OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Repeal of Obamacare Act

Floor Speech

Date: July 10, 2012
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Entitlements and the Safety Net Health Insurance

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. BARTON of Texas. I thank the distinguished chairman.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the bill before us this afternoon and in opposition to what is colloquially called ObamaCare.

All of the comments of the proponents of the bill that have been made in the past in support have generally turned out to either not be true at all or to be only partially true. They said that they were having the individual mandate under the Commerce Clause. The Supreme Court said that's unconstitutional, you couldn't do it. So even though you said that's what you were doing, you're really not.

The proponents said the penalties in the bill were not taxes. Well, the Supreme Court in a 5-4 majority several weeks ago said, well, really, you're not regulating the mandate and the penalties under the Commerce Clause because that would be unconstitutional. You're actually doing it under the taxation clause.

We're kind of in an Alice in Wonderland situation here. What is true is that if this law is enforced, millions of Americans are going to pay much more for health care, and we're not going to get better quality care. People like myself oppose the bill, not because we don't want every American to have health care, but because we want Americans to have choices and to make individual choices about their health care.

This law, if enforced, mandates things. It mandates the coverage. It mandates what you have to have. It mandates what can be paid for it. This Independent Payment Advisory Board over time will probably mandate how doctors practice medicine.

I personally think that's wrong. That's why I believe, since the Supreme Court has ruled 5-4, that we ought to have another repeal vote, even though admittedly we had one over a year ago. We should repeal it, we should put everybody on record right now where they stand, send the bill to the other body and see if we can't get the majority leader over there to also have a vote. Then as people go into the election, we know where the Congress stands on this issue.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT


Source
arrow_upward