Nomination of Roy K.J. Williams to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development

Floor Speech

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Madam President, I come to the floor today, as my colleague from Indiana has, because the same things he is hearing about at home in Indiana--stories from real people and how their lives have been impacted by the health care law--are stories I am hearing at home every weekend in Wyoming.

I think it is astonishing that the majority leader would come to the floor of the Senate and say these stories we are coming to the floor with are made up, he said, out of whole cloth. These are real people in our communities who have been impacted by the health care law in ways that have been very detrimental to their lives, their livelihood. People have had their hours cut. Their take-home pay is less. They are finding they are having to pay a lot more for insurance. A lot of times it is insurance they don't really want or need or will ever use but the President says they have to buy. They have lost policies that have worked well for them.

I got a recent email from a gentleman, a family in Powell, WY, a community in Park County. He writes: Now that ObamaCare has been deemed to be the most successful government program of all time, let me tell you what it has done for retired middle-class Wyoming citizens like myself.

Of course, he said he was not serious when he said "the most successful government program of all time.'' He probably heard the President talking about it. He probably heard the President of the United States tell Democrats who voted for this health care law to forcefully defend the law and be proud of it. I haven't heard Members who voted for this actually come to the floor to any degree to forcefully defend and be proud of the law because they know the side effects of the law have been devastating--devastating to families, devastating to people and their paychecks, and devastating to health care in this country.

So back to what my constituent from Powell, WY, said: Health care premiums of nearly $2,000 a month.

The President said: Oh, no, premiums will drop by $2,500 a year.

This gentleman said: Health care premiums of nearly $2,000 per month, scheduled to go to at least $2,000 or more per month in July--in parentheses, "unbelievable.''

He then says: Middle-class citizens like my wife and myself, not qualifying for ObamaCare subsidies, having to consider becoming lawbreakers by forgoing health insurance for ourselves or at least one of us--in parentheses, "probably myself because I am the healthier of the two''--and paying the fine.

He then said: If we do No. 2 above--about disobeying the law and paying the fine--we will have to look into seeking cheaper care outside the United States, probably Mexico, for serious problems.

Is that what the President of the United States intended, to have people seek care in Mexico because they can't afford the Obama health care law and the mandates and all of the insurance that they don't need, don't want, won't use, and can't afford? It is not what the President promised the American people. He said if they like what they have they can keep it. But, of course, that was deemed the lie of the year.

So I guess that is how the American people view the President of the United States now and can't really consider his comments to be credible. So when he says forcefully defend and be proud of the health care law, I think the American people realize that the President has sold the law to them under false promises and the Democrats are clearly not standing up and defending what they know is hurting their constituents. The President is in his bubble, and he hears only what he wants to hear. But I think Members on the Democratic side of the aisle, who go home and listen to people, know these stories are true, unlike what the majority leader says--that they are just made up.

The gentleman goes on to say: I could look into residence in another State to see if health care insurance is available cheaper. I don't know if it is or not, but I understand that Wyoming has the highest or near highest health insurance premiums.

Then he ends by saying: Is this what Obama and the Federal Government consider fair?

The President goes on TV and says that everybody ought to have a fair shot. Is this what the President of the United States considers fair? Is this what he means by a fair shot? People all across the country are going to be asking themselves that question as they take a look at the impact of this health care law on their own lives, their own families, the ability to keep their doctors. We know many people have lost the doctor they like in the sense that they can't go to that doctor. They know they can't go to the same hospital. We know many were not able to keep the insurance they had. We know many have had hours cut.

In an effort to try to help people who didn't have insurance, I think the President of the United States and Democrats should not have hurt so many individuals across the country, so many people who already had insurance. There may be people who are newly insured, but there are also people who are newly uninsured, and it is because of the President's health care law. Are there side effects? You better believe it. They are harmful. They are costly. Many families have been devastated by the health care law.

I have another letter from a family in Lingle, WY. This is somebody who knows I am a doctor, knows my record of treating patients around Wyoming and working with families all across the State.

She said: I know you're interested in the number of people who are uninsured after the rollout of the ACA. She said: My husband and I started investigating the ACA in October. The Presiding Officer will remember they opened the exchanges in October. The President, right before that, said it was going to be easier to use than Amazon and cheaper than your cell phone bill. She said: So we started investigating in October, and we were finally able to establish an account in March.

That is what the American people think about the capability of this government and this administration. You start working on something in October, and you finally establish an account in March because of the incompetence of a bureaucracy and an administration that says one thing, does another, promises something, and delivers something very different.

She said: We found that our premiums would be one-third of our annual income--one-third of our annual income--with a $6,000 copay and a $12,000 deductible.

Those are the numbers--one-third of their annual income, a $6,000 copay, a $12,000 deductible--and the majority leader comes to the floor and says we are making this stuff up. These are letters from our constituents, people who live in our States, people whom we see on weekends when we go home.

She goes on to say: We have been uninsured for 7 years due to the costs, which we are told is due to our age, even though we are in good health. So as of today we are still uninsured.

So they started in October, finally established an account in March, and as of the date this was written in April, they were still uninsured.

She said: We don't have any idea what will happen if one of us gets sick or has an accident. How will we pay the bills?

Then she finishes by saying: Keep fighting for the people of Wyoming. As a doctor, you know what a precarious position we are in.

I wish the President of the United States and the majority leader would realize what a precarious position they have placed the American public in--an American public who knew what they wanted with health care reform. They wanted the care they need, from a doctor they choose, at lower cost. That is not what they got. They got more mandates, more expensive care, higher deductibles, higher copays. Many people had their policies canceled.

We know with the 30-hour work rule communities are cutting the hours of workers so their take-home pay goes down. We are not talking about businesses here, although it is happening in the business world as well. It is also happening in communities--school districts that are saying: Well, we are going to have to cut the hours of substitute teachers, we are going to have to cut the hours of the school bus drivers, of the coaches, of a number of part-time workers. Why? Because of the health care law.

These are side effects of the law. They are harmful. They are expensive. They have an impact on people's lives to a point that I think the President wants to ignore because the President is hoping people on his side of the aisle will forcefully defend and be proud of a law that there is little to be proud of that really is not able to be defended because the implications of the side effects have been devastating to many, and especially to Americans who have gotten their insurance canceled and find their only choice is more expensive insurance, higher copays, and higher deductibles. But for families all across the country, when a mother finds she cannot take her child to that pediatrician--the one who has known that child since the baby was born--now, because of the health care law, she cannot take her child to that pediatrician, they cannot go to the hospital in their community; they have to drive distances, instead, because of the health care law, which was intended to help people but has ended up hurting, in my opinion, more people than it has helped.

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