Reopening Government Fairly

Floor Speech

Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, we all remember hearing the promise ``if you like your health care, you can keep it.'' We also remember hearing that ObamaCare would reduce insurance costs for families by about $2,500 a year. That is not what we are hearing now.

Ronald, one of my constituents from Advance, North Carolina, just received a letter from Blue Cross Blue Shield informing him because of ObamaCare his month monthly premiums are tripling from $400 per month to $1,200 per month. His deductible also skyrocketed to $11,000.

William in Rural Hall, North Carolina, tells me the same story. His premiums are also tripling from $400 to more than $1,200. Dianne, one of my constituents from Clemmons, tells me that her health care premiums are slated to rise from $193 per month to $553 per month beginning on January 1, 2014, again due to ObamaCare. William from Winston-Salem recently informed me that his son's 2014 renewal rate came in. His premiums are rising from $314 to $821.96.

Mr. Speaker, until now we have been forced to debate ObamaCare in the abstract, using economic predictions and common sense to explain why this ill-conceived law is going to be, as one of its key proponents in the Senate predicted, a train wreck. But now the verdict is in. Families from across my district are receiving letters from insurers explaining that the so-called Affordable Care Act is driving their premiums sky high.

My constituents don't want to be forced to change their health care plans or risk losing access to doctors they trust. Again, they were promised that if they liked their doctor, they could keep their doctor and if they liked their health care plan, they could keep it. Those promises were broken. These aren't abstractions or predictions; these are real people whose health and livelihoods are being threatened by this law.

Mr. Speaker, the proponents of this disastrous scheme keep reminding us that it is ``the law of the land.'' They implore us to simply give up and move on. We will not give up on our constituents. We will not move on when they need us to seek fairness on their behalf.

The other side acts as if this bill which they hastily cobbled together and passed on a party-line vote against massive popular opposition is so firmly entrenched in American law that it can never be amended or repealed. This is nonsense and they know it.

ObamaCare is the law. But what do we do in Congress every day? We work to change bad laws, and we certainly work to make sure laws treat all Americans fairly. And as Rich Lowry recently pointed out:

If this were consistent principle rather than opportunistic advice, Democrats would have been content to leave a number of policies they vigorously fought in place out of deference to duly constituted policy and law.

Mr. Speaker, this is about basic fairness. The President has given special treatment to Big Business, Congress and his well-connected political allies; but he refuses to offer the same relief to working families. That is wrong. That is not fair. Ordinary Americans deserve the same exemption that the President has given businesses.

Let's reopen this government. Let's reopen it fairly.

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