Health Tax

Floor Speech

Mr. FORBES. Mr. Speaker, several days ago I was one of only a handful of Members of Congress who actually sat in the Supreme Court and listened to five Justices debate and say that they believed that the President's health tax was constitutional, and I watched them debate the four Justices who believed it was not constitutional.

Because one more Justice believed it was constitutional than the four that believed it was not constitutional, our friends on the other side of the aisle believe that we should now step back and do nothing and just allow this health tax to be imposed on the American people.

Well, we reject that suggestion, and the reason we do is because today the number one issue in the American people's minds is the economy, and the number one concern we have about the economy is the loss of their jobs. Yet we have watched as this administration has had 41 straight months of unemployment in excess of 8 percent.

We have watched as their policies have delivered us a net loss of 473,000 jobs, and we are about to unleash three enormous job killers on the American public. In just a few months, we will increase taxes on the American people if we refuse to extend the Bush tax cuts, which will cost thousands of jobs. Yet our friends on the other side of the aisle say we should step back and do nothing, and we reject that notion.

In just a few months, based on legislation this President approved and signed into law, we will have massive defense cuts that his own Secretary of Defense says will cost us 1.5 million jobs, and our friends on the other side of the aisle say we should do nothing and just let that come on the American people. We reject that notion.

Finally, Mr. Speaker, as this health tax gets ready to be imposed on the American people, based on the Congressional Budget Office, it will cost 800,000 jobs. Yet our friends on the other side of the aisle say we should take no action and just let it happen. We reject that notion.

The reason we reject it is because the American people realize that as we take an action to repeal this health tax, we are setting a new course for health care in America. As we set a new course for health care in America, we begin to do what the American people want us to do and set a new course and a new direction for America.

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