Let's Talk
Floor Speech
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Mr. WENSTRUP. I thank the gen tle lady for yielding.
This slowdown, shutdown has taken on many particular angles and a lot of accusation and a lot of discussion; but as we get to this point, although ObamaCare isn't driving the shutdown, it isn't merely about the millions who will still be uninsured, and its not merely about the 50 percent or more of this country who will be on Medicaid where access to care is extremely limited, and it's not only about rates going up. It is about that health care is going backwards in America, not forward. The government shutdown is not only about the fact that in Ohio we passed a constitutional amendment that made the mandate in Ohio, only to be overturned by the Supreme Court. Sixty-six percent of the people in Ohio did not want this law, and I'm from Ohio and I'm here to continue to fight for that.
I'm bothered as we go through this and I hear the arguments and I hear people referred to ``terrorism,'' ``jihad'' and ``bombs strapped to their chest.'' Well, as someone who served in Iraq as a combat surgeon during the bloodiest time of the war, 2005-2006, I guarantee you what's taking place here is not that, and it's shameful when people use those types of references. And I bet those who have served in war understand that's not appropriate.
We are here to negotiate, we're here to discuss, and we're here to represent the American people. Really, I thought when I came here, I'm new, I'm a freshman--I thought that fair treatment for all Americans would be something that's common ground for all of us. I thought that having special subsidies for Members of Congress would be something that we would all disagree with, and that would be another area of common ground.
Those are the basic premises that are driving this shutdown right now, because we have passed continuing resolutions that would fund the government completely if we would just sit down and agree that these portions of this law are wrong and they go against what we as Americans believe in, that we're to be treated fairly, that there is no special premise for one group over the other. I thought those would be areas of common ground, and I'm surprised that this still goes on.
We'll continue to fight over things we disagree with within ObamaCare and try to improve our health care system as we go along; but it interests me when people say it's the law, get over it. Well, it's not the law that was passed when you're changing things, and that's the problem.
I wonder sometimes if the Presidential election was different. Say, for example, Mitt Romney had won and he went into the Presidency and said, I'm going to exempt this group and I'm going to exempt that group. I'm going to change the law and provide a subsidy for those it's not written into the law for. What would the outcry be? The outcry would come from me because I believe in the rule of law, and I believe in fairness under the law.
We need to sit down and figure this out. The President is the President, and he has the seat at the
head of the table; but he was not the only one elected. We've all been elected to represent the people, and we all have a seat at the table, and that's what needs to take place.
I hear arguments from the other side talking about while we're passing these resolutions, you're picking and choosing now. That's exactly what ObamaCare has done. Throughout that law, there is picking and choosing. So when I hear the other side say we're picking and choosing, I say thank you for making our argument because that's what we're having problems with.
I pray for a better day. And Lord willing, we'll all sit down at the table and get these things figured out on behalf of the American people. That's what we were sent here to do, and I hope we can get that done, and I urge those who will not come forward to think about it and to come forward and sit and talk with us.
With that, I appreciate the gen tle lady putting this Special Order together for us to have a chance to discuss these issues.
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