GSA

Floor Speech

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A SECOND OPINION

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, this being tax week, people all around the country are sending in their tax returns. The deadline just passed yesterday--April 17--so people are focused a lot on what happens in Washington. They think about the IRS. They think about the money being sent and how that money is being spent. As people pay their annual tax bills, I wish to remind Americans about how the Obama administration is actually spending tax dollars on the President's unpopular health care law. That is why I come to the floor, as I have every week since the health care law passed, with a doctor's second opinion about the health care law.

I said at the time it was passed that there would be some new revelation, some unintended consequence, something new that people would learn week after week. As someone who has practiced medicine for almost a quarter of a century taking care of families in Wyoming, I wanted to offer a doctor's second opinion, because I felt from the beginning that in spite of the many promises the President made, the bill that was actually passed and signed into law is one that is bad for patients, bad for providers--the nurses and the doctors who take care of those patients--and terrible for taxpayers.

So I come to the floor because it seems to me that instead of using much of the money to improve medical care in America, this administration is devoting hundreds of millions of dollars to what--the Internal Revenue Service. In fact, The Hill newspaper reported on April 9 of this year that the Obama administration is quietly sending an additional $500 million to the IRS--the Internal Revenue Service. The headline is: ``Obama administration diverts $500M to IRS to implement healthcare reform law.''

I ask unanimous consent that this article be printed in the Record.

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Mr. BARRASSO. This money is transferred outside the normal appropriations process. That is a concern. The money is transferred outside the normal appropriations process. It goes to the very tax agency that is responsible for implementing many of the key provisions of the health care law. One would think that maybe we would have doctors and nurses implementing many of the provisions of the health care law. No, we have the IRS. This includes the controversial and unprecedented mandate that all Americans must buy a government-approved product--health insurance.

We remember the Supreme Court just held hearings on this unprecedented mandate. Seventy percent of Americans believe it is unconstitutional. They believe that either part or all of the health care law ought to be ruled unconstitutional. Yet the article says that the Obama administration's Health and Human Services Department has, to date, transferred almost $200 million to the IRS over the past 2 years and plans to send another $300 million this year. These secretive transfers hide the true cost of the health care law. They also make it difficult for Congress to perform the agency oversight that is part of our obligation.

So I look at this and I say this law is bad. It is bad, I believe, for our patients and providers and taxpayers. I look at the way it has been structured and the way this money is being transferred and I think it highlights the problems with the law. What does the IRS intend to do? They want to hire more than 300 new employees next year to implement the Tax Code changes, such as the taxes imposed on drug companies, device manufacturers, and health insurers. This bill is a laundry list of taxes and fees. The IRS also has to implement and monitor the laws of the priciest component--the exchange subsidies. For this, the IRS is asking Congress to fund another 537 new employees dedicated to administering just the subsidies.

Last week Ways and Means Committee Chairman Camp sent a letter to the IRS Commissioner asking that the Commissioner provide specific details about these reports.

Chairman Camp specifically asked the IRS Commissioner to tell the committee how many employees are being hired and which tax increases the agents will be working on. The American people deserve to know how their dollars are being spent, where these tax dollars are being used, what the IRS is doing with the money. They deserve to know because the health care law actually increases the IRS's power to insert itself into the American people's lives.

How is it the health care law increases the IRS's power to insert itself into Americans' lives? By, one, having the IRS verify that Americans have acceptable government-approved insurance; also by having the IRS penalize Americans if they do not have acceptable government-approved insurance; also by having the IRS confiscate Americans' tax refund dollars if they do not have government-approved insurance; and, finally, by having the IRS have additional power in terms of auditing our American citizens' lives.

This is all included in the health care law. This is not health care reform. The IRS should never be allowed to intrude into the private health care decisions of the American people. The American people deserve to know how this alleged $500 million transfer is being spent and how many additional IRS agents will be hired to investigate their private health care decisions.

When Americans send their hard-earned dollars to Washington, they want to make sure their money is being spent wisely. The American people want to know they are getting value for their tax dollars. They do not want their dollars to create more bureaucracy and further invade their privacy.

So I come to the floor, as I have over the last couple years since the health care law has been passed, with a doctor's second opinion. This health care law did not provide the American people with what they wanted, which was the care they need, from a doctor they want, at a price they can afford. Instead, what they are seeing is the President's promises have been broken.

The President promised if someone likes their care, they can keep it. We now know that is not going to be true for many Americans. The President promised health care costs would actually go down instead of going up and he told Congress and he told others the health care insurance costs would drop $2,500 per family. Instead, what families across the country have seen is that their health care premiums have gone up by about $2,100 a year since the health care law has gone into effect, rather than going down. So we hear the President's promises and we see the reality on the ground.

When I travel Wyoming and talk to folks and ask: How many of you believe under the health care law your own costs--your own costs--are going to go up, despite the President's promises they are going to go down, every hand goes up. When I ask the question: How many of you believe the quality of your own care--which is what people are concerned about: their own care, their own family--how many of you believe the quality of your own care will go down, again, every hand goes up. That is not what Americans want: paying more and getting less. That is why it is time to repeal and replace this terrible health care law.

I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

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