H.R. 596, A Bill to Repeal the Affordable Care Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, once again, House Republicans are wasting America's time with another pointless vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act. If this bill were to become law, it would rip away affordable health insurance coverage from millions of Americans, allow insurance companies to once again deny coverage based on pre-existing health conditions, and increase costs for seniors with Medicare.

We could spend our time debating and voting on legislation to promote economic growth and ensure that American workers share in the economic gains that they help produce. We could debate and vote on ways to boost middle-class take-home pay through targeted tax reforms, paid for by reducing tax giveaways to special interests and the wealthy. We could have a vote in the House--at long last--on bipartisan immigration reform legislation, or on a plan to replace meat-ax sequestration spending cuts with a smarter deficit-reduction plan.

Instead, we vote for the 56th time on whether to repeal or undermine a law that has already done so much to make insurance companies more accountable, hold down the growth of health spending, and improve American families' economic security by making sure they all have access to affordable health insurance. The Affordable Care Act is not perfect. Like Medicare and Social Security before it, the law will benefit from adjustments over time. If Republicans were serious about improving the United States' health care system, we would sit down and hammer out real improvements to the Affordable Care Act based on what we have learned as the law has taken effect. Instead, we are voting on a bill that basically says we can pretend that more than four years' worth of public- and private-sector actions implementing the Affordable Care Act to make affordable health care in this country a reality can simply be swept aside. This is nothing more than a Tea Party talking-point fantasy masquerading as a piece of legislation. And after four years, we are still waiting for the Republican majority to fulfill their promise to develop a replacement for the Affordable Care Act.

Finally, I am very curious to see how Congressional Republicans will square this vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act with their much-vaunted promise to develop a balanced budget. The Republican budgets for the last two years would not have come anywhere close to balancing without the revenues and health care savings generated by the Affordable Care Act. There is a glaring inconsistency here.

Enough is enough. It is time for our Republican colleagues to get over their fixation on bashing the Affordable Care Act and instead get on with the real work of rebuilding a prosperous American middle class.

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