Affordable Health Care Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Thank you, Congressman Garamendi, and thank you, Congressman Tonko and Congressman Ryan, for your very eloquent words in describing the situation that we face today.
I, like millions of Americans, hope that there will not be a government shutdown. I hope that we can get past the hostage politics that have prevailed over this place over the last few years. This is no way to run a government. Our Nation is the strongest nation on Earth, and we are the most exceptional nation on Earth. These wounds are self-inflicted ones.
I have said many times and have heard from my constituents that all of these fiscal fights, these self-inflicted wounds by Congress--when we get up to the limit where we are supposed to pass a budget or we are supposed to raise the debt ceiling limit--are causing the Nation high blood pressure. They are affecting the market in negative ways. The stock market is taking a hit. Our employment rates are taking a hit.
In every way, this has been bad for the country.
I would also remind our Members of Congress and the American people about what happened the last time brinksmanship was tried. The last time this happened, the sequester resulted--a bad way to do business. I think people on both sides of the aisle would agree that the sequester did not turn out well for our Nation, but that's the same road we are headed down again. The Republicans are taking us down the same road that gave us the sequester--the Budget Control Act. Then the cuts that really were across the board were not targeted and have hurt the military, have hurt education, have hurt health care, and we are headed down the same road.
Congressman, the last time you and I spoke--I guess about a month ago here on the floor--I mentioned that, in politics, you are often asked whether you are a Republican or a Democrat. What is it that you stand for? I think, as Democrats, what we believe in are a few things that have made this Nation great.
The first is freedom, because we are a free people. That freedom has been hard fought. I come from San Antonio, Texas--Military City USA. The people of San Antonio and the people of Texas know the high price of freedom.
The second is democracy. We are a democratic Nation. Because we are free, we get to elect our leaders, and we get to kick them out of office when we no longer believe that they are representing our views and our values.
But much of the politics of today is really fought over the third principle and value, which is opportunity. You see, what is special about this country and the reason that, for years and years, people from all over the world have wanted to come to America is that, as Americans, we have come together to build out what I call an ``infrastructure of opportunity'' that enables each of us to pursue our American dreams. I want to remind you of what I mean by that.
Just as there is an infrastructure of transportation--a system of streets and roads and highways that help all of us get to where we want to go on the road--in American society, we have built up together an infrastructure of opportunity that enables or at least helps each of us get to where we want to go in life, and that has to include certain things that are at risk when we get into hostage politics--great public schools and universities; a strong health care system so that, if you get sick, you don't become debilitated or die; and then an economy that's built around well-paying jobs so that people can support themselves and their family members. It's that second part that I mentioned--health care--that has been at issue in this debate.
I just want to close by saying this, that the junior Senator from Texas, a few days ago, talked about how he was speaking for 26 million Texans when he was threatening to shut down the government over the Affordable Care Act, which he derisively calls ``ObamaCare.'' He does not speak for 26 million Texans. The fact is that Texas has the highest percentage of people who have no health care coverage at all. There are a lot of families who are having to take their kids to the emergency rooms, who are getting letters from their insurance companies because they have hit their lifetime caps. They are getting letters of their being denied coverage because they have preexisting conditions. The Affordable Care Act is going to change that. It's going to be a good thing for our State.
So I would just note that there are a lot of people in Texas who are excited about the Affordable Care Act and about the fact that they are going to have a chance to afford to have insurance, some of them for the first time in their lives. Even of those who have insurance, many of them will no longer have to worry about being denied because of preexisting conditions, worry about hitting a lifetime cap or about going bankrupt because of health care.
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