Suspending the Individual Mandate Penalty Law Equals Fairness Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. WAXMAN. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me.

The truth of the matter is no matter how many votes the Republicans cast to repeal the Affordable Care Act and no matter how many distortions they spread about the law, there are some facts they cannot change.

They cannot change the fact that, because of the Affordable Care Act, nobody in America can ever again be denied health insurance because they have a preexisting condition. They cannot change the fact that a woman can never be charged more than a man for the same coverage. They cannot change the fact that a family will never again be left without coverage just because their child's hospital bills got too high.

These facts are stubborn and they are inconvenient for my Republican colleagues, so they ignore them and they deny them. Republicans have voted--or will today--50 times to try to take away the basic security and freedom guaranteed by the Affordable Care Act. They offer absolutely no solutions for the tens of millions of Americans who need health care coverage that is secure and affordable. They have voted to repeal the law, but they have never once voted for a replacement.

Madam Speaker, if the Republicans have a solution that will expand coverage, that will end discrimination by insurance companies, and that will reduce the deficit, they need to bring it up for a vote. But they do not have solutions. What they want to do is deny health insurance coverage to millions of Americans. That is a shame, and I think we are wasting our time today voting again to turn our backs on a bill that will offer so much to the American people.

Don't we have anything else to do? All we seem to do is deny science, which is the bill that will be coming up next, when the Republicans want to stop EPA from dealing with the climate change issue or denying the rights of people to get health insurance, which the Republicans have voted over and over again to do.

I urge that we vote ``no'' on this bill.

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