Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011: House of Representatives
Floor Speech
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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. I thank my colleague.
Another day on a bill that will not create one single job in the United States of America; in fact, a bill that will cost thousands of Americans their jobs. The response just the other day from our Republican colleagues: So be it.
Now we have an amendment before us to strip away critical patient protections for consumers, for our constituents. This is an insurance industry dream amendment. We heard from our colleagues they wanted to listen to the American people. They have not had one hearing, not one, to listen to the people around this country who were already benefiting from this bill.
The provisions to ensure that kids with diabetes, leukemia, asthma, are not discriminated against by the insurance industry any more, not one mom was heard from.
Provisions to make sure that our constituents aren't denied their coverage when they need it the most. There are thousands of Americans out there already benefiting from that. Didn't listen to one of them.
And now under the guise of trying to save the taxpayer money, they are offering an amendment that, according to the independent, nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, will increase the deficit over the next 10 years by $230 billion. And when it's fully implemented, the bill, and you strip it away, it will add $1.4 trillion to the deficit.
I just urge my colleagues to read the letter from January of this year from the head of the CBO to the Speaker of the House. It's right in there, plain and simple.
We had a hearing in the Budget Committee just the other day. I hope your colleagues on the Budget Committee may have talked to you about it because the head of CBO was before the committee and Members on the Republican side. Surely you must have arrived at this deficit number through double counting.
The head of CBO said very plainly there is no double counting. Read the lips of CBO. This adds $230 billion to the deficit over 10 years, $1.4 trillion over the next 20 years. So don't come to the floor here and pretend that by enacting this amendment it's part of an effort to save taxpayer dollars.
This will add more red ink to this Nation's credit card, the same kind of red ink that we saw being added over the years and years and years of the prior administration. We are trying to turn the corner on that.
But all this does is add more. The cost is not just in terms of higher deficits; the costs are to the people throughout this country who are going to lose the important protections that this bill has provided them.
Shame on this House for spending time doing this rather than focusing on jobs and getting this economy moving.
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