Nomination of Kent Yoshiho Hirozawa to be a Member of the National Labor Relations Board -- Continued

Floor Speech

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Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President, I wish to thank the Senator from Utah for his leadership on this issue.

I am proud to stand with Senator Lee, Senator Rubio, and with so many others. I can tell my colleagues that in the State of Texas, Texans overwhelmingly understand that ObamaCare isn't working, that this legislation is failing and it is hurting the American people.

When we look at jobs, there is no legislation currently in effect that is damaging the economy more or damaging jobs more than ObamaCare. In direct response to the law, 41 percent of small business owners have held off plans to hire new employees. Thirty-eight percent said they pulled back on plans to grow their businesses. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce reports that 71 percent of small businesses say ObamaCare makes it harder to hire workers.

Beyond that, one of the most pernicious aspects of this law is that it is forcing more and more employees to be moved to part-time employment, to be moved to working 29 hours a week or less to get out of the ObamaCare 30-hour threshold.

In 2013, employers have added more part-time employees, averaging 93,000 a month, seasonally adjusted, than full-time workers. And it is important to understand who it is that is moved to part-time work, who it is that is hurt by ObamaCare. It is the most vulnerable among us. It is not the CEOs. It is not the wealthy. It is young people, Hispanics, African Americans, single moms. According to the most recent census data, in 2011 the poverty rate for those who worked full-time was only 2.8 percent. The poverty rate for those working less than full-time year-round was 16.3 percent.

I am reminded of earlier this year when we were debating the issue of ObamaCare and I read from a newspaper article out of the State of Oklahoma that quoted a single mom who is working in a fast food restaurant. She and all of her coworkers had their hours forcibly reduced to 29 hours a week or less. This single mom said: I have two little kids at home. I can't feed my kids on 29 hours a week, and neither can the other single moms who are struggling to make ends meet.

Beyond the impact on jobs, on the economy, and beyond those being forced into part-time work, we also have the compliance costs. According to Federal agency estimates, ObamaCare will add paperwork burdens totaling nearly 190 million hours or more every year. To put that in perspective, Mount Rushmore, which took 14 years to build, could be constructed 1,547 times with the paperwork ObamaCare requires in 1 year.

Not only do we see jobs being hurt, the economy being hurt, workers being hurt, hours being reduced, paperwork going up, but we are seeing premiums going up--premiums going up far too high--and it is hitting those who are suffering the most.

On Monday, Florida's insurance commissioner told the Palm Beach Post that insurance rates will rise by 5 to 20 percent in the small-group market and by 30 to 40 percent in the individual market. As those who are at home in Florida watching what is happening, as they are seeing their insurance rates go up--they are going up because of the impact of this failed law.

The Ohio Department of Insurance announced that ObamaCare in Ohio will increase the individual market health premiums by 88 percent. If a person in Ohio right now is seeing their premiums go up, they can thank the men and women of the U.S. Congress.

According to the Wyman Firm, looking at young people, young people in particular are hurt by ObamaCare. The Wyman Firm estimates that 80 percent of Americans age 21 to 29 earning more than $16,000 will pay more out-of-pocket for coverage under ObamaCare than they pay today. If young people at home are watching this today and wondering how they are going to get a job, how they are going to climb the economic ladder, how they are going to achieve the American dream, ObamaCare is driving up their health care premiums right now.

We all know that at the time ObamaCare was being debated, the President promised the American people: If you like your health care plan, you can keep it. The facts have conclusively proven that wrong. According to a February 2013 report by the Congressional Budget Office, 7 million people will lose their employer-sponsored insurance. McKinsey & Company, a very well-regarded consulting firm, found that 30 percent of employers will definitely or probably stop offering health insurance in the years after 2014.

This bill isn't working, and I would note there is growing bipartisan consensus on that front. As the facts have come in, the American people have kept an open mind, have looked at this bill, and have seen that as it is being implemented, it is not working, it is hurting the economy, and it is hurting jobs. According to an ABC-Washington Post poll, in 2010, 74 percent of moderate conservative Democrats--there are a significant number of Democrats who describe themselves as moderate or conservative--in 2010, 70 percent of them supported ObamaCare. Yet, in July, just 46 percent supported ObamaCare.

Not only that, we have seen the lead Senate author of ObamaCare--a senior Democrat in this body--describe ObamaCare as headed toward a ``huge train wreck.'' We have seen unions-- which initially supported ObamaCare--over and over turning as they realize the consequences. In April the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers called for ``repeal or complete reform of the Affordable Care Act to protect our employers, our industry, and our most important assets, our members and their families.'' If we listen to the voices of unions, unions are saying ObamaCare is failing; it is not working. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers released a white paper in July explaining that ObamaCare ``threatens to harm our members by dismantling multiemployer health plans.'' And then--really quite striking--James Hoffa, Jr., the president of the Teamsters Union, wrote a letter to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi stating that ObamaCare ``will destroy the very health and well-being of our members along with millions of other hard-working Americans.'' Why? Well, Mr. Hoffa explained that ObamaCare is destroying the 40-hour workweek that has been the backbone of the American middle class.

If we trust the voices of unions, if we have a concern for the American middle class, then listen to the bipartisan voices that are rising up saying that ObamaCare isn't working.

Most strikingly, we have President Obama himself, who just a few weeks ago was forced to unilaterally and without legal authority delay implementation of ObamaCare for large corporations, for companies with more than 50 employees--he unilaterally moved the employer mandate until after the next election. I would suggest there are at least two things we can derive from President Obama's decision to do that:

No. 1, if ObamaCare were a good thing, if it were working, we can be sure President Obama would want it to go into full effect before the next election. He would want to take credit with the American people for the benefits of this signature bill. The fact that the President was forced to concede that the wheels are coming off and to move the employer mandate until after the next election I would suggest is highly revealing.

No. 2, it raises the obvious followup question: Why is President Obama willing to grant a waiver for giant corporations but not for hard-working American families, not for the men and women who are struggling to make ends meet, who are climbing the economic ladder, who want, like their parents and grandparents before them, to achieve the American dream? ObamaCare is standing in their way.

So what are we to do about it? Well, the most important constitutional check and balance that Congress has on an overreaching Executive is the power of the purse. The Framers of the Constitution wisely gave authority over expenditures of money to the Congress, and that is why the Senator from Utah, the Senator from Florida, and I, among many others, are standing together and saying: This isn't working, and Congress should defund it.

In 62 days the continuing resolution that funds the Federal Government will expire. Each of the three of us, along with a number of others, has publicly stated that under no circumstances will we support a continuing resolution that funds one penny of ObamaCare. If 41 Members of this body stand together and make that same statement or if 218 Members in the House of Representatives stand together and take that same position, we can do something different than we have seen this year.

Over the past couple of years we have seen 39, 40, 41 votes to repeal ObamaCare, all of which have been effectively symbolic because none of them had a real chance of passage. With the continuing resolution, we have a chance to successfully defund ObamaCare. Right now we don't have the votes in this institution. If the vote were held today, we would not hold 41 Senators to defund ObamaCare. But we have 62 days until September 30, and every one of us takes very seriously our obligation to represent our constituents. If in the next 62 days we see what I believe we are going to see, which is the American people rising up en masse--hundreds of thousands, millions of Americans standing up and saying: It isn't working, it is hurting our jobs, it is hurting our economy, it is hurting our health care, it is making our lives worse, and we need to defund it--if enough Americans speak out and demand of their elected officials that we do the right thing, I am confident we will. I am confident that Republicans will, and I am hopeful that Members of the Democratic Party will as well, that every one of us will.

I believe the American people should hold their elected officials accountable, and that most assuredly includes me. It includes all of us. We should be held accountable by our constituents. The American people know this bill isn't working. There is bipartisan agreement on it. We have the potential in the next 62 days to show real leadership--not to give a speech, not to give a meaningless, symbolic vote, but, if we stand together, to actually defund it.

Let me make one final point. Those who disagree with the position that is being taken by Senator Lee and Senator Rubio and me and say that taking this stand will mean Republicans will be blamed for a government shutdown, let me be clear on what I think should happen. I believe the House of Representatives should pass a continuing resolution to fund the entirety of the Federal Government except for ObamaCare and should explicitly prohibit further funding of ObamaCare and should adopt the legislation I have introduced as a condition to the continuing resolution.

Now, the next step. There will be partisan critics who immediately charge Republicans with threatening to shut down the government. I would suggest that we then take the argument to the American people. The American people should decide. If there are Members of this body who are willing to shut down the Federal Government in order to force ObamaCare down the throats of the American people, in order to say President Obama will grant a waiver to giant corporations but not to hard-working American families, let's take that argument to the American people because I think the American people want economic growth back. That should be our top priority. Nothing is killing jobs more. Nothing is hurting the American economy more than ObamaCare. There is bipartisan agreement on that.

I am hopeful that Members of this body will stand and lead. I thank the Senator from Utah for taking the lead on what I believe is the most important battle this Congress will confront.

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Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President, I do indeed share those thoughts and feelings and the obligation we owe to our constituents to honor our word and put action behind our words.

I would ask the Senator from Utah if he would yield for a series of three short questions?

Mr. LEE. Surely.

Mr. CRUZ. The first question is, There has been much talk of a shutdown. Am I correct that we do not have to hypothesize what a shutdown would look like, that we, in fact, saw that in 1995 with two temporary, partial shutdowns that occurred when Republicans in the House stood up to President Clinton?

When that occurred in 1995, we saw several things. No. 1, we saw that the parade of horribles that was brought out did not occur. Social Security checks continued to flow, the military continued to be funded, interest on the debt continued to be paid, planes did not fall out of the sky.

Indeed, what occurs--if Democrats decide to block a continuing resolution and force a temporary shutdown in order to force ObamaCare on the American people--is a partial, temporary shutdown where nonessential government services get suspended for a period of time, not a shutdown of essential services, such as paying for the men and women who are fighting in the military and providing Social Security checks. We have seen that in the past; is that correct?

Mr. LEE. That is correct. That is correct, and it is how it has happened in the past. This is not something we want. This is not something we have threatened. This is something we think can and should be avoided and we want to avoid. In the unfortunate, completely avoidable event that did happen, it would be largely as the Senator described it.

Mr. CRUZ. A second question I would ask is this: This week we saw the rather stunning news that the IRS employees union--the men and women at the IRS charged with enforcing ObamaCare are asking not to be made subject to ObamaCare. Indeed, the union leaders have said to their union members: Draft letters to send to Members of this body, saying that we, the IRS employees union, do not want to be subject to ObamaCare.

Likewise, ObamaCare subjects Members of this body and their staffs to ObamaCare. I am not aware of a single Senate office that is not deeply concerned about that, that is not facing the prospect of staff quitting the congressional offices because the arms of ObamaCare are so significant, and there have been many a panicked discussion among Democrats and Republicans about what to do about subjecting Members and their staff to ObamaCare.

My second question of three short questions is, What does it say to the Senator that the IRS employees union is asking: Let us out from ObamaCare, and that Members and congressional staff are deeply concerned about the harms ObamaCare is going to do to them?

Mr. LEE. Well, first of all, that tells me that those who are part of that union do not want to be subject to the same provisions of the same law they will be enforcing.

What it also tells me in the bigger picture is that above all, this law creates uncertainty. That is why we see so much angst among people right here on Capitol Hill who are facing the very real prospect, the very real future in the next few months of going onto these exchanges because nobody knows what this is going to look like. Nobody has any idea.

One thing Americans really do not like, in this world of a lot of unavoidable uncertainties, is more uncertainties heaped upon them by dictate of the Federal Government. We have enough uncertainties in life. We do not know when somebody is going to get sick. We do not know when accidents are going to happen. So we should be able to avoid those things that government thrusts upon us.

This is one of the many reasons why there is so much angst within the IRS and within the ranks of the Capitol Hill workforce. People do not want to go onto these exchanges because they have absolutely no idea what this is going to look like.

Mr. CRUZ. My third brief question is, For those in this body who have campaigned at home, who have told their constituents they are opposed to ObamaCare, on January 1 the exchanges go up and running, the subsidies begin. And the history of the modern entitlement state is that anytime a subsidy has been put in place, it has proven to be politically virtually impossible to undo. Indeed, no major entitlement that has been implemented in modern times has ever been undone.

For those who say they oppose ObamaCare, what is the alternative to defunding ObamaCare with a continuing resolution? Let me ask it a separate way. If we do not defund it, am I correct that come January 1, Republicans will essentially be surrendering that in all likelihood ObamaCare will be a permanent feature of the economy, hurting the economy, hurting jobs, hurting low-income workers, hurting our health care system? And if that is correct, has any reasonable alternative been proffered by anyone on this side of the Senate to stop that harm other than what you and Senator Rubio and I and others are trying to do?

Mr. LEE. Based on historical precedent, we have every reason to believe that once this new entitlement program kicks in, it is not going away. It is a one-way ratchet. You have death, taxes, and entitlements. Once created, they do not go away.

To answer the second part of that question, I am not aware of any plan among any Republicans--aside from this one; aside from the plan that says: Do not fund ObamaCare, fund government but not ObamaCare--that would address this issue. I am not aware of any plan. The only other plan I am aware of would be one that says: Let's just wait and see what happens. Let's wait and see what a horrible disaster this will be. Let's wait and see how awful this will be for the American people, how utterly intolerable they will find it. And let's just hope that will provide enough political momentum for us perhaps to win elections at some unknown point in the future. This is not a good way to run a government. This is not a kind thing to do to an unsuspecting public who hopes and expects that we have their best interests at heart.

So to all those in this body who support ObamaCare, this argument might not be all that persuasive to you, although you ought to look at the fact that the President, who signed this into law, has said he himself is not ready, is not willing, is not able to enforce and implement the law evenhandedly as it was written. So maybe that ought to give you pause as to whether you should fund it.

But for those of you in this body who are, in fact, opposed to ObamaCare, I ask you: How can you oppose it, be against it, and yet fund it? So I would invite you to consider the possibility that what you are doing in thinking about funding it is not really where you want to go. Consider what might be said about this. Defund it or own it. If you fund it, you are for it.

This law was enacted without a meaningful opportunity for the Members voting on it to read it. It is 2,700 pages long. After it was enacted into law, it was rewritten a total of four times: twice by the Supreme Court of the United States, twice more by the President of the United States. The President's rewrite came just a few weeks ago, the Supreme Court's rewrite was over a year ago.

But what the President did was acknowledge that this law is not ready for prime time. This law is not ready to implement. This law is not one that he is willing to implement as written. He is going to implement and enforce it selectively, holding hard-working Americans, individuals and families to the fire, while throwing a big bone to big business.

This is not acceptable. This is un-American. This is not something that those of us who purport to be against ObamaCare can support by funding it. So I invite my colleagues to join me in this cause to vote to fund government but not ObamaCare.

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