Republican Freshman Class on the Need to Repeal Obamacare
Floor Speech
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Mrs. WAGNER. I thank the gentleman from Indiana for yielding and for organizing these Special Orders this evening.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 45, a bill that will repeal the President's devastating health care reform law, commonly referred to as ObamaCare. When promoting the health care reform legislation to the American public, the President and members of his party told people that if you liked your health insurance then you could keep it, that the penalty Americans have to pay under the individual mandate was not a tax, and that those with preexisting conditions would have access to health care. Well, as many of us suspected then, these claims were nothing more than blatant lies.
In fact, the Congressional Budget Office recently said that 7 million people will lose their job-based health insurance due to ObamaCare. The Supreme Court has affirmed what we already knew: that ObamaCare penalties are, indeed, taxes, and on February 15 the Obama administration announced they would not cover over 40,000 patients suffering from preexisting conditions.
Mr. Speaker, friends, this should not happen in America. We need to repeal this law, and we need to do it now. Today, though not fully implemented, ObamaCare has already had many destructive effects on the American people--real people with bills to pay, mouths to feed, and jobs to do.
Since ObamaCare was signed into law, many of the new taxes in the President's $1 trillion tax hike have gone into effect, most of which target the middle class, increase the cost of health care, and stifle job creation.
The law continues to take its toll on small business. I hear from mom and pop operations throughout the St. Louis region that are not hiring needed workers or reducing full-time employees to part-time workers, for the sole purpose of being able to keep their doors open as a consequence of the new ObamaCare regulations.
The impact on jobs already is unmistakable. ObamaCare promised 4 million jobs, including 400,000 almost immediately. Yet we know the truth: that ObamaCare is destroying jobs and costing the American Dream for millions of Americans.
Just today, a Missouri hospital announced that it was eliminating 129 good-paying jobs. The reason? ObamaCare.
These are facts, these are real jobs, and this law is hurting real people.
It continues.
Premium costs continue to rise on hardworking families across the country. Premiums for the average family have already grown by $3,000 since 2008, despite promises by the Obama administration that ObamaCare would decrease premiums $2,500.
Premium costs are expected to double, triple, and even quadruple for millions of Americans when many of the provisions of the law go into effect next year. The greatest effect will be on young people in this country, who are already struggling to find jobs, pay off student loans, and grow healthy, prosperous families. These young people will be stuck between paying for insurance they cannot afford and being subject to a burdensome tax.
Mr. Speaker, I will close by addressing the shameful raiding of Medicare by this irresponsible law called ObamaCare. Despite promises to the contrary, ObamaCare has gutted Medicare to the tune of $716 billion--nearly three-quarters of a trillion dollars--stolen from our Greatest Generation to pay for this devastating law.
Every day, more and more doctors are refusing to see Medicare patients because they simply cannot afford to do so. Is this how we pay back our seniors--with reduced benefits, reduced access to health care, and reduced respect for their quality of life? We owe them more. We owe the American people more.
Mr. Speaker, the facts are clear: this law is wrong for America and needs to be repealed immediately before any more of its harmful provisions are implemented.
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