Save American Workers Act of 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROSKAM. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, the Obama administration has done a clever thing over these past years, and that is to redefine things.

They redefined the word ``balance,'' not to mean the traditional understanding of ``balance,'' but they said, No, no, no. That really means long-term fiscal sustainability. That is the new definition of ``balance.''

They did the same thing on tax reform. The common understanding of ``tax reform'' is that you lower rates; you use loopholes to bring rates down; and you simplify the Code. Instead, they said, No. ``Tax reform,'' for us, means, yes, let's close loopholes, but let's use those closures to fuel more spending.

The richest one I have heard so far is to hear a White House spokesman make the claim, basically, that a job is now a burden and that now, with ObamaCare, there are going to be over 2 million Americans who are shed from that burden, Mr. Speaker, and that they don't have to worry about working anymore because they have got this new health care plan.

It is now finding itself coming true in this bill as well, and what the Obama administration has said is, We are just going to create a new definition of ``full-time work.'' Full-time work has meant 9 to 5. Full-time work has meant 40 hours a week. Not with ObamaCare. ObamaCare has now redefined it. It is a long pattern of redefinitions, and these redefinitions have led to failure.

So here is the thing. We have got an opportunity to remedy this. We have got an opportunity to make it right. We have got an opportunity to recalibrate full-time work to what it has historically meant, and here is what the bottom line is: if we recalibrate it, we will get more work to the very people whom our opponents on the other side claim to speak for, and the irony is that their remedies mean less work for the very groups that they speak to advocate for.

Mr. Speaker, we have got a chance today, and that is to support this bill, to do it quickly and to get us back to the normal definition of ``full-time work,'' which is 40 hours a week.

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