Restoring Americans' Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act of 2015

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman.

Before I begin my remarks, I want to commend Chairman Price and Chairman Upton for the work that they have done--Energy and Commerce is an authorizing committee, and Chairman Price is the Budget Committee--making certain that we meet the targets for reconciliation.

One of the things we have heard repeatedly from our constituents is the U.S. House of Representatives is responsible for this Nation getting their fiscal house in order. It is an imperative. We know we are not going to have a silver bullet that does it overnight. Those silver bullets don't exist.

We do know this, that we can take the right steps at the right time and put a bill on the President's desk. The President has the choice to say, I agree with you. Let's move this Nation to fiscal health, or he will veto the bill. And, of course, our goal is to get it over to the Senate so they can do their work and we can see that step of the process take place.

There are some items in this bill for reconciliation that I do come to strongly support. I think it is imperative that the Affordable Care Act, which has proven to be so unaffordable, too expensive to use, too expensive to purchase--insurance gets you to the queue, not to the doctor. We all know those stories.

What we have learned is that the administration has recently cut in half their enrollment projections for next year. This should trouble everybody because this is something that we said.

We know from history, from government-run programs, that those expectations many times are not met. So then you see a movement into damage control. We are taking the right steps to begin to rein this in and to break this program apart.

I think it is important to note, as we look at the ObamaCare program and the steps we are taking to eliminate portions of that program, that just this week, with the co-ops that were put in place--and, by the way, about a billion taxpayer dollars spent on those co-ops and nine--nine of those co-ops have now failed. They failed, poof, gone. It is these findings that are raising the questions that Americans have for: Look, the program isn't working.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. BLACKBURN. What you need to do is stop this before it becomes too entrenched to change because people are not getting access to care and money is being wasted on healthcare delivery theories that clearly do not work.

This bill repeals the individual mandate, the employer mandate, the Cadillac tax, the medical device tax, ends auto enrollment, and ends the Public Health Fund, which is a slush fund. When you are paying for pet neutering and other things out of a prevention fund, yes, it is a slush fund, and it needs to be clawed back.

In addition, there is a 1-year moratorium on the funds for Planned Parenthood while Congress completes its investigation into the practices that have taken place around fetal tissues.

H.R. 3762 is a net tax cut, a net spending cut, and reduces the deficit. I urge support.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source