of the United States, who promised there would be no increased taxes, has now changed the tune of his entire administration and his Justice Department by saying: Oh, no, we are changing our stance. Now the insurance mandate is a tax.

I offer my second opinion, and it is time to repeal and replace this health care law.

Madam President, I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source