Let's Talk
Floor Speech
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Mr. HENSARLING. I thank the gen tle lady for yielding. I especially thank her for her leadership on this Special Order, and her leadership on behalf of all of our men and women who serve in uniform, many in her district. And she is well respected within this institution for what she has done for our military.
Madam Speaker, I know the American people occasionally get somewhat confused by what is going on in Congress. Here's what's easy to understand: House Republicans have put not one offer on the table, not two, not three, but four; four different offers to negotiate with the President and the Democrats. What do we hear from the President? What do we hear from Harry Reid, no negotiations.
You know, I still recall vividly my mother-in-law who has a saying, the least you can do in life is show up. President Barack Obama and Harry Reid have not shown up. Now I know that the President says at one time in his life he taught congressional law. Some of us find that somewhat ironic because if the President actually knew the Constitution, then he would know that it is the Congress that has the power of the purse. It is Congress that appropriates funds. Nowhere will you find in the Constitution that Congress is relegated to the power of the rubber stamp. So we know that the President and Harry Reid want us to rubber-stamp the health care policies of this administration that we hear about every single day. Every single day I'm hearing from one of my constituents, Congressman Hensarling, they just cut me back to 29 hours because of ObamaCare. Congressman Hensarling, my health care premiums are going up $1,500 because of ObamaCare. And yet we're told by the President, it's the law, don't touch it. Well, it's a law that he has already changed seven times, and it is a law that's hurting our constituents. And, no, Republicans are never, never, never going to give up on our quest to have patient-centered health care that's right for our families and doesn't harm our economy and is not an affront to our freedom. So we'll never give up on that.
Madam Speaker, we know that the President is not going to sign away his signature item, and we know since so much of this spending is what we call mandatory spending, automatic spending, we know that the President is not going to cooperate to repeal it or defund it, and we'll never give up our quest. But, Madam Speaker, all we're asking for now is if ObamaCare is going to be imposed on the American people, then it ought to be imposed equally--none of these special interest deals, none of these sweetheart deals. You know what, if it's good enough for the American people, it ought to be good enough for the President.
Why wasn't he the first one, the very first one signing up for this? Why wasn't there a line at the White House? Well, I can tell you why, Madam Speaker, because, guess what, they exempted themselves. The American people are tired of Washington elites passing laws that the rest of us are supposed to live under. That's not what the American people expect, and so Republicans are asking one thing: if ObamaCare is going to be imposed on America, no special deals for big business, no special deals for big labor. If they are going to get a 1-year reprieve, then working Americans ought to get a 1-year working reprieve. And if it's good enough for working Americans, it ought to be applied to the President, his Cabinet, and everyone in the White House and the Congress.
Listen, I don't want to put my family in the exchanges. I don't want to lose the employer contribution that the taxpayers have so generously given us, but we're not going to have the President act like he can make the law. No Member of Congress, no one in the White House is above the law. So that's what we're trying to do. We want negotiations. If we're going to get stuck with ObamaCare while the President is the President, then let it be applied equally; but this is bigger than this.
Millions and millions of our fellow countrymen are either unemployed or underemployed. They need our help. This is a spending bill. The President's economic policies have failed. We want fundamental tax reform. We want to get rid of the red tape burden. We want to take our Nation off the road to bankruptcy. I say this not just as a Member of Congress, but as the father of a 10-year-old son and an 11-year-old daughter. So somehow when the President says you can't mess with this spending bill and we want you to rubber-stamp the debt ceiling, the Republicans say, no, no, no, Mr. President. We will negotiate with you in good faith and maybe the electorate gave you the White House and the Senate, but the American people gave the House to the Republican Party, and we will not sit idly by while men and women are unemployed and underemployed, wondering how they're going to feed their families. We're not going to sit idly by while he bankrupts this Nation for future generations.
No, no, no, we will not sit idly by. We are ready to negotiate, but we are through negotiating with ourselves, and the American people will demand ultimately that the President and Harry Reid negotiate and we work together to get this economy back and put us on a road to fiscal solvency so that our best days will once again be ahead of us.
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