Progressive Caucus

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, allow me to claim the time. I do have a few things to set up, so I will be right back.

Mr. Speaker, let me thank the Speaker for allowing and granting me the time. It is a pleasure to come in front of the American people.

My name is Congressman Keith Ellison, and I want to talk a little bit about the Progressive Caucus tonight, the progressive message which we convey to the American people every week. We want to come before the American people to talk about progressive values and the 83 members of the Progressive Caucus.

The Progressive Caucus stands firmly in the position of supporting health care for all Americans. And therefore, we look at this repeal today, conducted by the majority, the Republican Caucus, as quite an unfortunate event in our Nation's history.

They repealed the health care reform bill, but the bill is not repealed. It's important for the American people to know that health care reform is being implemented and it is the law. But in order to make the law into the law, you have to pass it through the House, the Senate, and then be signed by the President. This repeal that they did today stops here. It's not going anywhere. Really, it's political theater. But it is an important indication as to what they would do if they could.

What they would do, and this is something I would like to describe right now so the American people can get an idea of what Republican leadership and Republican expansion of their power would mean.

First, let's talk about the deficit. You hear a lot about the deficit. And the deficit is important. The impact of repeal on the deficit is that it would increase the deficit by $230 billion this decade and a trillion the decade after that.

When you listen, Mr. Speaker, to the speeches of the Republican Caucus and they say something about job-killing deficits, it's always important, Mr. Speaker, to turn your attention back to what the Republican Caucus did today on the House floor, because it indicates how they really feel about expanding the deficit. They're okay with it.

The impact of repeal on the deficit expands the deficit by $230 billion this decade and a trillion dollars the next.

What does this say about credibility? What does it say about real intention? What does it say about who was actually trying to lower the deficit?

Health care reform is cost-effective and helps lower the deficit. Health care reform actually helps not only lower the national debt and deficit, but individual American's personal debt and deficit.

We can never forget, Mr. Speaker, that 60 percent of all of the people who filed for bankruptcy filed for bankruptcy because of medical debt. A majority of the people filing for bankruptcy filed for bankruptcy because of medical debt. This is an amazing statistic.

We can talk about the national deficit. We can even talk about the national debt, but let's talk about family debt. Family debt being driven sky high because of medical debt, people going into bankruptcy because of medical debt.

Now, with the health care bill, we will have exchanges that will compete and have price and quality transparency for people so that they can evaluate a good product that is affordable, so people who don't have the income can get a subsidy so they can go buy health care insurance. When we have all of these important provisions in place, we're not going to see people going into personal bankruptcy because of medical debt. This is something the Republican Caucus has not talked about, how Americans are drowning because of what the insurance industry has imposed upon them.

It's important to say that today our Republican colleagues repealed health care reform. I hope, Mr. Speaker, the American people watch with interest where their particular Member of Congress voted. Did your Member, the individual Member of Congress, Mr. Speaker, vote to say, You know what? We're going to allow the insurance companies to rescind your insurance policy if you get a breast cancer diagnosis? Because the Republican Caucus' repeal today says that they want that to be able to happen. They want the insurance company to be able to say, You, ma'am, we found out you had breast cancer. Your insurance is going to be rescinded.

That's what they voted in favor of today by voting for repeal.

Today, they want to tell 24-, 25-, and 26-year-olds and their parents that, You know what? We're not going to let you be on your parents' health care insurance policy. You are on your own.

Yeah, we know this is a tough market. Yeah, we know graduating from college or high school now is not easy because, you know what? There's not that many jobs out there. Unemployment is still very high. But you know what? Too bad. You've just gotta figure out what you're going to do because you will not--we're going to take a benefit away from you that the Congress has already given to you, and we're going to snatch it out of your hands.

This is what the repeal means.

Today, seniors who can benefit from free preventative care, they're not going to be able to. The Republican Caucus has indicated that that's not what they want. Now, they haven't taken it away because they haven't repealed the law. They'd like to by the repeal they passed through the House today. But the fact is is that they're telling seniors, No, no, no. You're going to have to pay a big cost in order to get some preventative care which obviously will help--will encourage low-income seniors not to seek that care, and then they, of course, will end up being sicker and it

will be more costly.

But not only by repeal did they hurt seniors, did they hurt young people, they're telling small business people, You know what? Those tax credits that we gave you, we're taking them back. Those tax credits that the Democratic Caucus and the Democratic Congress and Senate and the Democratic President gave to you, we Republicans, we don't want you to have that, small business. We're going to snatch it out of your hands even after you have made plans to actually take into consideration the tax credits that are available to you this year.

So they're snatching benefits out of the hands of small business people, snatching benefits from young people who are post high school and college, snatching benefits away from our seniors, snatching coverage away from people who can't afford it, thrusting people back into the arms of personal debt, and throwing our whole economy back into the throes of national debt and deficits.

This is what the Republicans would do if they could. Thank goodness they can't do it because the President and the Senate remain in Democratic hands. But if they could, Mr. Speaker, it's very clear what they would do.

Now, the Democrats' top priority is not repealing anything. It's extending more rights, more protections for the American people, and then, of course, allowing the American people to make their own choice so they can be free, so you can be free as an American and not have to worry about health care because you have health care because the government is protecting you from insurance companies who would throw you into the street, give you an over-cost product and would rescind you and deny you coverage.

The Democrats' top priority would not be to monkey around with undermining health care. The Democratic priority would be to create jobs and put America back to work. That is what Democrats are working on right now, Mr. Speaker, and would work on even more so if we had the majority.

Today, the Republican majority, they have other priorities other than jobs. Their job, as they've already revealed today on the House floor, is to repeal patients' rights, to put insurance companies back in charge, and to explode the deficit as I've already indicated with this particular graphic.

The Republican priority is to look out and protect insurance companies. The Republican priority is to make sure that insurance companies have what they need. And the insurance companies spent $14 million a day to try to defeat health care after they, in fact, were defeated, and we passed health care. We're quite confident that they did not just take that defeat lying down. Here they are back again with the wholly owned subsidiary known as the Republican Caucus trying to do the bidding of the insurance industry once again.

The Patients' Rights Repeal aims to take away new health care freedoms that take us back to a system that favors the insurance industry. The Patients' Rights Repeal bill takes away something that people have already expected to get and takes us back to a system in which the insurance industry is in control.

Children with preexisting conditions are denied coverage in the bad old days. Young people aged 26 can't stay on their parents' insurance plans in the bad old days. Pregnant women and prostate cancer patients would be thrown off insurance rolls in the bad old days. Seniors pay more for their drugs. As a matter of fact, in the new health care bill we're filling in the doughnut hole, which is something, apparently, the Republican Caucus doesn't like, because they want to dig out the doughnut hole so seniors can fall back into that doughnut hole. And, of course, we already talked about exploding the deficit and making small businesses pay higher taxes.

Why would the Republicans want to do that? It seems so unfair, but that is exactly what they did today.

Republicans are focused on repealing health care reform instead of making jobs, and making jobs is what they should be putting their time and energy into.

Their agenda for America is not health care. It's no care. It's status quo care. No care if you lose your job. No care if you or your child have a preexisting condition. No care if you're a senior in the doughnut hole. That's what the Republican Caucus has in mind for you and your family. No care if you're under 26 on your parents' plan. No care if you get sick and your insurer drops your coverage. No care if your insurer hikes your premiums higher than you can afford. You are just out of luck with no care.

Now, the Congressional Budget Office does carefully show that the repeal of the Patients' Protection and Affordable Care Act would add $230 billion to the deficit in the first 10 years and a trillion after that into the future. And the American Medical Association has recognized this problem. What they have said is the AMA does not support initiatives to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Who is the AMA? The American Medical Association. Who's that? That's America's doctors. They know how dangerous it is to repeal health care. They know because they are in the healing arts. Now, the insurance companies, many of them are in the money-making arts, so they got a different take on this thing. But the American Medical Association has come together and said that they do not support initiatives to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Expanding health care coverage, insurance market reforms, administrative simplifications, and initiatives to promote wellness and prevention are key to the new law that reflect the AMA priorities. So the people who do healing, actually heal people--let me tell you, no insurance company bureaucrat ever healed anybody. All they do is deny coverage to people and process claims. But the folks who actually bring healing, the docs, the people who the AMA represents, they are against repeal, as the Democratic Caucus is against repeal. And it's so unfortunate that we had to sit here today and witness the House effort to repeal health care reform.

They didn't do it. They're not going to do it. They're going to fail. This is all political theater. This is all showing off. It's all just, you know, political theater. But the truth is that it does indicate what they would do if they could. And we are bound and determined to stop them, to protect the American people, and to make sure that we have those important health care reforms in place that are going to make sure that Americans continue to go to the doctor, to get preventive care, to fill in the doughnut hole, to offer coverage to people until they are age 26.

As I said before, you know, I was privileged earlier this week to meet two little girls. They were suffering from leukemia. And these little girls, brave as they were, said, you know, look, if we didn't have the Affordable Care Act we would be denied or could well be denied health care coverage. These two little girls' father, who had to take family medical leave in order to help meet all of the medical needs of the family, as well as they had other children who didn't have those medical needs, that family ended up going into bankruptcy because of the piles of debt that were thrown on their shoulders.

And so the Affordable Care Act comes to address these problems; yet the repeal comes to heap those problems back on those families. And it's too bad that it happened. They're not going to succeed, but it's very clear that by their repeal vote today what they would do if they could.

Now, the AARP, which represents our American seniors, they weighed in on this debate. And what AARP has said is: ``As the House prepares to vote this week on repeal of the Affordable Care Act, I am writing to make clear AARP's position. While we respect there are those who do not support the Affordable Care Act, AARP opposes repeal because the new law includes many vital provisions important to older Americans and their children.'' So there again, not only did the organization that represents America's doctors say no to repeal, the American Medical Association; but AARP, which represents America's seniors, says no.

And of course they should, because America's seniors need health care reform, the reforms that are in the Affordable Care Act. For example, seniors under the Affordable Care Act, we are filling in the doughnut hole, making prescription drugs affordable for our seniors. We have a wellness visit for every senior in America once a year to make sure our seniors are healthy. Wellness visits, dealing with prescription drugs, free preventive care means we have healthier seniors. Healthier seniors are happier seniors because they got enough money and they got more money than they would if we were under the reign of the insurance companies, as we were before. And so AARP is doing what they are supposed to do, representing the best interests of America's seniors.

The Heart Association: this is an association that deals with the functioning of the human heart, a vital organ in the human body. And this Heart Association comes to make sure that our hearts are protected. The Heart Association has this to say about this repeal debate: ``Patients have already benefited from the reforms that have been implemented in the last 10 months.'' And by the way, the Republican Caucus didn't even give the Affordable Care Act a chance. Ten months after we passed it, they're trying to get rid of it. They're not even waiting to see where it could be fine-tuned here and there. They just want to get rid of

it all.

Now, that's not a good-faith approach to this debate. Some of them even came to the floor and said there are certain things about the bill they like. But they don't want to tweak the bill. They don't want to fine tune the bill. They just want to repeal it. So that indicates to me another key indicator of where the Republican Caucus's mind is with regard to Americans and health care.

But as I was saying about the Heart Association: ``Patients have already benefited from the reforms that have been implemented in the last 10 months. We believe these reforms, and additional forthcoming patient protection provisions, were long overdue.'' So the Heart Association says, hey, we didn't get this Affordable Care Act passed fast enough. That's their position. Long overdue, and needs to be given an opportunity to work. Absolutely, they are right. And if necessary, improved.

And of course nobody on the Democratic Caucus side says this bill was perfect. There has never been a perfect bill. Never been a perfect bill. But the Republicans don't want to say, look, let's get our heads together and make the bill stronger. They say repeal. And I voted ``no'' and was very proud to do so.

Back to the Heart Association: ``Repeal of the Affordable Care Act will have devastating consequences for patients and their families.'' That's according to the Heart Association, an association dedicated to the wellness of people's hearts. People who focus their time, attention, and resources on good heart health are opposed to repeal, as they should, because they have good intentions and are operating in good faith.

Of course, only 18 percent of Americans support full repeal, according to the latest Washington-ABC news poll. Only 18 percent. These are probably the folks who still believe the bill has death panels in it, which it never did. That was not true. Massive misinformation and disinformation around the Affordable Care Act. But only 18 percent support full repeal.

And the fact is that I would imagine that if you were able to sit those 18 percent of Americans in a room and really tell them what the bill did, they probably would be significantly lower than that. Of course, there was another AP poll that said 26 percent support full repeal. Still a significantly small number.

So the bottom line is that whether you talk about your average family, the Heart Association, AARP, American Medical Association and many others, this repeal bill that passed through today, but doesn't repeal the law--make sure, Mr. Speaker, everybody knows that--was a low point in this Congress.

I look forward to a day when we can return to a Congress that says we believe that the American people have a right to be healthy, a right to be strong, a right to go to the doctor, a right to seek out preventive care, a right to have insurance companies be accountable, a right to make sure insurance companies don't just throw people off coverage when they need it most.

And I look forward to a day when that happens, Mr. Speaker, because on that day Americans will be in a much, much better place than we are today with the majority in the House that doesn't feel that the insurance companies need reform or accountability.

Now, I just want to talk a little bit, because some people mistakenly believe that somehow members of the Republican Caucus are more pro-business than the Democratic Caucus. That's not true, never been true, and we prove again and again that it's not true. But they say that stuff and some people believe it. So let me just share with you some personal stories about people who are looking at this issue from the perspective of small business.

Because despite the Republicans' rhetoric about the Affordable Care Act, business and business groups across the country are speaking out against the Republican efforts to repeal health care reform.

Mr. Speaker, I don't want to be the one that goes--not to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, because they are a little different--but to those local chambers of commerce, Rotaries, all across this country. I wouldn't want to be the one to go to them and say, you know those tax credits the Democrats got for you for health care? We are taking them away from you. I wouldn't want to be that Representative on that day, Mr. Speaker.

Anyway, Helen Darling, who is the president of the National Business Group on Health and a former Republican Senate staffer, said about business executives who called for repeal, she said, If they really understood it, they wouldn't. I don't think we will get a better solution in the U.S. in our lifetime. If it gets repealed or gutted, we will have to start over, and we will be worse off.

This is what Helen Darling, president of the National Business Group on Health says about the bill. She says that small business people will suffer because of it.

Now, if you are a small business person and you can get a tax credit to help you with 30 to 50 percent of the cost of health care, you go get that, that means that you may save the money that you need to invest in your small business, maybe hire some more people. That's why when the Republicans were calling the health care bill a job-killing bill, all of us looked at each other and said, what bill are they talking about?

The fact is that the Affordable Health Care Act is a bill that is a job-enhancing bill. This is a pro-job bill. This is a bill that trains people to go to their health care professions that helps small business so they can hire more people. Helen Darling knows that, and she ought to know because she is the president of the National Business Group on Health.

Small Business Majority, which is an organization dedicated to supporting small business, their letter to lawmakers characterizes the repeal bill as ``an affront to our Nation's small business community.'' Well, of course it is. If you are a small business person, trying to add another employee, trying to buy some new equipment, and do it all while offering health care to your employees in your business, maybe you have got three, four, maybe you have got 25, 30 employees? Of course it's an affront to you if the House Majority Caucus, the Republicans, want to take away your tax credit.

Absolutely, that's an affront. If you are trying to make it, imagine yourself working for some company for years. You say, you know what, I don't want a boss, I want to be my own boss. I am starting my own company and you know what, I am only going to have to have one or two, maybe three, four people with me when I get started, but we are going to make a go of it. And you know what, you guys? Human beings get sick sometimes so we have got to have health care.

And then the Democrats come and say, we are going to help you pay for that health care. And then the Republicans say, no, we are not and they snatch it away. Of course that's an affront to our Nation's small business community. The Small Business Majority is absolutely right in their letter.

The tax credits and health insurance exchanges in the Affordable Health Care Act will help drive down the cost and offer small business owners more choices, more freedom when purchasing insurance which will, in turn, allow them to ``spend less on insurance premiums and more on growing their businesses and creating jobs.''

Now, the caucus that claims to be about jobs and the deficit actually is operating directly opposite to both the deficit and jobs. That means that we have got to read the fine print. We can't just go by what people say because people sometimes say anything, Mr. Speaker.

The Small Business Majority has recently released results of a November 2010 survey of 619 small business owners. In their survey the key findings highlight that one-third of employers who don't offer health insurance said they would be more likely to do so because of the small business tax credits.

So, there again, the small business tax credits in this bill are designed to help small businesses take care of their employees and meet their bottom line and, will hopefully, turn a profit, so that they can help grow our community.

It's been a pleasure, Mr. Speaker, talking about the danger of repeal and the importance of the Affordable Health Care Act.

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