Providing for Consideration of H.R. 6079, Repeal of Obamacare Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. NUGENT. Madam Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Dallas, my Rules Committee colleague, Pete Sessions, for yielding me the time.
Over the past couple of years, I've met with thousands of people in Florida's Fifth Congressional District, whether it's businessmen, people on Medicare, veterans, and they all have the same appeal to me: Please, please repeal ObamaCare.
It's clear the American people know what our Democratic leaders still, to this day, don't want to admit: ObamaCare eliminates millions of American jobs, it cuts hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicare, and it puts in place 21 tax hikes that are going to cost the American people more than $800 billion over the next 10 years. And guess what. It only pays for 6 years of coverage. What a scam.
Everybody knows the health care system is broken and reform is needed, but ObamaCare is not the answer. Madam Speaker, I think a number of my colleagues forget that although the Supreme Court upheld the individual mandate--because it's a tax--it did declare parts of the bill unconstitutional. The Court explicitly stated the Affordable Care Act is constitutional in part and unconstitutional in part. And expansion, they said, of ObamaCare unconstitutionally forces States to expand Medicaid.
So the vote we take on this rule, H.R. 6097, gives Members of this body two things: repeal a law that is in part unconstitutional, and repeal an $800 billion tax increase on the American middle class. I have to think that if the other side knew that this was a tax increase back when they first implemented it, that--you know what?--they probably would rethink their thought on it.
Last night, my colleagues on the other side said that ObamaCare reduces the deficit, but it's also a tax cut. Only in Washington does that work--creating a new trillion-dollar health care program means reducing government spending. Only in Washington is $800 billion in new taxes a cut. These are numbers I know my colleagues on the other side of the aisle know, and, more importantly, the American people know it.
For all these reasons, I'm grateful to Leader Cantor for introducing the Repeal of Obamacare Act, and I'm proud to be a cosponsor of this legislation. I support the rule, I support the underlying legislation, and I encourage all of my colleagues who want real health care reform to do the same.
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