52 Percent of Americans Oppose Obamacare

Floor Speech

Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, the President, in his remarks to the country yesterday, demonstrated a willingness for diplomacy and negotiations. Sadly, any leadership he reflected in his remarks was a willingness to communicate and negotiate with the terror-states of Iran and Syria and not the United States House of Representatives. What the President also made clear was his unwillingness to serve the will and the concerns of a majority of American citizens, families, and businesses when it comes to their health care.

Health care is one of the more intimate issues in America. There should be no surprise of the emotional reaction and rejection by the majority of the country when this legislation is passed unilaterally by one party without adequate debate or vetting and is mandated on 311 Americans.

The September 4 to 23 Real Clear Politics compilation of seven major national polls show that an average of 52 percent of Americans are opposed or against the Affordable Care Act, while only 38.7 percent are for or in favor of this law.

Mr. Speaker, I understand the political divide that unfortunately exists in Washington, but what I do not get is how the President ignores the will of the majority of the American people. We expect leadership from the President, but there is no leadership when the direction you want to take the country is rejected as the wrong direction for the majority of American citizens.

Now, some have said that the Affordable Care Act is the law, so just implement it. Well, that makes a dangerous assumption that Congress never gets it wrong. History has certainly shown precedence that Congress can and has corrected the mistakes that it has made. The Prohibition, which was repealed in 1933, had been fairly unpopular--probably more disliked than even ObamaCare. More recently, the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act of 1988, a bipartisan bill, was intended to provide supplemental health care insurance for the elderly. But it also included a surtax on middle- and upper-income seniors which was quickly repealed when the will of a majority of Americans was taken into consideration.

Now, what is more dangerous than a government that may err on occasion or supposed leaders that are incapable of recognizing an error and taking a course of correction?

Mr. Speaker, the Senate Democrats yesterday recklessly voted to disregard the will of the American majority and essentially endorse a government shutdown rather than take any course of correction on what is a fundamentally flawed law that is raising premiums and already limiting access.

In my home State of Pennsylvania, countless children in disadvantaged homes are covered under the Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP. The CHIP program originated in Pennsylvania and provides support to parents of these children to allow them to buy health insurance for their children from the commercial insurance market. The CHIP program provides access to quality health care, not with government-run programs, but through a partnership with the private sector. Under ObamaCare, these children are being ripped out of CHIP and placed in medical assistance where the parents will be hard-pressed to find a pediatrician even willing to see, let alone treat, their child.

Mr. Speaker, the unwillingness to admit the errors of ObamaCare and take corrective action is even throwing America's most vulnerable children, who are growing up in poverty circumstances, under the bus. They deserve better.

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