Emergency Unemployment Compensation Extension Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. THUNE. Madam President, I come to the floor today to talk about the damage ObamaCare is doing to our struggling economy.

After months of unrelenting coverage of ObamaCare's many problems and after Friday's release of December's dismal job report, I am sure Democrats in the Senate would prefer we talk about almost anything else. After all, when you have held most of the power here in Washington for the last 5 years, you don't want to mention the fact that your main legacy is a sluggish economy and a disastrous train wreck of a health care program.

This past Friday we found out December marked the weakest month of job growth since January 2011. The economy added just 74,000 jobs in December--less than half of the monthly job growth needed for a real recovery.

Some are saying perhaps this is an aberration, and perhaps it was for a 1-month period. But the one thing we can't get away from is that December's drop in the unemployment rate--the slight drop that we saw as a percentage--was driven by nearly 350,000 Americans dropping out of the workforce altogether, driving the labor participation rate to its lowest level in 36 years. We haven't seen the labor participation rate this low since the Carter administration.

Had millions of Americans not stopped looking for work since January of 2009, the unemployment rate would be a staggering 10.8 percent. What I mean is if the labor participation rate were today what it was in 2009--in other words, the number of Americans actually in the labor force looking for jobs--the unemployment rate would be almost 11 percent, a significantly higher number than what we use as the official unemployment rate today. Even without that, the Wall Street Journal points out that ``the unemployment rate remains near levels previously seen only during recessions.''

Let me repeat that: The Wall Street Journal states that ``the unemployment rate remains near levels previously seen only during recessions.'' That is a pretty damning statement.

The President and his advisers would like us to believe that President Obama's policies are growing our economy and putting Americans back to work. But in the 5 years of his Presidency, all Democrats have been able to accomplish is a recovery that looks a lot like other Presidents' recessions.

In his weekly address on Saturday, the President said he would do ``everything I can to create new jobs and new opportunities for American families.''

How does he propose to do that? By treating the symptoms, not the causes, of economic stagnation. Economic bandaids like the President proposes may temporarily help a few Americans, but they will do nothing to bring about the real long-term job growth our country needs. Unfortunately, the President's policies are actually hurting already struggling middle-class families and making it more difficult for businesses to grow and create jobs.

Chief among the President's failed policies is the massive boondoggle known as the Affordable Care Act. If there is one thing you don't want in an economy where businesses are already struggling, it is legislation that places everything from new taxes to burdensome new regulations on businesses, and yet that is exactly what ObamaCare does.

There is a tax on medical devices, like pacemakers and prosthetics, which is driving medical device jobs overseas and driving medical bills up for American patients. There is a pill tax, which is a tax on prescription drugs. There is a tax on businesses that do not provide a government-approved health care. There are multiple taxes on health insurance companies, and more.

Then there are the scores of new regulations which raise the cost of doing business--regulations like the requirement that any business with 50 or more workers provide ObamaCare-approved health insurance benefits to its full-time employees, which the health care law defines as 30 hours or more per week. That is all very well for some employers, but for many employers in industries with small profit margins, providing Obama-approved health care to full-time workers is the difference between making a profit and making none at all. For employers in nonprofit fields like education, it can be the difference between staying in operation or closing.

Around the country, school systems, community colleges and universities, restaurants, and other small businesses are being forced to cut workers' hours to avoid the full burden of ObamaCare's mandate. It is no wonder the health care law is so unpopular with the owners of businesses, both large and small.

CBS News reported in December:

Nearly half of U.S. companies said they are reluctant to hire full-time employees because of the law.

A survey from the National Association of Manufacturers found that more than 75 percent of manufacturers cite soaring health care costs as the biggest issue facing their businesses.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.

Mr. THUNE. I ask unanimous consent for an additional 5 minutes.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. THUNE. In addition to being bad for business's bottom line, ObamaCare is placing a tremendous financial burden on American families.

The President claimed his health care law would reduce the cost of health care, but the average family has seen a $2,500 premium increase since the law's passage--and now that the law is being fully implemented, that number is set to soar even higher.

One of my constituents, Carrie, emailed me to tell me she may have to take a part-time job to afford the health care premium she was quoted for a family of 6. That is a part-time job on top of the two part-time jobs she already works and the full-time job her husband works.

Another constituent, Matt from Rapid City, SD, emailed to tell me his insurance has gone up 60 percent. Meanwhile, his wife's hours at work have been reduced below the ObamaCare full-time threshold of 30 hours. ``We have had to cut back on basic needs,'' he told me.

Terry contacted me to tell me his insurance policy was cancelled, and that he was offered a replacement policy for twice the cost of his original policy. ``Now 1/4 of my salary will go to my insurance.'' That is a quarter of his salary.

Is this the affordable care Americans were promised?

Democrats claim they want to grow the economy, but what do they think happens to the economy when businesses aren't growing and people aren't spending? When Americans have to devote more of their income to paying their health care bills, they cut back on other spending, they go out to fewer restaurants, they keep their old car for a few more years, and they put a bucket under the leak instead of paying for a new roof. That is a lot of money not going to local businesses.

Similarly, when businesses are hit with burdensome taxes and regulations, they cut back on hiring and investment, they cut workers' hours, and they move jobs overseas. That means fewer jobs for the millions of Americans looking for work and lower wages for families already struggling to get by.

If Democrats were really serious about growing the economy and creating jobs, they would stop focusing on economic bandaids and start a long, hard look at the damage ObamaCare is doing to our economy.

As Members of Congress, we need to make it easier to create jobs, not harder. We should be repealing burdensome mandates, not creating them. We should be reducing the tax burden, not increasing it, and we should be creating incentives for businesses to expand, not eliminating them.

Millions of Americans spend too much time wondering how they are going to afford their health care premiums or buy a house or send their kids to college. We need to give them the economic opportunities they need.

Over the past few weeks Republicans in the House and in the Senate have introduced plan after plan to get our economy moving again and help struggling families find better jobs and increased wages.

I recently introduced a plan to exempt long-term unemployed workers from the ObamaCare mandate, an onerous and unpopular provision which will destroy jobs and reduce hours for hardworking Americans. In fact, this mandate is so unpopular and so unworkable that the administration unilaterally delayed it past the next election.

Since even the administration doesn't want to enforce it, I think we can all agree that exempting the long-term unemployed will help break the cycle of extended unemployment that plagues the Obama economy.

We hope Democrats will abandon their short-term cosmetic fixes and join us in talking about the kind of long-term reform which will truly grow the economy and offer economic opportunity to every American. We have lived in the Obama economy long enough.

I yield the floor.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source