insurance coverage has dropped 18%. now only 48% of texans have health insurance provided by their employers. well below the national average. texas has some of the highest health insurance premiums in the u.s. a family of four making 44,000, the average premium out-of-pocket, is $6,548. in texas our state department insurance reports the legislature acknowledged the positive impact of the affordable care act n this report i ask unanimous consent to place into the record, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. . mr. green: they concluded it would help texans gain access to private insurance coverage. as the department of insurance report states, removing of underwriting restriction, new premium rate regular form, availability of subsidies and limitations on out of pocket expenses for low income and middle income families should make it easier for lower income

texans to on stain insurance. in houston, in my district, 40% are uninsured. when -- -- a repeal of h.r. 2 would be a major setback of what we're trying to do in our district. despite a few local statistics, it increases the number of 217,000, allow insurance companies to deny coverage to 200,000 people in our district, including 12,000 children with pre-existing conditions. eliminating tax credits for 14,600 small businesses and 177,000, increased prescription drug costs for 4,400 seniors in my district who fell into that doughnut hole for health care reform. my republican colleagues want to work on improving it. i'm here to do it but repeal isn't the answer. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from michigan. mr. upton: mr. speaker, at this

point i yield to the gentleman from oregon, mr. walden. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from oregon is recognized for one minute. mr. walden: thank you, mr. chairman. 42.7% of oregon's seniors, that's 200,000 in oregon, nearly 41,000 in my district, were enrolled at the time this law was established in medicare advantage programs. you know, under this bill, under this new law instead care gets whacked by $500 billion and reports indicate one out of two seniors might lose their medicare advantage across the country. look, i want a patient-centered health care system. it's your life, it's your health, you should have the right to choose your doctor and your hospital and make those decisions. we will address with our replacement bill pre-existing conditions, making sure kids who are in college or up to 26 or whatever the age are going to be covered by the insurance. i tell what you, in the law that is on the books today, it drives

up the cost of health care, it drives up premiums and it adds to the nation's debt when you look at it in the long-term according to c.b.o. the manager at a small freight logistics told me recently, because of the 1099 reporting provision in this bill she's going to quit buying from various businesses, consolidate. it's going to cost jobs and put new headaches on small businesses. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. upton: i yield the gentleman. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for an additional 30 seconds. mr. walden: that's one of the big arguments i get from the people in my district is why did the government take over this, put all these other provisions in, ram a bill through the house that creates this new trillion-dollar entitlement that costs jobs and doesn't drive down the cost of health care? we can do better than this given the chance and under the republicans, the committees will actually have a chance to work on a bill for replacement and everybody can participate from both sides of the aisle and we'll get it right and get to a patient-centered health care system in america that does reform the current system and drives down costs.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from new jersey. mr. pallone: mr. speaker, i yield now a minute and a half to the distinguished chairwoman of the rules committee, -- did i say former chair, i apologize, the ranking member of the rules committee, the gentlewoman from new york. ms. slaughter: thank you, mr. speaker. i speak to you on behalf of the women of america, the millions of whom i will never meet. but are set to receive countless protections from the affordable care act by the time it is fully implemented in 2014. health care reform is a major victory for women and any attempt to repeal or defund this legislation is simply unfair to us, our daughters, our mothers and our granddaughters. the fact of the matter is that affordable care act ends the widespread discrimination that has existed and will come back against women in the health care system. it took us decades until we could pass this bill to make it illegal finally for insurance companies to charge women higher

premiums and stop the egregious practice of charging them 48% more and to not cover domestic violence victims. yes, that's right. in eight states the district of columbia, insurance would not cover victims of domestic violence on the grounds that it might happen again. equally as egregious, women were routinely denied health insurance if they had children. pregnancy was considered a pre-existing condition as were d.n.c.'s. but those -- both of those reprehensible practices were outlawed in the passage of the affordable health care. thanks to the new law, women do not have to worry any more about being treated as second class citizens or being discriminated against for being a woman. but that's not where the benefits end. when it's fully implemented, all maternity services will be included in health insurance plans. they will no longer be able to deny coverage or higher premiums with people who have had

c-sections or pregnancy and i will thank you very much and put the rest in the rorled. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman's time has expired. the gentleman from michigan -- in the record. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman's time has expired. the gentleman from michigan. mr. upton: before i yield a minute to the gentleman from oklahoma, mr. sullivan, i'd yield 0 seconds to the gentlelady from tennessee, mrs. blackburn. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from tennessee is recognized for 30 seconds. mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. speaker. in reference to the comments that were just made about women in the health care law, i would remind the body, one of our primary concerns with this legislation was the way in which women would be adversely impacted. when you look at the comparative results board and the fact that they were going to change the ratings that were coming from the task forces and it would be more difficult for women under the age of 50 and over the age of 75 to get mammograms and i use that as an example, we need this bill off of the books. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman's time has expired. the gentleman from michigan.

mr. upton: again, i would yield a minute to the gentleman from oklahoma, mr. sullivan. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from oklahoma is recognized for one minute. mr. sullivan: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today in support of legislation to repeal obamacare. this health care law is bad for patients, bad for doctors, bad for small businesses and terrible for our troubled economy. i hear from my -- from small business owners across the first congressional district every day. most are being forced to cut back on health benefits. they can't afford to hire new employees and they are scared to death that obamacare will put them out of business. not only is this unconstitutional, to force the american people to purchase government-approved health insurance, but this prescription for disaster has put our nation on a path to bankruptcy by adding billions of dollars to our already record-setting deficit. in addition, obamacare actually reverses over 30 years of bipartisan efforts to keep tax dollars from funding abortions which i funed reprehensible --

which i find reprehensible. mr. speaker, repealing obamacare is not the end of the debate on the health care system, it's the first step in implementing a health care system that works for all americans without costly, unconstitutional government mandates that destroy jobs. and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from new jersey. mr. pallone: mr. speaker, i yield two minutes to the gentlewoman from colorado, mrs. da get. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from colorado is recognized for two minutes. ms. degette: thank you, mr. speaker. i've heard supporters say this is just the first step, then they'll talk about fixing the bill. well, tell that to the millions of americans who are now reaping the benefits of the legislation who, if this actually became law, would lose what they have only just now gained. citizens whose children suffer from diabetes or asthma and have finally been able to get coverage.

citizens like the small business owners i met with last fall in denver who because of health re form law's tax credits are able to get health insurance for their ploles. and citizens like the next generation of our country's leaders, like my young neighbor who has type one diabetes and is going to college but knows he will have insurance and he can stay on his parents' insurance. i keep hearing repeal and replace. but frankly, mr. speaker, that's not what we're doing today. we're repealing these benefits that help millions of americans and we are replacing them with nothing. if the proponents of this bill really intended to cover these things, why didn't they just put the 10 pages that my colleague talked about in the bill? the reason is because if you want to give benefits like this to millions of americans, to young people, to women with gender disparity and to small businesses, you have to have

comprehensive reform. we all know it and that's why we need to resist this effort, we need to resist repealing this legislation and we need to work together across the aisle to implement it in a way that helps every single american. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. the gentleman from michigan. mr. upton: before i yield a minute to the gentleman from nebraska, i'd like to yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from texas, dr. burgess. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized for 30 seconds. mr. burgess: the fact is on owes thax -- on those tax credits for small business, they are so confusing. i hear this all the time back home, that one understands how to make those benefit -- no one understands how to make those benefits work. if you really wanted to help small business, let's repeal that 1099 provision. way was it even in there? one reason, so the i.r.s. could enforce the mandate. the other reason was, maybe they need a value-added tax to pay for this.

let's repeal it and get it done the right way. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from michigan. mr. upton: mr. speaker, i yield a minute to the gentleman from nebraska, mr. terry. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from nebraska is recognized. mr. terry: mr. speaker, i embrace this opportunity to repeal this trillion-dollar tragedy. that's the cost of it over six years but yet in order to make their numbers work so they can come here and argue that this is deficit-neutral, they only have benefits for six years. it's full of gimmicks like that. the reality is that it's raising taxes to the amount of $569 billion, that is a job killer. and it hurts senior health care by taking $523 out of medicare over the next 10 years. and puts bureaucrats in charge of your health care. that's wrong, that's a tragedy. what we will do right is in the next phase, starting very soon in our committee, we will begin an open process, not the one that was used where a bill was

written in the speaker's office and then driven to the house floor with no amendments allowed, we will do this right, we will have the people involved, this whole body will be involved, even the other side of the party is going to be involved in our committee, which we weren't allowed before. so we will do this right and do it right for the american people. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from new jersey. mr. pallone: mr. speaker, i yield myself 15 minutes. 15 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for 15 seconds. mr. pallone: thank you, mr. speaker. i've heard talk on the other side of the aisle about small business, but i would point out that repeal would eliminate tax credits for small businesses. in mr. burgess' district, they're up to 13,600 small businesses that are eligible for the tax credit and repeal would force these small businesses to drop coverage or bear the full cost of coverage themselves. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. pallone: i yield two minutes now to the gentlewoman from california. mrs. capps. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentlewoman from california is recognized for two minutes. mrs. capps: mr. speaker, i rise in strong opposition to this misguided and costly legislation. first, i think we should be spending our time here on creating jobs instead of rehashing settled law. secondly, i want to speak on behalf of the millions of americans already benefiting from the strong consumer protections in this law. across the country parents now know that their children can be insured after graduation from high school or college. seniors in the dreaded doughnut hole have received help for prescription drugs and can have a physical each year and women no longer have to worry about paying higher premiums because insurance companies often consider females a pre-existing condition. and all americans are now eligible for preventative screening. people sick can noer -- sick can no longer be dropped from their plans. these are gone. because the ban -- the law bans insurance companies from excluding folks from pre-existing conditions, people who need insurance the most can

now have access to it. some of my colleagues, these important provisions may seem abstract by for my constituent, grend lynn, and her family, this law means everything. before the strongs lived in constant fear that gend lynn, diagnosed with something, would reach her policy's lifetime limit and become uninsurable because she has a pre-existing condition but the affordable care act means that she will receive the care she needs and her family is protected from bankruptcy. vote for this misguided bill will put the future of the strong female and millions of other families at risk again. the impact is real. in my district, medicare benefits will be taken from 100,000 seniors. it will raise taxes on over 16,000 small businesses and none of us can afford the $230 billion that repeal will add to our deficit. that's why i'm urging my

colleagues, for the sake of the strong family, for the sake of all families, colleagues on both sides of the aisle, vote no on h.r. 2. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman's time has expired. the gentleman from michigan. mr. upton: mr. speaker, i would yield a minute and a half to the gentleman from pennsylvania, dr. murphy. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized for 1 1/2 minutes. mr. murphy: thank you, mr. chairman. republicans agree and we want families to keep their kids on their plans if they wish. and last congress that's why we offered proposals that would allowed dependent children to stay on their parents' plan but the other side is trying to identify hide 3,000 pages of a law by discussing only 10 pages. we will achieve this in a replacement bill. but the other side also fails to mention that other parts in this that will ignore what will cost health insurance premiums to go up 17% because of this health care plan. what good is coverage of on a policy if a family can't afford it?

on another issue, chronic illness consumes 70% of health care costs and 90% of medicare. the health care bill however cuts 5ds00 billion from medicare and much of that by eliminating chronic care management that could otherwise save lives and men -- lives and money. if you like your plan, you can't keep it. what does chronic disease management do? in pittsburgh it reduced rates for diabetics by 15%. washington hospital reduced admissions for heart disease by 50%. the health care bill says if you're sick, you're on your own. tragically, it pays to amputate the feet of a diabetic but won't pay a nurse $5 to make sure you're following up on medicines and treatments. you'll find no reimbursement code for disease management.

we must repeal and replace this bill for the sake of our citizens and our children. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new jersey. >> may i inquire about the time left on both sides. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new jersey has 24 3/4 minutes. the gentleman if from michigan has 28 and a half minutes. mr. pallone: i yield two minutes to mr. doyle. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. doyle: i rise in response to the patient's right repeal act. day after day, studies show what's at stake in this reform. a staggering report states that up to 2,900 million americans -- up to 290 million americans could lose their newly enacted protection from insurance

company discrimination. the c.b.o. reports it could add $32 billion for medical debt. the centers for medicare and medicaid would reduce the solvency of the medicaid program for three years resm peel of last year's health care reforms would raise costs for people in my home district of pittsburgh, pennsylvania, and people across the country, whether they were working americans or recent college grads. health care reform took power from the insurance companies and gave it back to american consumers resm peel would allow private health insurance companies to go back to the practice of cherry picking low-risk customers and sticking it to the rest of it. -- rest of us. it would raise the average cost of prescription drugs for seniors by over $500 this year and by over $3,000 in 2020.

in a nutshell, the republican repeal mean this is -- children with pre-existing conditions, denied coverage. young people up to age 26, can't stay on their parents' plan. pregnant women and breast and prostate cancer payments could be thrown off their insurance policies. seniors will pay more for their drugs. the deficit will increase by $230 million. small businesses pay higher taxes. that doesn't sound good to me. repeal helps no one, no one but the insurance industry. i adamantly oppose this effort to repeal this health care reform bill. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from michigan. >> before i yield two minutes to the gentleman from texas, dr. burgess, i yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from georgia, dr. gingrey. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for 30 seconds. mr. gingrey: with my slow drawl, i don't think i can refute everything the gentleman had to say in 30 seconds.

people with pre-existing conditions, if you believe those statistics, i can sell you in pennsylvania. this business about $230 billion savings, we've already discussed that. they use 10 years of revenue and six years of charges. it's smoke and mir ross. finally on the issue of the doughnut hole, the drug companies have solved that problem. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan. >> i yield two minutes to the gentleman from texas, dr. burgess. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for duominutes. mr. burgess: it is important that we have this vote today and that we vote to repeal this legislation. i was supportive of reforming the health care system but the law that was pass passed does not do what was necessary to be done. we heard if our constituents over and over again in the summer of 2009. don't mess up what we all have and do something to help us with

costs. we ignored them on both counts. i'm troubled because of the drafting errors in this law. i'm troubled because we've had no a single oversight hearing since this law was passed. i'm troubled because from the start, the government takeover of health care has provided numerous red flags to which congress has not responded. secret deals. what about the five groups of health care providers, doctors, insurance companies, medical device manufacturers, drug companies all invited to the white house, along with the labor unions, to come up with ideas for health care reform. they came out to the rose garden and said, we've saved $2 trillion. i simply asked for that information in a committee hearing and was denied. $2 trillion in savings and i'm asked to believe no one wrote anything down? this was not transparency, that was photo op. how can we ever expect to be legislators if we're not even knowing that the ending was written before the bill was on the floor? the president promised the

american people that there would be open hearings and meetings that would be televised on c-span but that didn't happen. amendment after amendment was offered in committee, some were in fact accepted by chairman waxman and the democrat, but then the bill went to the speak ears office and the speaker along with the white house rewrote the bill, it doubled in size, it came to the floor and was pushed through. why even have the committee hearings if speaker pelosi and the white house are going to rewrite the bill to suit their needs. the president kept say, if you like what you have, you can keep it. but apparently that's only true for some people. many people felt that members of congress ought to take what they were forcing the american people to take. but in fact that was not true. the members of congress are required now to be covered under the exchange. their staff is required to be covered under the exchange. are there exemptions? yes. committee staff and senior

leadership staff are not required to be covered, neither are white house occupants. it ought to be the same for everyone. these loopholes need to be closed. the difficulties in these bill -- in this bill are too legion to mention. if it could have fixed the problem, i would have been for it. it is a destructive and pernicious blight and the debt truly threatens the fabric of our republic. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from new jersey. mr. pallone: i yield myself 15 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for 15 seconds. mr. pallone: i want to mention, the gentleman from texas was decrying the h.h.s. study about pre-existing conditions. these are serious pre-existing conditions, heart disease, asthma, high blood pressure, people have had their policies canceled or couldn't get insurance because of the pre-existing conditions, i don't think they should be belittled. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired.

the gentleman from new jersey. mr. pallone: i gentleman -- yield to the gentlewoman from california, mrs. harman. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized for two minutes. mrs. harman: today's debate reminds me of john mcenroe's famous rant, you can't be serious. everyone know this is vote is symbolic, putting off for another day to work on parts that need attention, there is no need to repeal the 1099 provision for small business but we should add provisions to allow the government to bargain for better drug prices or to create more competition in the health care plans. to me, that was what the public option was floor. 5,000 seniors received $250 last year to help cover the doughnut hole portion of their prescription drug cost and they will get 50% drug discount this is year. 49,000 people under age 26 are

covered by their parents' insurance plans. 1,100 local families who went bankrupt due to health care expenses before the law was enacted no longer fear lifetime limits on insurance coverage. people like elena who has graves disease and has gone without coverage since 2000 can now get coverage. there are similar stories in every district. let me bring into stark relief the difference brought to light in tucson. our colleague, gabby giffords and others received top-notch care at a level 1 trauma care. they give -- such facilities give survivors a 25% greater chance of survival. my district is home to the harvard-ucla medical center, that's where victims of a natural disaster, terrorist attack or another tucson-like massacre will be brought.

we can't be serious if we cut aid to level 1 trauma centers. mr. speaker, bipartisanship is hard and it sadly won't start with this vet. -- with this vote. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan. >> mr. speaker, at this point, i would yield to the gentlelady from tennessee, mrs. blackburn. the speaker pro tempore: how much time? >> one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. mrs. blackburn: i rise in support of the repeal of this measure. the health care law this body passed last year means well but we all know it will never deliver on the promises that my colleagues have made. let me tell you why this is not a rant and why we're serious. in earlier, the gentleman from tennessee, mr. roe, spoke to the body on this. obamacare makes the same fundamental mistakes that tenncare in tennessee made. do we not learn from our

mistakes? obamacare and tenncare bet that the near-term costs incurred will be made up by long-term savings. that's 10 years of revenue for six years of expenses. tennessee lost that bet and it nearly bankrupted the state. unless we repeal obamacare, america will go down the same road. we know hundreds of mandates, thousands of mandates and hundreds of bureaucracies don't add up to a savings by repealing and replacing, we can keep the promises we made last year, better care, lower cost, but do it in a way that will deliver, through competition, not mandates. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new jersey. mr. pallone: i yield two minutes to the gentlewoman from illinois, ms. schakowsky. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for two minutes. ms. shah cus -- ms. schakowsky: yesterday, i met

with everyday americans in chicago who shared with me their personal stories, tragic story, but commob stories, about how our flawed health care system has devastated their lives. at its core, access to health care is a moral issue. midge told me how her 24-year-old daughter-in-law jennifer and her unborn child both died because jennifer could not find health insurance because of a pre-existing condition. her pre-existing condition? a prior pregnancy. by the time emergency health care was mobilized it was too late for jennifer and her baby. she left behind her husband and a 2-year-old. today, the affordable health care act mandates that pregnancy is no longer considered a pre-existing condition. david has diabetes and because of his pre-existing condition, he couldn't get insurance after losing his job two years ago.

he's holding the insulin he needs to live. but thanks to the affordable care act, david has coverage under illinois' pre-existing condition plan and no longer ends up in the emergency room to get his life-saving insulin. the republican plan puts the insurance companies right back into the driver's seat to decide who they will and won't insure, based on profitability, how much they will charge, what benefits they will cover, the affordable care act ends insurance company abuses. creates rules of the road. and puts americans in charge. the republican plan is not health care, for millions of americans, it means no care. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. the gentleman from michigan. >> i yield 15 seconds to the gentleman from louisiana, mr. scalise. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for 15 seconds. mr. scalise: prevention of

discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions, is something we presented last year, it's something that's going to be one of the hallmarks of our replace bill. i hope the gentlelady supports us in preventing discrimination against pre-existing conditions, that's part of the replacement we'll put forth that's real reform. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan. >> i yield one minute to the gentleman from new hampshire, mr. beck. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. bass: this health care reform bill was a bad bill passed at the wrong moment. it is in my opinion one of the major reasons why we face such economic uncertainty in this country. businesses don't know what it will cost to hire somebody. businesses don't know what's coming down. employers don't know what the world is going to be like and consumers feel the same way. now in the course of this debate, we've talked about the issue of pre-existing conditions and how the republicans are not going to allow for pre-existing conditions to be included in

their alternative. nothing could be further from the truth. republicans have consistently offered proposals to give individuals with pre-existing conditions medical access to affordable health care coverage but we will do it in a way that will be predictable, it will be fair, it will be competitive, it will save costs and make health care transparent and it will keep premiums down. we have an opportunity now to make changes that should have been made from the very beginning. and, mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from new jersey. mr. pallone: mr. speaker, could i ask again about the time on each side. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new jersey has 18 1/2 minutes. and the gentleman from michigan has 23 1/4 minutes. the gentleman from new jersey. mr. pallone: at this time i yield two minutes to the gentleman from texas, mr. gonzalez. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized for two minutes. gone gone thank you very much, mr. speaker. and -- mr. gonzalez: thank you very much, mr. speaker.

my first observation is after hearing my colleagues on the other side of the aisle this morning, it reminds me of the movie "groundhog day." same thing over and over again. same old, same old. my advice would be that taking your notes from 2009 and 2010 are stale and irrelevant today. now some, i guess the cynics out there, are wondering why you would proceed with this measure as soon as you took over the majority. some would say it is just political behavior, but i venture to guess that there's another reason. time is not on your side. the more time you allow for this bill and its full implementation, you lose your argument because you're wrong. you said it was a government takeover of health care. wrong. time is proving you wrong.

you said it would be costing thousands and thousands of jobs by now. you were wrong. and with the passage of more time, that only will be solidified. that you misread it. i'm not questioning your intent or sincerity. but you just were simply wrong. because what happened in the interim? people found out that they were able to get insurance for their children despite pre-existing conditions. they could keep their children up to the age of 26 years of age on their policy. seniors were helped with the problems they were faced with the doughnut hole. that's what happened. so i understand. you were in charge for 12 years and did nothing. we moved forward to do something meaningful and all you can think of is to go back to the inaction and you say replace. then why do you force repeal without a discussion to the american people of what you want

to replace it with? isn't that a fair assumption? you were wrong in 2009, you were wrong in 2010 and you're wrong today. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. upton: mr. speaker, before i yield -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman will suspend. the speaker would remind all members that they should address their remarks to the chair, all members. the gentleman from michigan. mr. upton: mr. speaker, before i yield one minute to dr. gingrey, i'd like to yield 15 seconds to dr. burgess. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized for 15 seconds. mr. burgess: i thank the chairman. i would address to the chairman the gentleman who previously spoke must understand that this legislation was litigated in front of the american people for the last two years. they rendered their verdict and the jury verdict in november was, we reject what you have done. we want something better. that's what this process is about today. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. upton: mr. speaker, i would yield one minute to the

gentleman from georgia, dr. gingrey. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from georgia is recognized for one minute. mr. gingrey: mr. speaker, the gentleman from texas who just spoke was right about not causing thousands of job losses. it cost four million lost jobs since the democrats took over in 2007. mr. speaker, i've seen demam of posters here this morning -- seen a number of posters here this morning showing really well to do people struggling with health care issues. i don't have a poster but i had one, it would show men and women all over this country in cities holding soup cans in line, waiting, hoping desperately to get a job. and i guarantee you every one of them would take those jobs even if they didn't have health insurance. the point here, mr. speaker, is the democratic priority was entirely wrong. yes, it's something they've been wanting to do since the 1930's and yes it's something the american people did not didn't want since the 1930's. every time it's come up the american people don't want the government to take over health

care. they've rejected it time and time again. we will vote fora h.r. 2 and pass it and if the senate and the president want to ignore the will of the american people, they do it at their own peril. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from new jersey. mr. pallone: meeks, i yield myself 15 seconds -- mr. speaker, i yield myself 15 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. pallone: i hear talk on the other side of the aisle about jobs but i point out that under democratic policies, including health reform, there's been a strong private sector job growth this past year. in 2010 there have been 12 straight months of private sector job growth and under the obama administration overall this past year we have created a total of 1.3 million new private sector jobs. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from new jersey. mr. pallone: mr. speaker, i think we have used up a lot of time so i would reserve at this point. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from michigan. mr. upton: mr. speaker, i would yield one minute to the gentleman from louisiana, mr. scalise. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentleman from louisiana is recognized for one minute. mr. scalise: thank you, mr. speaker. with the exception of a liberal in congress, the only person that would suggest that this obamacare law would actually reduce the deficit has got to be an enron accountant. if you look at this bill it rations care, it raises health care costs for families, yes, that was scored to raise the cost of health care, it's actually pushing thousands of doctors out of the practice of medicine. this job-killing bill is not reform. what we need to do is go back to the table and actually repeal this and replace it with real reform. but if all of my colleagues on the other side are correct in what they're saying about what's good about this, then why is that when this bill was in committee we brought up an amendment that said, if this is so good, all members of congress have to join the government option? guess what happened, mr. speaker? every single member of the committee who voted for this bill voted to exempt themselves from it. so clearly that tells you, if you're not willing to put your minute where your month is, it's not good law. let's repeal this and start over with real reforms that lower the cost of health care, that

address real problems like making sure people with a pre-existing condition can't be discriminated against. let's restore the doctor-patient relationship. that starts with repeal. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from new jersey. mr. pallone: at this time i yield two minutes to the gentleman from washington, mr. inslee. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered, the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. inslee: mr. speaker, i'm opposed to this effort to repeal a bill, a reform bill, without anything to replace it at hand. it's asking americans to jump without a parachute and without a net. and it's the wrong thing to do because we are a country that's always moved forward. and want to mention two ways this bill moves forward which we should not repeal. one is that we have finally addressed this who are isks

geographic disparity -- horrific geographic disparity where physicians in hospitals get treated differently around the country. we are finally fixing that long, long overdue. and, second, this bill really helps us move forward to reduce waste in our medical industry. a dort moth study suggested as much as 30% of all the things we do have been wasted in health care because we haven't had the right incentives. where i come from in washington state, we're doing things that we need to export around the country to stop waste in medicine. at virginia mason, just one of the national leap frog to the top award, where they saved over $1 million a year just by bringing efficiencies in how you provide supplies. at group health, they've reduced the readmission rate by about 1/3 by bringing efficiencies to the system. at the providence everett hospital i was so impressed when i met a doctor, a cardiac

physician, who brought some efficiencies on how they handle cardiac patients. so instead of moving the patient all around, they bring the physicians to the patient. you know what? they've knocked almost a full day off the time you have to be in a hospital and they've reduced the infection rate by almost a half, improving quality. at children's hospital they're building a hospital that uses 30% less square footage than the average hospital. these are the types of efficiencies that reneed to reduce the rate of medical inflation. this is one of the reasons that the congressional budget office found that this bill will actually reduce the deficit by $230 billion. let's keep moving forward and not go backward. defeat this bill. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from michigan. mr. upton: mr. speaker, at this point i would yield one minute to the gentleman from ohio, mr. latta. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from ohio is recognized for one minute. mr. latta: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise to express my strong opposition to obamacare. obamacare will single handedly

have more ramifications on the american economy than any bill passed in our nation's history. if not repealed, the $1 dollar 2 trillion government takeover of health care will increase the limit of care. the democrats' health care takeover increases government spending, half-trillion-dollar cut in medicare increase costs to the states and mandates on businesses. all these are hurting the economy and making it harder for small business to create jobs and get people back to work. we need greater competition and more choices for consumers. since this bill became law last spring, i've leard from the same message across the fifth congressional district. businesses aren't hiring employees, buying new machinery or expanding their business because of increases in cost under the legislation. imposing these higher costs on businesses will lead to lower wages and fewer workers. mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time.

mr. pallone: mr. speaker, i yield myself 15 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for 15 seconds. mr. pallone: mr. speaker, i heard the gentleman from louisiana say that members of congress were not in the exchange. and that is simply not the case. and i don't want to hear it repeated from the other side of the aisle. this bill, this current bill that we passed, says that members of congress have to go into the exchange and have the same health care benefits through the exchange as any other american. so don't keep repeating that. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. pallone: it's simply not true. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. does the gentleman wish to yield or reserve his time? mr. pallone: again, mr. speaker, i think we're ahead, in terms of the time, so i will reserve. mr. upton: i might ask that dr. burgess from texas can respond to that. i yield to him 30 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized for 30 seconds? mr. upton: 30 seconds. mr. burgess: mr. chairman, it's important that members of congress understand the parameters here. indeed we are required to buy our health insurance in the insurance exchanges as provided under the health care law. there are no insurance exchanges as they exist right now so it's

anybody's guess. we're probably still in the federal employee health care benefits program but no one is actually certain of that. what is certain is that there were exemptions. there were exemptions for senior staff, senior leadership staff, committee staff, the white house, political appointees in the federal agencies. everyone should be treated equally. some are not more equal than others. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from michigan. mr. upton: mr. speaker, i would yield one minute to the gentleman from iowa, mr. latham. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from iowa is recognized for one minute. mr. latham: i thank the chairman. mr. speaker, i think it's important to understand and remember how we got here. when the senate passed their bill on christmas eve in 2009 there was not a soul on either side of the aisle in the house of representatives who thought that turkey would work. the bill they passed, everybody knew it was bad. and so when it became procedurally impossible to change it, the democrats decided

to push forth this bill that everyone understood would not work. and that's what we're dealing with today. i think it's very promising that now in iowa just yesterday joined a lawsuit so that there's a majority of the states in this country now saying, let's repeal this. that the individual mandate is unconstitutional. so not only are we stuck with a horrible bill, an unconstitutional bill that everyone knows and understood back then would never work, now they want to preserve this. we've got to repeal this, replace it with commonsense reforms that will actually work for the american people. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from new jersey wish to continue to reserve? mr. pallone: yes, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan. mr. upton: i might ask again, parliamentary inquiry, how much time is remaining on both sides? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new jersey has 14 1/2 minutes. the gentleman from michigan has 18 1/2 minutes. mr. upton: i would yield one

minute to the gentlelady from washington, mrs. mcmorris rodgers. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from washington is recognized for one minute. mrs. mcmorris rodgers: thank you, mr. speaker. we can do better. there's many reasons to start over on health care reform, do it right and listen to the american people. number one, the current bill further destroys jobs at a time that we need jobs. number two, it actually increases our health care costs. three, it increases government spending. four, it raises taxes on hardworking families and small businesses. five, it takes away our choice of physicians. six, it cuts medicare for seniors. goodbye medicare advantage. seven, it threatens our world class quality health care system. se eight, it will add to our already growing budget deficit. nine, it includes taxpayer funding for abortions. 10, it's unconstitutional and there's many, many more. i encourage my colleagues to join me in supporting h.r. 2. and let's start the process of repealing this bill, the current

health care reform bill, and replacing it with a bill that america deserves and america wants. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. does the gentleman wish to continue to reserve? mr. pallone: i yield two minutes to the gentlelady from wisconsin, ms. baldwin. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for two minutes. ms. baldwin: i rise on behalf of hundreds of thousands of wisconsin families who have begun to benefit from health care reform. i'm mindful othe -- mindful of the children, young adults and seniors who would lose access to the health care afordable health care coverage should this push to repeal our health care law come to pass. over the year, i have heard thousands of stories from constituents about their struggles to find access to affordable health coverage this year, my constituents' calls and letters have changed. they've transformed into stories of thanks and gratitude.

i think of kate, of fitsburg, wisconsin, whose family has seen the benefits of this law in the short time its po visions have been in effect. she recently shared with me how her 16-year-old daughter maggie had been unable to receive affordable health care coverage because she was born prematurely with a genetic anomaly that requires frequent doctors' visits. however, as a result of health care reform, maggie is no longer denied health care coverage because of her pre-existing condition. kate also has the peace of mind knowing once her daughter becomes an adult, she can remain on kate's insurance until she turns 24. additionally, kates' parents are both on medicare and have fallen into the prescription drug doughnut hole. as a result of our recently passed health care law, they have received additional help to pay for their medication. unfortunately, kate's family would no longer enjoy these

benefits should this measure we're considering today to repeal health care reform laws succeed. and kate's family isn't alone. under repeal, 147,000 young adults in wisconsin would stand to lose their insurance coverage through their parents' health care plans. once again, people would be discriminated against because of pre-existing conditions and 46,000 wisconsin seniors would face higher prescription drugs. i urge my colleagues to oppose this measure. thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. the gentleman from michigan. mr. upton: i yield one minute to the gentleman from mississippi, mr. harper. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady -- the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. harper: the so-called care act is nothing but oppressive economics. as medicaid rolls rise, state revenues continue to fall, and

this law only increases the challenges that governors face in their attempts to balance their budgets. instead of granting state executives the authority to tailor their medicaid programs to the state's diverse population, the affordable care act implements a one size fits all maintenance effort that restricts states from changing their medicaid programs. republicans want to provide states with the flexibility they need to manage their health programs. this is simply one reason why i am committed to repealing this carelessly crafted health care law and replacing it with reform centered on decreasing costs and protecting our middle class jobs. thank you and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yield back. the gentleman from new jersey. mr. pallone: i continue to reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from michigan. mr. upton: i'm sorry, mr. speaker.

i would yield a minute to the gentleman from new jersey, mr. lance. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. lance: i rise in support of h.r. 2, an important first step in implementing health care reform our nation can afford. the health care reform passed last year includes slights of hand to mask the true cost of the measure. six years of entitlements and subsidies are paid by 10 years of taxes. premiums are collected for the first 10 years with no benefits in that period. dough los holtz-eakin said it best in today's "wall street journal" when he wrote that it's all about implausible accounting and the false impression of fiscal discipline. failure to repeal the health care law will add an adgsal $700 billion to our national deficit in the next 10 years.

however, we can work together in a bipartisan capacity to enact common sense health care solutions that lower health care costs without raising taxes or adding to our national debt. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from new jersey. mr. pallone: i continue to reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan. mr. upton: i yield one minute to the gentleman from louisiana, dr. cassidy. mr. cassidy: opponents of repeal argue that this gives americans insurance. but in truth what it often gives is medicaid. medicaid is a federal-state program which is often called welfare medicine. it is a program destroying welfare budgets. last spring, the "new york times" spoke about how this has implications for medicare. they spoke of a woman on

medicaid with metastatic cancer who could not find an oncologist because michigan medicaid had been cut so much. carol died a week after the article. that's medicaid. supporters of the obamacare bill believe more people on medicare is good but republicans disagree. what's happening in michigan is happening across the nation. last year, before this bill was passed, 20 states cut medicare payments and 39 cut providers. now messenger what happens when the rolls double. 16 million more americans getting put on medicaid is not health care, it is the illusion of coverage for patients. let's repeal this law and pass rereal reform. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. upton: i yield one minute to the gentleman from kentucky, mr. guthrie. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. guthrie: i believe the health care bill passed last

year will not only burden american families but also bankrupt state governments. it's been estimated the health care bill will sad kentucky with a $303 million unfunded mandate. it will leave fewer resources available for public education, infrastructure projects and other worthwhile state efforts. it's not just kentucky, states all across the nation face the same dilemma. they're already facing difficult budget situations and will soon be struck with higher medicaid costs as a result of the law. further the law prohibits states from offering their medicaid offerings removing their ability to contain rising costs. we must stop this law from going into effect and further burdening our state governments and american families. i urge my colleagues to vote yes and yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from new jersey. mr. pallone: i yield two minutes to the gentleman from north carolina, mr. butterfield.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. butterfield: let me thank the ranking member for the time and thank him for his leadership on the committee. as we debate the republican proposal to repeal health care reform, i truly hope that the american people will open their eyes and realize that this legislation will put insurance companies back in charge of their health care. i don't know about my friends on the other side, i don't know about what distributes -- districts you represent but i represent a low-wealth, rural district in north carolina. my constituents need affordable health insurance they need access to health care now. in my district, this repeal would allow insurance companies to deny coverage to 261,000 individuals with pre-existing conditions. it would eliminate health care tax credits for up to 11,600 small businesses and 193,000 families. the number of people without health insurance in my district

would grow by 56,000 people and would increase the cost to hospitals for uncompensated care by more than $65 million and would increase prescription drug costs for 7,300 seniors who hit the medicare drug doughnut hole. so, mr. speaker, i take great offense to any effort to repeal health care reform. this repeal would only lead to bigger federal deficits and higher taxes for small businesses. children, students, seniors and small business owners would be devastated by losing these protections. mr. speaker, i urge my republican colleagues to stop playing politics with health care, open your eyes and see the pain of america's working families. listen to the silent majority in your district, not the loudest people in your district. reject this repeal effort and let's debate ways and means of creating jobs in america. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from michigan. mr. upton: i yield one minute to the gentleman from texas, mr. olson. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. olson: i thank the speaker and i thank my colleague from michigan. i rise in strong support of h.r. 2. mr. speaker, many of my colleagues have come to this floor tonight to highlight the numerous job destroying provisions in this new health care law. they've outlined serious threats to our health care system and our economy. i'd like to highlight something not included in the law. medical liability reform. my home state of texas has implemented liability reform with positive results. it's a model for america to follow. before reform in texas, doctors could not afford to stay in practice. lawsuits were forcing them to

close their doors. now with reform, they're flocking, flocking to texas. here's the proof. since implementation in 2003, we've seen a 60% increase in the number of doctors practicing in our state. 60%. a 27% drop in the cost of medical liability insurance. we must repeal this economy-busting health care bill by enacting meaningful health care reform. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expyred. mr. olson: we made a promise to the american people and today that's a promise kept. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. upton: i yield one minute to the gentleman from west virginia, mr. mckinley. sproy -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. mckinley: this bill needs to be repealed for a host of reasons, especially its effect

on seniors. i spoke to the owner of a coal mine with 24 employees. she said it caused her annual premiums to increase by $84,000. it was a wrong approach and it will cost jobs. let's not lose sight of our most vulnerable citizens in our society, senior citizens. the law's $500 billion in cuts to medicare is unconscionable. reducing benefits from some senior citizens and jeopardizing access tore care unaccept to believe those of our greatest generation. congress should never have broken their promise made decades ago by cutting the health care they deserve. let's repeal it and replace it with something that's bipartisan, lower cost, save jobs and protects our senior citizens. thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. does the gentleman from new jersey wish to speak?

mr. pallone: i yield myself 15 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. pallone: mr. mckinley mentioned seniors. i would point out that beginning in 2011, the bill benefits medicare provisions. if you repeal the bill those seniors will have a loss. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired and the chair would like to note at the present time, the gentleman from michigan has 11 1/2 minutes, the gentleman from new jersey has 10 1/4 minutes. mr. pallone: i reserve. mr. upton: i was hoping to get a few extra seconds from people yielding back their time but that's not the case. i yield one minute to mr. gardner. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from colorado is recognized. mr. gardner: i'm here to talk

about jobs. i want to highlight the story of one company in my district when it comes to this health care bill. one company in my district that employs 130 people, a manufacturing company, one of the few left in the country. even during the worst of the recession, they kept every single employee employed by having them paint houses, rake leaves, instead of firing them because they felt obligated to their employees. without this health care bill they predicted their health care costs would increase by 5%. with this health care bill, their costs will increase by 20%. an additional $200,000 a year to afford the cost of the health care bill. . that's six people they could have employed, hired, and put to work providing benefits. instead we passed a job destroying health care bill. it is time this congress act to fulfill the promise it made to america. the promise to repeal this bill and to put in its place solutions that will actually

increase the quality of care, decrease the cost of care. the time is now. let's act before we lose one more job. i yield my time back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from new jersey. mr. pallone: i yield now two minutes to the gentlewoman from california, ms. matsui. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for two minutes. ms. matsui: i thank the gentleman for yielding me time. mr. speaker, i rise in strong opposition to the bill before us. this bill would cost the american small business owner dearly. in sacramento over 88,000 small businesses are eligible to take advantage of the tax credits provided under the current law to help offer and afford meaningful health insurance coverage. gordon, the owner of a communications firm in midtown sacramento, covers 100% of his 13 employees' health insurance

premiums. this is the firm's second highest expense next to payroll. as a result of the tax credits and affordable care act, gordon's company is expecting to save roughly 25% in employee premiums. this frees up much needed capital so gordon's business can prosper and expand. another small business that will grow as a result of the tax credit is a small cafe owned by pat and kim in downtown sacramento. they currently employ four full-time employees who receive full benefits and 25 part-time employees. with the savings they are planning to receive from the tax credits, pat and kim will be able to hire another full-time employee. this is the type of job creation that we need to help repair our economy and see small businesses thrive again. that is why repeal is so dangerous and why the affordable care act is so critical to small

businesses in sacramento and throughout our country. for these small businesses i urge my colleagues to vote no on this bill. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. the gentleman from michigan. mr. upton: thank you, madam speaker. i would yield one minute to the gentleman from kansas, mr. pompeo. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. pompeo: thank you, madam speaker. last week the kansas attorney general, doug smith, filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of obamacare and i want to applaud him, the governor, and the 25 other states that have taken on the duty of correcting what this congress did unconstitutionally last cycle. our nation was founded on liberty and that liberty was enshrined in our constitution. they gave us -- to us as members of congress certain powers very limited. the obamacare law strikes at the heart of that constitutional principle. for the first time requires every citizen of american kansas to buy a health care product or

face a stiff penalty. never before has congress required anyone to buy a private product in this way. it can't be right. if that power to exist in congress our power would be unlimited and that's not how our founders intended it. i urge every one of my fellow colleagues to take aim at this law which threatens our liberty, health care system, and jobs in america and kansas. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from new jersey. mr. pallone: madam speaker, i yield two minutes to the gentleman from vermont, mr. welch. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. welch: i thank the gentleman. madam speaker, about a year ago i got a call from donna, a mother, who lives in plainfield, vermont. this was her story. she had a son, has a son, who had a first job. it paid like nine bucks an hour and it came with no health care. but they were excited that her son was getting out in the work

force, learning discipline, learning self-responsibility. but he lost the health care because he was no longer on her policy. he got in an accident. he's fine but he has $20,000 in medical bills that were uncovered and that is a burden on him and it's a burden on the family. when she learned that we passed health care that included coverage for her 21-year-old son, she was ecstatic. it relieved and enormous burden on this family because they knew their son would have coverage. this repeal bill is taking away that coverage for donna's son. why? the question that we have is different from the campaign where we made our arguments. we now are in congress. and we have mutual responsibility to decide whether we are going to spend our time here continuing to make partisan

political points or making practical progress for the american people. you have some good arguments about the health care bill and about what reforms we need and we've got to wrestle with the cost of health care no matter how we pay for it, the costs can't go up higher than wages and salaries. what we should do is improve what we have, correct what must be corrected, and get rid of what doesn't work. but to throw it all out, all these insurance reforms, health care for donna's son, pre-existing conditions, preventive care for seniors whereby getting care in time that's going to save us money, that's the wrong thing to do. when does it make sense to toss out the good rather than correct the bad? i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from michigan. mr. upton: i yield myself 15 seconds. i appreciate what the gentleman from vermont just said and i want to assure him that as we look to replace piece of this

that that element to make sure that children under the age of 26 will be in fact covered. and i just -- we made that point in the rules committee two weeks ago and we'll be doing that again in the days to come. at this point i would like to yield one minute to the gentleman from illinois, mr. kissinger. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. kissinger: madam speaker for the last 10 months i traveled around my district and heard from people in the campaign and now as a member, i heard from people we need to repeal this health care bill. the folks back home get it. they understand this is a budget busting bill that's going to add mountains of debt on our children and job killing to the tune of hundreds of thousands of jobs a year. mr. kinzinger: recently economists came out and recognized that this is a quote, major barrier to job growth, and creates massive spending increases and crushing debt burden. the path to affordable health care is being able to buy insurance across state lines,

and also we have to have lawsuit abuse reform. that is a key element to getting health care costs down. ultimately we have to have reforms that will protect the doctor-patient reelingtsship that's so sacred in america and medicine. so today we begin working to carry out the voice of the people by implementing health care solutions that will reduce costs, increase accessibility, and protect american jocks. today we begin advocating for the next generation of americans not advocating for the next election in america. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from new jersey. mr. pallone: madam speaker, i yield myself 15 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. pallone: madam speaker, i'd just like to point out again, we said it over and over again. the c.b.o., which is the official estimate, says over the next 10 years of health care reform saves $230 billion. after that will for 10 years over $1 trillion. the republicans can't get away from the fact that if they

repeal this bill all that's going to do is increase the deficit significantly because our bill, the current law, actually reduces the deficit. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan. mr. upton: madam speaker, i yield one minute to the gentleman from virginia, mr. morgan griffith. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. griffith: madam speaker, i believe the minimum essential coverage provision penalty is unconstitutional. i took an oath to uphold the constitution. this time last year as a member of the virginia house of delegates defending that constitution i was proud to cast my vote for house bill 10, which mandated no virginian shall be required to buy health insurance. our attorney general has joined the fray and filed suit in court and is winning. as virginians, we did not accept the chains of george iii nor will we accept the chain of

obamacare. i yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from new jersey. mr. pallone: madam speaker, i reserve at this point. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from michigan. mr. upton: madam speaker, i yield at this point one minute to the gentleman from the great state of michigan, dr. benny check. mr. benishek: madam speaker, before coming to this house i had been taking care of patients for the last 0 years. and as a surgeon i work with patients to provide care and earn their trust. the doctor-patient relationship is a very foundation of the practice of medicine. unfortunately the health care law passed in the last congress does not build the doctor-patient relationship, it undermines it. full of hidden costs and red tape, the law overregulates and

limits pasheent's choices. we need to repeal this bill, start over, and craft health care legislation that actually puts patients first, puts them in charge of their care. repealing this bill is not the end of health care reform. this gives us the second chance to tackle the problems of our system while focusing on what makes our system great. i yield the remaining of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from new jersey. mr. pallone: i yield three minutes to the gentleman from new york, mr. weiner. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york is recognized for three minutes. mr. weiner: i thank the ranking member of the health subcommittee and my colleague. we are about the halfway mark of this debate today so i think it's time for us to take a little review and also offer people listening at home kind of a viewer's guide of what they have heard and likely to hear coming forward. there have been basically three formations of the argument by republicans. first they start by making stuff up. you kind of have to wonder if any of them actually read the

bill. 1830,000 new agencies, not true. new i.r.s. agents, not true. death panels, not true. members aren't covered. not true. no tort reform in it. not true. i want to just advise people watching at home playing the now popular drinking came of if you take a shot whenever the republicans take something that's not true, please assign a designated driver. this is going to be a long afternoon. then there are my colleagues on the republican side of the aisle that are basically pursuing the we don't really mean it strategy. my good friend, the new chairman, mr. upton, started his remarks with this long litany of things they'll do in the new bill. they are going to have coverage for pre-existing conditions. they are going to have help for the doughnut hole. they are going to have making sure there are incentives to small business insurance. you know what they call that, my colleagues? they call that the bill they are repealing. it sounds very strange, but they want to repeal but still give it a big hug and embrace it. then of course there is the old

fallback, this is a particularly powerful one for my newer members who are just joining us. it's the bogeyman strategy. you pull those canards out of the sky. it's socialized medicine. socialized medicine? giving people incentives to go to private insurance companies? how is that socialized medicine? if that's the case you-all have it. it's ottawa noting this is the same republican party who last year in their budget alternative and this year in their campaign manifesto said we want to end the medicare program as we know it. they don't talk it much, but that's their philosophy. we have a fundamental disagreement about it. they said there is going to be a government takeover of health care. really? who is taking over what health care plan? who? we are offering people tax incentives, small businesses tax incentives to go buy private insurance plans. this was a proposal first made by republicans. when it was adopted we decided that was the way to go.

but stay tuned, ladies and gentlemen. this is the sign of a philosophical division. you have one side that stands up for patients and for citizens and for businesses, and the other side which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the health insurance industry. we have seen it whether they are making up things, whether they are creating boogiemen, or whether they are saying we don't really mean it, this is harbinger. i will say to americans watching at home, think which side you're on. if you are in love with insurance companies and want them to succeed and you don't care about anything else, by all mens, this is your team. this is your guy. if you believe that we need to make sure that people get health insurance, that they are not passing along their bills to the taxpayers each and every single day, that you believe in programs like social security and medicare, these are your guys. this is kind of your halftime wrap-up for the debate that we are having here today and those are the two sides. ladies and gentlemen, pick your side. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. members will address all of their remarks to the chair. the gentleman from michigan.

mr. upton: madam speaker, i would yield a minute and a quarter to the gentleman from texas, dr. burgess. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for a minute and a quarter. mr. burgess: i thank the chairman. remarks to the speaker, all right, madam speaker, who loves insurance companies? was it the party that gave them an unconstitutional mandate that drove their stock prices through the roof last march 23? maybe it was. we talk about new agencies and the republicans are misleading the american people on how the new agencies are created. your own congressional research service says the number of new agencies is in excess of 150 but the actual number is unknowable. they took a phrase from former secretary donald rumsfeld in that regard. what about the new agencies? what about the office of consumer agency and oversight? where did that come from. authorized in the bill? i think not. appropriations in the bill? your guess is as good as mine but they are out there today hiring people and renting space. the independent payment advisory board is that just a kennard or

real phenomenon that threatens the solvency of every hospital, every hospital, public or private, in this country? exchanges? good idea? bad idea? we can have that debate but gives subsidies within the exchanges that are intolerably high and paid for by taking the money out of our seniors' medicare system. i will not not. my time is limited. these are the problems. these are the issues that should be debated. we are talking about modest changes on the margins. the real fundamental of this bill are so deeply flawed and the risk to the american public because of the expansion of the deficit is so real, it requires the repeal that will be taken today. i yield back. . the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new jersey. mr. pallone: i yield myself 15 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. pallone: dr. burgess talked about the impact on hospitals. i want to point out the health care reform law covers more

hospitals by reducing cost to provide care to uninsured resm peel would undo this benefit, increasing the costs of uncompensated care by $240 billion annually. mr. burgess: will the gentleman yields me 15 seconds? the speaker pro tempore: i yield to the gentleman. mr. weiner: who do you think pays for the uninsured? who comes in and pays? it is your citizens in your towns, states and cities. that's who pays for the uninsured and all of us who wind up footing the bill. talk about response -- responsibilities? what about the responsibility not to pass the bill along to everyone else. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan. mr. upton: may i inquire how much time is left. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan has five minutes remain, the gentleman from new jersey has 2 1/2 minutes remaining. mr. upton: i yield a minute to the gentleman from texas, mr.

canseco. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. canseco: i thank the gentleman from michigan. madam speaker, i rise in support of repealing the $2.6 trillion washington takeover of health care. i spent the past year speaking with thousands of texans in the 23rd district. the message i received was explicit and distinct. repeal and me re-place the jobs-destroying health care law. we must reform health care in america. however, we must do so in a way that doesn't destroy jobs but ensures the american people can get the health care that they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford and doesn't put washington bureaucrats in charge of america's health care. thank you and i yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from new jersey. mr. pallone: i continue to reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentleman from michigan. mr. upton: i yield one minute to the gentleman from south carolina, mr. duncan. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. duncan: thank you, madam speaker. the first time i stood on the floor to speak, i spoke to read the united states constitution. now i rise to defend this great document that i carry with me every day. by advocating for the repeal of the unconstitutional health care bill, obamacare. let me convey the thoughts and feelings of the people ofrom my home state of south carolina. to the last congress, i ask where in this document, the united states constitution, or the writings of our founding fathers, leads you to believe that we as free americans should not be able to choose and pick our own doctors? what leads you to believe that the government takeover of texas shk even constitutional? and why didn't you listen to the millions of americans who yelled at the top of their lungs that we don't need or want the government to be in control of our health care decisions? i think it's time we return this house to the people and we can

start by repealing the job-killing, socialistic and out of touch health care bill. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new jersey. mr. pallone: i yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from texas, mr. green. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for 30 seconds. mr. green: i want to respond. if that constitution means anything, it shows that as members of the house and senate, the legislative branch, it's not our job to decide constitutionality. my opinion is as important as yours. it's the nine people on the supreme court that the constitution gives that authority to. i think the health care law is constitutional because all those companies serve all of our states. it's across state lines. the commerce clause works that way. hiding behind the constitution, we read it here on the floor. this bill will be constitutional because social security is constitutional, mandatory insurance in our states are constitutional. you can have that argument but it doesn't do any good. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan.

mr. upton: i yield one minute to the gentleman from new hampshire, mr. guinta. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. guinta: i rise to add my voice to those calls for the repeal of last year's misguided overhaul of the health care system. seldom has a well-intentioned desire, in this case making this better, strayed so disastrously off course. the new bill allows washington to spend more money, more borrowed money. even worse, it fails to accomplish its primary goal. instead of making health insurance more affordable, premiums today remain sky high for individuals and employers. now we have a two-part opportunity before this congress. first, we must repeal last year's unconstitutional legislation. then we need to begin the process of delivering what

americans are demanding. a patient-centered health care system that sesketive, efficient, and simply reduces costs. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from new jersey. mr. pallone: i yield myself 15 seconds, if i could. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. pallone: the gentleman from new hampshire if he votes for this repeal, he's eliminating new health care coverage options for 1,900 uninsured young adult, increasing the number of people without health insurance by 24,000 individuals and increasing the cost to hospitals of providing uncompensated care by $35 million annually in his district. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from michigan. mr. upton: madam speaker, i think we're -- two minutes each, i think is what we're at. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan has two minutes, the gentleman from new jersey has 1 3/4 minutes.

the gentleman from michigan. mr. upton: i yield to the gentleman from maryland, dr. harris. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. harris: as a physician delivering care in labor and delivery for 26 years, i know the last thing we need is a new government bureaucrat looking over our shoulders. when i'm in that delivery room administering an anesthetic to a mother to save her baby's life, that's exactly what obamacare will do if we don't repeal it. instead of congress making sure that the baby born that day has a real chance at the american dream by creating jobs and solving america's long-term fiscal crisis, they added over $2 trillion to our children and grandchildren's debt with that job-destroying obamacare bill. that's why we should repeal it today. i yield back the balance nisme. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from new jersey.

mr. pallone: we have one minute each now? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman has 1 3/4 remaining. mr. upton: i think we have one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman has one minute. the gentleman from new jersey. mr. pallone: how many more speakers do you have? mr. upton: we have one speaker remain, my friend. mr. pallone: i yield myself the remainder of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. pallone: in this debate, the truth should be told about the republican repeal. in fact, the republican bill should come up with a health warning that their measure is dangerous to america's health. for many people, the issue of having health coverage is a matter of life and death. i would say there's so many benefits that we have pointed out in this debate that already exist for the average american that to talk about repeal at this time and eliminate those

benefits for those people that have pre-existing cons -- conditions that wouldn't be able to get coverage or would face a cap, lifetime cap, rescission, is simply -- it simply needs to be told that the fact of the matter is that right now there's tremendous benefits coming to the average american from this legislation. to repeal it at this point makes absolutely no sense. it's completely a waste of time. we have no indication that this repeal would ever go to the senate or ever be considered by the president and i just would wish, i just wish that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, instead of wasting their time, talking about this repeal that's going nowhere, would instead focus on the economy, focus on jobs. when i talk to my constituents, that's what they want us to deal with. we just began this session of congress about two weeks ago. the focus should be on the economy, on jobs, on trying to do what we can to improve the lives of the average americans. we have tremendous benefits under this health care legislation now. why focus our attention in the

first two or three weeks of the congress on this repeal? it makes absolutely no sense. i would ask my colleagues, after today, please let's focus on jobs, let's focus on what we can do to improve the economy. let's not continue this debate on health care because actually what my constituents want is they want this bill to unfold. they like the benefits that have already come forward and a lot more benefits will accrue. most americans will ultimately be covered by health insurance. that's the case. let's focus on jobs and the economy and stop this ruse about health care repeal. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan. mr. upton spock to lose close our -- mr. upton: to close our delate -- debate, i yield to mr. holmgren. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. holmgren: the so-called affordable care act has failed to make care more affordable. i have heard from local families throughout my community about

what this will mean to their pocketbooks and from business owners concerned about how they'll keep their doors open. making care affordable means adressing out of control costs, such as lawsuit reform. this was inexplicably ignored in this afpblgt the act also created paralyzing uncertainty and bureaucracy, putting new demands on businesses in the form of mandates and taxes, forcing them to comply with yet to be written regular laces. it staals the economic recovery we need so dearly. after this vote, i look forward to working with all my colleagues to find ways to focus on health care. mr. hultgren: making health care more affordable to all americans. this act failed to accomplish such common sense goals. in fact, it made matters worse. therefore, i will vote for its repeal and i encourage all my colleagues to join with me on

both sides of the aisle and vote yes. thank you, madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentleman from michigan is recognized. >> thank you, madam speaker, i yield myself 4 1/2 minutes. the speaker: the gentleman is recognized. >> the democrats' health care law is fundamentally flawed and we will vote to repeal it today. the problem with this law, among its many faults is it puts government at the center of health care decisions, not doctors and patients. mr. camp: instead of families deciding what coverage is best for them this law has the secretary of health and human services making that choice. instead of families and employers deciding how much they can afford, the i.r.s. a making that -- is making that decision. instead of families and employers deciding if they need health insurance, the government is mandating they purchase it. this is all about the government. it's washington knows best and it's wrong. by virtually every measure, this law is a failure. the health care law fails to

control costs. it fails to let americans keep the insurance they have and like. it fails to protect jobs and in fact hurts job creation at a time when the unemployment rate has remained above 9% for 20 months. it fails to ensure seniors have access to doctors and hospitals and fails to ensure that tax -- fails to prevent tax increases hitting middle class families. he health care law makes health insurance more expensive for millions of americans. according to the nonpartisan congressional budget office, the democrat's health law will increase premiums for millions of families by up to $2,100 on arch by 2016. $2,100 more expensive than it would have been if congress had done nothing. . almost $,200 more expensive than the republican alternative we offered last congress. the democrats' health care law forces millions of americans out of the health care plan they

have and like. the obama administration has predicted that as many as seven out of 10 employers will have to change the coverage they offer their employees because of the democrats' health care law. the health care law discourages employers from hiring new workers, increasing wages, or retaining existing employees. there are over $500 billion in new job destroying taxes, many of which hit middle class families. with all these taxes and new regulations, it's no wonder that major employer groups such as the national federation of independent business, the national association of manufacturers, the u.s. chamber of commerce, as well as the business round table and business council call the democrats' health care law destructive and dangerous. the health care law jeopardizes seniors' health care, again according to the obama administration's own actuaries at c.m.s., the massive medicare cuts contained in the democrats' health law could threaten

seniors' access to care and cause providers to stop treating medicare patients. entitlement expansion is not health care reform. and giving new powers and regulations to departments like h.h.s. and letting the i.r.s. hire up to 16,000 new auditors, agents, and other employees is not the same as empowering doctors and patients. and it isn't the job creation america needs. the american people know that like a tree that's rotten at the center we must cut it down and put something new in its place. that's what we are doing today. cutting the government out of the waiting room, out of the doctor's office, and out of your medicine cabinet. once we have done that, we'll begin tomorrow to implement step by step commonsense reform that actually lower the cost of health care and actually respect the doctor-patient relationship. this house, this majority, republicans, have heard the american people loud and clear

and we will not let government dictate your health care coverage. we will repeal this law and continue our efforts until americans are again free to choose their health insurance plan, to choose their doctor, and choose what is best for them, their family, and their business. this is a congress dedicated to empowering the american people not increasing the size, scope, and cost of the federal government. i urge my colleagues to vote with me to repeal this job destroying and cost increasing health care law. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. mr. levin from michigan. mr. levin: i yield myself four minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. levin: madam speaker, health care reform is an american family law. repealing it would hurt families all across our nation. repeal would mean rescission. taking away benefits from millions of americans.

giving power back to health insurance. let's be clear, this law is working. repealing it would have real life consequences for millions of americans. as many as 19 million kids in our country. have health problems considered pre-existing conditions. in the past it could have led insurance companies to drop their coverage. this new law changed that. one example, there are mlts, one mother in my district said she has been anxious about her daughter's health insurance since she was diagnosed with diabetes at age 3. others like her no longer have to worry about their children being denied coverage. more than one million young adults are already been fitting from the provision that allows

them to stay on their parents' plan until they turn 26. just one example. a constituent, sean mccarthy, an autoworker, told me in a letter his two children, age 19 and 23, could not afford to stay in college, but he was grateful that the new law at least enabled them to get health insurance by joining his plan. and then seniors, millions, millions have seen their out-of-pocket drug costs go down under this new law. nearly three million medicare recipients have received a reimbursement check in the mail in the last year relating to the doughnut hole. one gentleman who i represent, harry of warren, michigan, wrote to me thankfully that his wife received $250 she otherwise would not have. he said his wife paid thousands

of dollars out of pocket in 2010 because of the doughnut hole. repeal would mean releasing, releasing insurance companies once again to impose unreasonable premium increases. to deny insurance to whomever they please, whenever they please. to set annual lifetime been fit limits. to discriminate against women through higher rates and arbitrary definitions of pre-existing conditions. repeal would mean retreat. retreat from moving america ahead. we will fight that retreat. it will not happen. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. mr. camp from michigan. mr. camp: i yield three minutes to a distinguished member of the ways and means committee, the

gentleman from california, mr. herger. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. herger: i rise in strong support of this legislation to repeal obamacare. madam speaker, americans expect the new congress to make job creation a priority and get our country back on the path of fiscal responsibility. any serious plan to achieve these goals must begin with repeal of obamacare. madam speaker, i represent 10 rural counties in northern california with chronically high unemployment rates. last year i spoke were the owner of a rest trans-- restaurant chain based in reading, california, he originally planned to open new 10 new locations this year, creating hundreds of new jobs but because of the higher labor costs imposed by obamacare, he has decided not to expand at all. at the other end of my district

in california's kay pay valley, i heard from a family owned farm that delivers fresh produce to residents across the state. they are facing a staggering $1.7 million in costs from the new health care mandates. add these to thousands of similar stories across the country, and it's clear that this law will have a devastating impact on workers and employers alike. that's why the national federation of independent business, the u.s. chamber of commerce, are urging congress to vote yes on repeal. my friends on the other side claim that obamacare will reduce the deficit yet no one truly believes that a new trillion dollar government entitlement is the solution to a deficit crisis caused by reckless spending.

as 200 respected economists wrote just this week, the assertion that obamacare is, quote, paid for, is quote, based on omitted costs, budgetary gimmicks, shifted premiums from other entitlements, and unsustainable spending cuts and revenue increases, close quote. these economists conclude that obamacare could actually increase the deficit by more than $500 billion the first decade and by nearly $1.5 trillion the following decade. madam speaker, republicans are committed to advancing genuine reforms that reduce the cost of health care, but we must begin by doing away with this bad law that moves our health care system in the wrong direction. vote yes on repeal. some the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from michigan. mr. levin: i now yield two

minutes to the very distinguished gentleman from new york, mr. rangel. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. rangel: thank you so much. i wish when the dust settles and we have an opportunity to sit together with our republican friends that wean come up with a reform called truth in advertising as we label these bills. what was a national bill, it's been signed into law, now is being referred to as the democrat, obamacare, job-killing threat to your natural life bill, and of course this is misleading perhaps to a lot of new members because they should know as the listeners to this debate should know that this ain't repealing nothing. it's an obligation that some people feel they made to their constituency who elected them who thought perhaps that's all you had to do was put in a bill.

but under two minutes i can't get into this how to repeal a law but it starts off with a vote in the house, then you have to get a vote in the senate, and then you have to override a veto by the president of the united states. so if this is done for political reasons, i have always been able to find some good, no matter how this thing is misconstrued, in letting people who follow the debate know this is not going to take away the benefits that you receive under the affordable care health act, that you will continue to receive these preliminary benefits now, and as the years go forward and you find that you are in need of service or some of your dear ones, you will find that the bill that people were screaming had to be repealed, that we would have joined in, recognizing that this is the political theater part about it, but we will be forced to review

the bill, improve it if we can, and at the same time be able to say that it's not a democrat bill but the congress in support of the president of the united states saw fit after all of these decades of not recognizing the right of our citizens to have health care, to come together and have a bipartisan effort to provide this care. thank you, madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: mr. camp of michigan. mr. camp: at this time i yield two minutes a true american hero, distinguish members of the ways and means committee, the gentleman from texas, mr. johnson. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized for two minutes. mr. johnson: thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, madam speaker. i rise in support of freedom and free enterprise. this is america. where the constitution and freedom and free enterprise are the hallmarks of this great democracy. i think one of the most compelling reasons people went to the ballot box last fall and cast their vote was they felt

angry that those in power were disregarding personal libertyies and trambling the -- trampling the u.s. constitution. as you know under obamacare the federal government forces freedom loving americans to hand over their hard-earned money for a mandatory product in this case health insurance. that's just not how it should be done in a democracy. in a democracy you have the freedom to choose. if you want to buy something. in a testimonycy you have the freedom to choose if you want to purchase health insurance. in a democracy you have the freedom to choose just to say no. this vote is about freedom and free enterprise and what's best for the future of america. as a constitutional conservative i say vote for freedom and repeal obamacare. i'll close with some words from patrick henry, quote, the constitution is not an instrument for the government to

restrain the people. it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government. lest it come to dominate our lives and our interest. let's stand up for freedom and repeal obamacare. yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yooleds back. mr. levin from michigan. mr. levin: i yield myself 10 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. levin: almost 50 million people have no health insurance. for most of them there is no freedom to choose. there is no ability to obtain it. it's now my privilege to yield two minutes to a fighter for health care for many, many decades, mr. stark of california. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. stark: i thank the gentleman for yielding. madam speaker, i rise today in strong opposition to repealing

health reform. instead of focusing on job creation, my friends across the aisle want to refight the health reform debate and take away patient protections already helping people get the care they need. it bears repeating. health reform is already helping millions of people in america. these aren't just numbers, they are real people. in my community i received a letter from a young woman named stephanie and she recently graduate interested college, married, moved to california where her husband was pursuing a graduate degree. she was lucky and quickly got a job. then within her first few weeks on the job, she found she was pregnant. this should have been an exciting time for a young couple. . start a family.

instead, she learned her pregnancy was a pre-existing condition and she'd obtain no medical coverage for anything throughout it. she writes, our first thoughts were tainted by how would we pay for this. fortunately, buzz of the law and she was under 26, stephanie was able to change her coverage to obtain coverage under her father's health insurance. she now has full coverage for her pregnancy. under the republican plan, stephanie would be stuck with no care. that's the republican plan. by repealing health reform, the g.o.p. plan would provide no protection for people's health. no care if you lose your job no care if off pre-existing condition, no care if you're a senior in the doughnut hole. no care if your insurer hike yours premiums and you can't afford it.

the affordable care act has finally enacted fair rules for insurance companies. the republicans want to take those away -- protections away and put the insurance strbak in charge. i urge my colleagues to vote no on the republican bill. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. camp of michigan. mr. camp: i yield two minutes to the gentleman from texas, mr. brady. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. brady: thank you, speaker. to those middle class americans listening to the debate today, let me speak to you. this is your life. this is your health. you deserve the right to make your decisions about your health care rather than being forced into some government-run plan that's centered around what washington needs and not what you need. thanks to the last congress,

this is your new health care plan. we had our staff spend four months, weekends and evenings, going through all 2,801-page bill and said, tell us how it works. this is the answer. we couldn't fit the whole bilge on one page, this is 1/3 of all the new bureaucracies. new commissions, agencies, bureaucracies between you and your doctor. is this the health care reform you were hoping for? if obamacare so great for families, why are health care costs going high her if it's so great for small businesses, why are they here pleading for us to stop? if it's to great for seniors why have so many been forced out of their plan. they can't even see local doctors anymore because local doctors can't afford to cover

medicare senior patients. health care is too important to get wrong and obamacare got it wrong. the place to start, american families, our seniors, our businesses deserve better and the right place to start is to start over. repeal obamacare and let's come back with some common sense reforms america can embrace. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. mr. levin of michigan. mr. levin: it's now my privilege to yield two minutes to another longtime fighter for health care for americans, mr. mcdermott of washington. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. mcdermott: madam speaker, a very famous republican 100 years ago proposed that we have national health insurance in this country. he also said this, his name was

teddy roosevelt, by the way. it's not the critic who counts, not the one who points out where the strong man or woman stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done bet . the credit belongs to the one in the arena, whose face is marleaued by dust and sweat and blood, who errs and comes up short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming, but two whale -- but who actually strived to do the deed, knows the great enthusiasms, great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement or who at the worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly so his place will never be among those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. i've been here for 23 years. when the republicans defeated us -- the efforts of the clintons

in 1993-1994, i have waited for 16 years for my cold and timid friends to make one proposal that will deal with the pre-existing condition question. you have 125 million americans who cannot go out and get insurance, who cannot leave their job if they have insurance through their job, because they have a pre-existing condition. and you have been silent. for 16 years. now, you want to come up and throw this away. why don't we just settle down and we can make some amendments to this bill. i think there's some things wrong with it. i think there's a lot of stuff. i didn't get into it when it came through this house. i'm sure there are some things you'd like. but throwing it away is a political farce. you know it isn't going to work,

you've admitted it isn't going to work. it's never going to pass. so we go through. let's get the vote out of the way. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. all members are advised to address their remarks to the chair. the gentleman from michigan. mr. camp: i yield two minutes to the gentleman from california. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. >> at enormous cost and in the face of opposition throughout the country, congress forced on the american people a great socialist experiment in government health care. no area of the health care system was left untouched by obamacare. in the name of reform, the democrat majority expanded a broken government program, medicaid. they cut funding from what is already the nation's largest unfunded liability, medicare. and then, basking in their glory, they added a whole new

entitlement program to our catastrophic national debt. the american people were never told the truth. they were promised health care choices and saw them taken away. they were promised saving money and saw more expenses. mr. nunes: medicaid is a program that is bankrupting state governments and the federal government as well. the clock was unfortunately turned back last year. failed social policies re-emerged from the dust bin of history and it was a dark chapter for our nation. instead of improving the lives of all americans by fixing our broken health care system, starting with medicare and medicaid, the democratic majority subjected the american people to class warfare, anti-capitalist hate speech and vitriolic rhetoric. bathed in the excesses of power, they passed the bill that by

their own admission they hadn't read. and then lectured the american people claiming that we have to pass the bill first so that we can find out what was in it. madam speaker, the american people have read the bill. and they've rejected it. today, the house will repeal obamacare and we will ensure that this renaissance of socialism in america is the shortest living political era in our nation's history. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. mr. levin of michigan. mr. levin: i yield myself 10 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. levin: i'm disappointed that this diatribe about socialism comes to the floor today. i yield now for unanimous consent to the gentleman from california and the gentleman from arizona. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentleman is recognized. >> madam speaker, i ask permission to submit my statement against the repeal of the health bill that is good for my district. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. the gentleman is recognized. >> madam speaker, unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. >> and submit my statement in opposition to the repeal of health care reform. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. levin: it's now my privilege to yield two minutes to another fighter for what matters to americans, mr. lewis of georgia. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. lewis: madam speaker, i want to thank mr. levin for yielding. madam speaker, it is unbelievable that with so many people out of work and millions of people uninsured that the first act of this new congress is to take health care away from people who just got coverage.

more people have insurance today because of the affordable care act, more small businesses are offering health insurance to their workers, for the first time in the history of our nation, we are headed in the right direction. we are making health care a right and not a privilege. the repeal will force seniors to pay more for drugs, it will kick young people off their parents' insurance, we will go back to a time when insurance companies were allowed to discriminate and once again, it will allow insurance companies to put profit above patients' health. we must not turn back. we have come too far. we cannot go back. the american people are counting on us to do what is right, what is just, what is fair. we made a promise of health care

to the american people, we must keep that promise. vote no. keep the promise of health care for all of our citizens. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. mr. camp of michigan. mr. camp: i yield two minutes to the gentleman from ohio. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. >> i rise in favor of this bill to repeal the government health care law passed in 2009. this issue was front and center in my campaign, like i'm sure it was in many of the campaigns of the people in this body today. most of my constituents in central ohio opposed the 2,000-page bill that became law and are just beginning to find out what's in it. sure, they knew about some of the good things like dealing with pre-existing conditions, which most of us on this side of the aisle support doing something with as well, but they didn't know about the medicine cabinet tax, for instance.

that's right. flexible savings account changes. no more over the counter medicines for moms who are buying that infant motrin for their babies. mr. tiberi: next year a cap of $2,500 for that flexible savings account. they didn't know about the health savings account withdrawal tax that will impact many americans across our country. a majority of my constituents want a patient-centered approach. not a government-centered approach. abapproach where doctors and nurses are at the center of the process, not government bureaucrats in washington, d.c. in addition, madam speaker, a third of my seniors who are on medicare disadvantage like the health care they have. apparently they won't be able to keep it under this provision of the law system of today we have an opportunity in the de-- and the debate is over whether we change what we have, repeel it, and replace it with something better, something that's

patient-centered and patient focused. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. mr. levin of michigan. mr. levin: i now yield two minutes to the gentleman from massachusetts, a member of our committee, mr. neal. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. neal: during the course of the campaign, we heard this would be repealed and replaced. what we have in front of us is simply repeal because there's never been a credible alternative for replace. this legislation is modeled after a modest, market-driven proposal offered by that left-winger, mitt romney. that left-wing advocate, bob dole. and yes, that champion of liberal causes, richard nixon. this is an amalgamation of a

series of proposals offered over many years. but what do we hear? the usual scare tactics. obamacare. 16 years ago, clintoncare. government takeover. socialism. and the best one of all, death panels. people wonder why the language here is so charged, why it's so inkendary. it's because of the lexicon that is chosen for the purpose of scaring the american people. remember what this proposal does or as president bush said, you need health care, go to the emergency room. it removes 57 million people with pre-existing condition from insurance. it eliminates provisions for 2.4 million young adults to maintain health care on their parents' coverage until they're 26. this bill would allow a return

to discrimination toward women based on higher premiums if they've had breast cancer or perhaps even if they've been a victim of domestic violence or had a child. this bill that's proposed by our friends on the other side, it would get rid of a lifetime cap on out-of-pocket expenses. why is that important? i dare them to challenge the following statistic. half the bankruptcies in america are health care related. people lose their jobs -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. neal: they lose their home, they lose everything because they got sick. i hope we oppose this repeal measure or at least until we hear a replacement proposal. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from michigan. mr. camp: thank you, i yield two minutes to the gentleman from kentucky. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from is recognized for -- the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. >> thank you. the democrats' health care law

has only been in place 10 months yet the problems and negative effects are already painfully clear. the american people stood against it when it was forced through congress last year and they took out their frustration on this bill at the ballot box in november with a mandate to repeal it. this government takeover of our health care system will not improve access to health care or lower costs for families and small businesses. mr. davis: it's just not ining the -- in the math if we use the same math that is used by the rest of the country. since this law was passed, premiums have increased again, putting more families in a difficult position of choosing between keeping their health insurance, paying their heating bills or putting food on the table. in addition to failing to achieve any key goals of health care reform, this law imposes new taxes, penalties, feeses and paperwork burdens on small businesses that drive our economy. the national federation of independent businesses has found that the employer mandate alone will cost $1.6 million -- 1.6 million jobs and about half of those lost by small businesses. face it, obamacare massively increases taxes, massively cuts senior benefits and creates over 100 new agencies, commissions

and boards and that will massively increase costs. over 100 new agencies means more federal employees, more tax dollars required and more complications and access to health care and brings the i.r.s. into your private health care decisions for the first time without addressing the key drivers of cost. adding more taxes and regulations on job creaters will only serve to prolong the economic problem and high unemployment rates we're experiencing. this is too big of a burden for our economy. we need to start over by repealing this bad law now and beginning the process of producing commonsense reforms and fiscally responsible solutions. we can reform health care in a way that improves quality, reduces cost and increases access, all without burdening our economy or increasing the debt that will be owed by our children and grandchildren. as a member of the ways and means committee, i look forward to following through on our promise to replace the current law with proposals that accomplish these goals of reforming washington, bringing private market reforms, reducing costs and dealing with defensive medicine through real debate, real hearings, real markups and

bipartisan input. as an original co-sponsor of h.r. 2 i urge all of my colleagues to join me in supporting this repeal and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from michigan. mr. levin: madam speaker, i now yield two minutes to another distinguished member of our committee, mr. thompson of california. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. thompson: madam speaker, i rise in opposition to the repeal of the patients bill of rights. as congress debates this legislation to repeal the historic health care reform law, it's important that our constituents know what working families, small businesses and seniors stand to lose. repealing the health care reform law would remove new protections for 57 million americans with pre-existing conditions. that includes over 8,000 children in my district. it will end the chance for 2 1/2 million young adults to remain on their parents' plans until they're 26 years of age. in my district, over 4,000 young people would lose this coverage.

it will increase prescription drug costs for more than 10,000 seniors in my district who hit the medicare part d doughnut hole. these seniors will pay another $500 this year and between now and 2020, another $3,000. some 16,000 small businesses in my district alone will pay higher taxes. repeal will increase the deficit by $230 billion over the next 10 years and more than $1.2 trillion over the following decade. and repeal will shorten the life of the medicare program by 12 years, putting medicare benefits and the seniors that depend on it at great risk. so when you consider these facts, it's clear that repealing the health care reform law is bad for families, it's bad for small businesses and it's bad for seniors. in my district and across our

great country. i urge a no vote. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from michigan. mr. camp: i yield two minutes to a member of the ways and means committee, the gentleman from washington. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. reichert: i thank the gentleman for yielding. i'm here today to say that i'm going to vote yes to repeal this health care bill because i think the american people deserve better. there were promises made in this bill, promises, promises, promises, promises made and unfortunately promises that were broken. think back to last year, think back to what the american people were promised in this bill. three promises come to mind. one, americans were told that the overhaul would make health care more affordable. two, they were told that this will make health care more efficient. and, three, they were told that they could deep tchare health care if they -- keep their health care if they liked it. the american people deserve to hear the truth.

the american people deserve better. it's their health, it's their life. and here's the truth. over half a billion dollars worth of taxes on small businesses and the american families across this country. a half a trillion dollars cut from medicare. here's some examples. 2.3% tax on medical devices, wheelchairs and walkers. 3.8% tax on employers. an additional tax penalty on employers who don't provide a certain amount of health care for their workers. a 40% tax on so-called cadillac health care plans. and government paperwork bureaucracy. there's a requirement you fill out a 1099 form for employees requiring the hiring of 16,000 i.r.s. workers. quhoast going to pay for that? remember this -- who's going to pay for that? remember this promise president obama made and others made? you can keep your health care if you like it?

president obama himself said, well, there might have been some language snuck into this bill that runs contrary to that promise. madam speaker, the american people deserve better. the american people deserve the truth. it's their health and it's their life. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from michigan. mr. levin: i yield myself five seconds. the truth is we move to repeal 1099. it was opposed by the now majority. i now yield two minutes to the very distinguished gentleman from oregon, mr. blumenauer, a member of our committee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. blumenauer: people deserve a serious debate on a serious subject. unfortunately while serious in tone, what we're hearing from my colleagues is not serious in content. i've listened to people come to the floor repeatedly talking about a government takeover of health care.

which was judged to be the political lie of the year for 2010. indeed we instead built upon the current system that is a balance to meet the needs of american people. we have had another serious element that has crept into the approach from my republican friends, the disregard of congress' nonpartisan budget referee, it's reckless and unprecedented, it's never happened in 34 years. these are the people who provide impartial information which is being imagined away by our friends on the other side of the aisle. yes, it will require congress to follow through on the legislation, to realize the savings. but the answer is not to turn our back on reform, it's to make reform work.

the current bill builds on the current system, it incorporates elements of reform that have been supported on a bipartisan basis for years. now all of a sudden there is the disregard we heard for a proposal signed into law by republican governor mitt romney. instead of repealing reform we should be focusing on strengthening it. americans deserve a serious debate about a serious subject. hard work to make reform work, not a ritual of going through the motions of repeal which everybody in this chamber will still be in effect at the end of debate, at the end of the year, at the end of the congress. the american people deserve better. the speaker pro tempore: mr. camp of michigan. mr. camp: i yield two minutes to a member of the ways and means committee, the gentleman from louisiana, dr. boustany. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two

minutes. mr. boustany: thank you, madam speaker. i rise in favor of repeal of this bill. because it's going to fail on cost, it's going to fail on coverage and it's going to fail on quality. first cost. premiums are going up. in fact, they're going up even higher at a faster rate than they would have if we'd done nothing, in many cases. with regard to the deficit, there are a number of gimmicks in this bill, double counting, excluding the doc fix, trading new entitlements such as a class act, and finally it does not account for the discretionary spending for this massive increase in the bureaucracy that's going to be created. taxes are going to go up on innovation, especially medical innovation. on coverage. what kind of coverage are we expanding? medicaid coverage. that's a ticket to the emergency room, it doesn't lead to a good doctor-patient relationship and it's the most expensive and inefficient way to provide health care. and those costs are going to be passed on to the states. and on quality, let me relate an

instance from my own medical practice. i was once called to see a patient who was 101 years old. 101. he had artery blockage and was getting ready to have a stroke. he had imminent symptoms. i was steptscal. i went to see the guy. this fellow was vigorous, strong handshake, lived by himself, independent, working his own yard, took care of himself without any help. and so i chose to do the operation on him. thankfully it was successful it gave him six more years of high quality life as a result of this. he died from some unrelated cause later. but in the absence of that he would have had a stroke, he'd have been in rehab, in a nursing home, acute care, lots of expense. no quality to his life. madam speaker, there's an art and a science to medicine. and the art involves a doctor-patient relationship. it's built on mutual trust and understanding, knowledge of the patient, trust on both the

patient and the doctor's part to do what's in the best interest of the patient. but not only that, the doctor-patient relationship is where costs are incurred and quality occurs. this gentleman would not have had the quality of life if he had not had this operation and if this law had been in existence which would have delayed or prohibited such treatment. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from michigan. mr. levin: could i ask you, madam speaker, how much time there is on each side of the ways and means committee? the speaker pro tempore: mr. levin of michigan has 28 3/4. mr. camp of michigan has 24 1/2. mr. levin of michigan. mr. levin: i yield myself 10 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for 10 seconds. mr. levin: what the reform did was to make sure that the doctor-patient relationship was maintained and that there would be millions of more patients in the united states of america. i now yield two minutes to

another distinguished member of the ways and means committee, mr. kind of wisconsin. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from wisconsin is recognized for two minutes. mr. kind: i ask to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. kind: thank you, madam speaker. i thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. madam speaker, shortly after passage of the affordable care act, a young mother in my congressional district wrote me a letter and she wrote it on behalf of her 13-month-old son, henry. in it she wrote, and i quote, my son had a stroke before he was even born. he wanted -- he wanted to personally thank you for passing this bill but he's only 13 months old and between juggling doctors and speech therapy, he hasn't found the time. let me be his voice. as a voter, as your constituent, as a mother, thank you. i contacted beth to find out what her family's situation was in this particular case and she told me that because little henry had a stroke before he was

born, literally from the time he took his first breath in life he was uninsurable because he had a pre-existing condition. now i've been to iraq four times, i've been to afghanistan twice, i've met with our troops in the field. i thought i met the bravest people in the whole world. our men and women in uniform who are laying their lives on the line every day for us to better secure and make safe our nation. but if my republican colleagues can move forward on this repeal today and look into the eyes of little henry and not only say to him, not only do we have the ability to do something to help you, but chose not to, but today we choose to take it away from you, then you guys have got to be the bravest people in the world because i can't do that. no one should be able to do that. to the 20 million children that have pre-existing conditions throughout this country, that this bill fixed. the young man, 21 years old in black river falls came up to me

after the vote and thanked me. i asked him why? was there something in particular he was most concerned about in this bill me? said, yeah, a couple of years ago my younger brother needed a kidney so i donated one of mine and because i did, even though imperfectly healthy today, every insurance company i've contacted are treating me as if i have a pre-existing condition and they will not insure me. we can do better than that. and that's what the affordable care act is all about. to address these injustices. i encourage my colleagues to vote no on repeal and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. mr. camp of michigan. mr. camp: i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. mr. levin: it's now my pleasure to yield two minutes to the distinguished the gentleman from new jersey, a joyful member of our committee, mr. pascrell. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. pascrell: there is not one

member of congress in these who has been threatend to have their insurance taken away from them, whether it was heart disease, whether it was cancer, asthma, high blood pressure, i have been through many of them. and isn't it interesting that when the congressional office intervenes, they give things a second thought. it should not be that way. who are the two -- 2,000 a con misdemeanors who are worrying about this health care act. are they the ones who predicted enormous increases in the economy of the united states in the last 10 years? those 10 years we wish to forget. we have amnesia. whether it be in town halls or small groups, when i have asked individuals to raise their hands

if they were against closing the medicare doughnut hole, allowing children to stay on a family's health plan until 26, insuring americans are not denied insurance for pre-existing conditions, no one raises their hand in the last debate i had, madam speaker, just before the election, my opponent didn't raise his hand and i went through 18 of these very specific parts of the health care legislation. in my district alone, repeal will increase the number of uninsured by 66,000. i can't vote for this repeal. i can't let them down or their insurance will go up. how about the business person, 60% of businesses who go into bankruptcy is because of the health care bills they can't afford. i can't let them down either. before i quit, i want to make this point, madam speaker.

last october, a federal judge found a mandate constitutional because by foregoing insurance, individuals are making an economic decision to pay for their health costs later out of pocket. that is how we get stuck with the bill. we need to end this. 10 seconds? that means the people of texas pay, people of new jersey pay, california pay. in essence, everyone pays for those who don't have insurance. let's get straight on this. we can't afford this and we must reject repeal. thank you, madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from michigan. mr. camp: i yield two minutes to the the gentleman from nevada, mr. heller. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. heller: i thank the gentleman for yielding. i rise in support of h.r. 2. last year the previous speaker of the house told members that we needed to pass the health

care bill so we could find out what was in it. now members and the american people have had the opportunity to read it and they don't like it. what they have found includes a $1.2 trillion price tag and more than 100 new federal programs and mandates that reflect how out of touch the previous majority was with the american people. this congress will reject these policies and replace them with market-based reforms that will provide greater access and affordability of health care. repealing the bill will hit more employers and their workers keep the insurance that they currently enjoy. an estimated half of all employers and 80% of small businesses will be forced to give up their coverage under current law, which i find unacceptable. uncertainty in the business community means fewer jobs created. in my home state where unemployment persists and more than 14%, it means thousands of

the citizens of nevada continue to depend on unemployment benefits when what they want is a decent job job to provide for their families. and let's prevent last year's bill of impacting the pocket books of hard-working americans who are struggling. this repeal will prevent increases, block $75 billion tax increase on all americans and keep seniors in their current medicare plan while preventing higher prescription drug prices. i strongly support passage of h.r. 2. look forward to working with my colleagues to pass meaningful legislation that will promote better, more affordable medical care. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from michigan. mr. levin: it's now my pleasure to yield two minutes to a valued

member of our committee, mrs. berkley from nevada. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. ms. berkley: i rise in strong opposition to this legislative stunt to repeal health care reform and i'm going to tell you why. 600,000 citizens of nevada who have no health insurance. it doesn't mean they get sick but they wait until they are very sick and go to the emergency rooms to get care. every hospital in southern nevada is operating in the red. why is that? because the cost of providing health care to the uninsured in emergency rooms is astronomical. but there's more. if we will be eliminating the pre-existing condition ban ffment you have a pre-existing condition which at least 129,000 people in my district have, you will not be able to get any insurance at all. if we repeal this bill, all of those 20-somethings who are living at home and because of

the economy, they can't find a job, they aren't going to be able to tay on their parents' health care plan, 26,000 people in my congressional district, including my two children. the health care reform bill eliminates lifetime caps, ask two in my district who have juvenile diabetes and they have exceeded their lifetime caps. better yet, ask their mothers how they will be able to afford their medication for their children if the bill is repealed. what should we tell our seniors. the doughnut hole that this law starts to close. who are going to ask the seniors who received the $250 last year to help with the high cost of medication to return the check? i'm not going to do that or the discount they will be receiving this year on prescription medication that won't be available. i'm not going to do that to them and are we going to take away

the preventative health care benefits that will help 90,000 seniors in my congressional district alone? i won't do that. what about the 16,000 small businesses who will now be eligible for health care tax credits. saying small businesses don't want that. i know at least one, thousands have contacted my office. one has contacted my office and he wants to be able to provide health care insurance for his employees. mr. levin: i yield an additional 15 seconds. ms. berkley: for those who are concerned about the deficit, the c.b.o., the nonpartisan arm of congress, explicitly stated that repeal will cost $260 billion over 10 years. those who shot loudest about the deficit want to add to it. let's fix what needs fixing and let's not repeal this lifesaving legislation and we need to do the doctors' fix, too.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. mr. camp of michigan. mr. camp: i yield to the the gentleman from from illinois. mr. roskam: the past year we had an incredible national conversation about this issue, health care and it has been robust and dineic and it has brought about a sense of clarity. we tell people, look, if you want to participate, participate in the ballot box and make your voice heard. there isn't any arguing that last november, people made their voices heard and said they want this bill repealed and want it replaced with something that brings health care costs down and deals with pre-existing conditions. employers in my home state, madam speaker, just got hit hard with a new tax increase that got jammed through by the illinois general assembly. 74% of employers in the midwest have recently in surveys said

that this bill that we're talking about repealing would have an adverse impact on their hiring decisions. it's with no sense of irony that now minority leader, nancy pelosi, said you have to pass the bill to see what's in it. she did and we do. and the american public does. and the american public said enough. they understand that what has to happen is that businesses have to be able to thrive and to hire and to grow and be dynamic. if we repeal this and replace this with the type of thoughtful health care initiate if i have that is going to be foshte coming we will -- forth coming, we will do a world of service in changing this economy. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. mr. levin of michigan. >> i now yield two minutes to another distinguished member of the ways and means committee, mr. crowelly from new york.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. crowley: today we consider the first major piece of legislation of the 112th congress, the first. does this bill, does this legislation create one job? not one single job will be created by this legislation. in fact, if this bill were to become law, over four million jobs that will be created over the next 10 years will not come to fruition. does this bill reduce the deficit? the bill does not reduce the deficit by one penny. if it became law, it would increase the deficit by $230 billion. does it strengthen our middle class? no. this bill will not strengthen the middle class. it will devastate the lives of millions of americans who are free from the fear that they or their children will not have health insurance. i have heard from so many

throughout this country of the importance of what this bill has done for their lives. i am not going to tell them that that is all undone. despite what you may say on the other side of the aisle, if this bill becomes law, three million people in this country who received checks for $250 will have to pay that money back. no alternative. you can say what you want, but as this law is written, that's exactly what will happen. 20 million children who now have insurance, who is going to pay the costs of what they incurred so far, are they going to pay for it? republicans aren't offering a solution. they can't tell you what the secret plan is. part of the harry houdini health care strategy. now you have health care, now you don't. don't just take my word for it, independent sources confirmed

the danger that repeal will cost, stopping job creation, exploding the deficit and even shortening the life of medicare trust fund by 12 years. this bill is clearly wrong for our economy and clearly wrong for our country. we cannot go backwards, no way, no how, not now, not ever. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from michigan. mr. camp: i yield a minute to the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. engineer lack. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. gerlach: many of us offered sobering devastating side effects that the health care plan would have on our small businesses, seniors and families. last year warned that having a scheme, 500 billion would weaken our economy and simply the wrong prescription for bringing about meaningful change to a health care system that needs a strong

dose of reform. while it has turned out to be accurate, small business owners are furious over the increasing insurance premiums that continue to this day and 1099 mandate that requires a slip of paper to the i.r.s. 2.3% tax on innovators and thriving medical device industry is choking off investment and hurting job growth. and that is jeopardizing 20,000 jobs in pennsylvania alone. tax hikes and mandates could put an estimated 700,000 americans out of work at a time when unemployment hovers at 10%. let there be no mistake, reform is needed, but not big government, high tax solutions. we need common delen sense ideas that would create competition among insurance companies, greater freedom of choice to buy insurance across state lines and eliminating lawsuit abuses that drive up costs by as much as

$150 million every year. we have the opportunity with a yes vote today to work on true reforms that would increase affordability and accessibility of health insurance. let's start that process with the right reforms today, together. i yield back. . mr. levin: it is now my privilege to yield one minute to our very distinguished leader, ms. pelosi from the state of california. the speaker pro tempore: the minority leader is recognized. nancy pelosi thank you, madam speaker. i that -- ms. pelosi: thank you, madam speaker. i thank the gentleman for yielding. today a bill has come to the floor to repeal patients' rights, to put insurance companies back in charge of the health of the american people and to balloon the deficit. yesterday, in the one and only hearing on this very important bill, the repeal of patients'

rights, democrats heard from americans benefiting from the health care reform. nothing speaks more eloquently to the success of health care reform than their own personal stories. after hearing from seven of them yesterday i said, i wish the entire congress could hear your stories. i wish our republican colleagues would have had a hearing so they could hear from you, the difference this has made in your lives, and the difference it's making in the lives of millions of americans. and so i told them that i would chair -- share their stories with you. first we heard from a young woman who was diagnosed with breast cancer 15 years ago. the good news is that she survived breast cancer. the not so good news is that she has a pre-existing condition for the rest of her life.

as she told us yesterday, the affordable care act changed all that. what she said was the affordable care act represents protection from the uncertainty and the fear that came with being denied health insurance coverage because of my past disease. it represents, she said, it represents freedom for my husband and me to make important choices about our lives and our careers. repeal of the patients' rights that is being proposed today would mean that 129 million americans under the age of 55 would lose their health insurance because they have pre-existing medical conditions. next we heard from a mom, she has a 22-year-old son suffering from a disease. still a student, he was facing the prospect of finishing school and working -- entering the work force without insurance.

but with a pre-existing medical condition. because of the law, laury said, we are thrilled, we have the option to keep him on our insurance in the interim when families so often struggle to keep their kids covered. in a similar vein, alexander, a new graduate struggling to find work in this economy, even though he has two degrees, one in atmospheric science and one in social science, he wants to be a meteorologist, he said that if he lost his ability to stay on his parents' insurance plan until age 26, he would be faced with a choice. either to pay my student loans or to get health insurance. actually said, i would have little choice in the matter. i would need to pay down my college loans first and go

uninsured. repeal as being suggested by republican colleagues would mean that over 1.2 million young americans like laurie's son and alexander would lose their insurance coverage that they receive through their parents' plan. we next heard from ed burke who has testified before. he told me had he -- me he had testified before speaker gingrich years ago. for much of his life ed burke has suffered from hemophilia. two of his brothers do, too. three brothers with hemophilia. so he has health insurance, he has faced the constant worry that his treatments could surpass the plan's lifetime cap. repealing patients' rights has a clear impact for ed. as he said, i will lose the freedom to keep my job if efforts to repeal my protections are successful.

repeal as is being suggested today would mean that over 165 million americans with private insurance coverage like ed would again find themselves subject to lifetime limits on how much insurance companies will spend on their health care. next we heard from a small businesswoman, a doctor, doctor cohen, a small business owner from new jersey. she said she will be better able to afford to give her employees health care coverage because of the reform. but she also told us a very personal story. it was very powerful. that her two cousins, rhonda and roger. both of them were diagnosed with cancer about the same time. rhonda worked for a large corporation, she had health care, she had an early intervention and she received

aggressive care and life-giving care. ronalder, however, received only pain treatment in the emergency room. he worked for a small business that didn't have health insurance. so he couldn't have that early intervention. rhonda is alive and well. roger died. as dr. cohen said, the choice to work for a small business versus a large company should not be a choice between life and death in the united states. but it was the choice. repeal as is being suggested today would mean that more than four million small businesses like dr. cohen's would lose the opportunity to receive tax credits to provide health insurance to their employees. as we know, small businesses are the engine of job creation in our country. dr. cohen told us that she

wanted to attract the best talent and she wanted to have health insurance for them in order to do that. we next heard from charlotte. she and her husband, richard, are seniors on medicare. richard is a diabetic. and his insulin alone costs $1,000 a month. when they fell into the doughnut hole, she said, we had to chose between -- choose between defaulting on the loan for our home or my husband's health. well, we chose my husband's health, she said. but changes made are starting to end the doughnut hole. so families like ours aren't forced to choose between staying healthy and paying the mortgage. repeal would mean that over 2.7 million medicare beneficiaries would again fall into the

doughnut hole and medicare would no longer pay for an annual checkup for 44.1 million seniors. one of the most powerful testimonials, i say this as a grand mother, a mother and a grandmother, was from stacy ritter. stacy has 12-year-old twin daughters, hanna and madeline. well, they're 11, almost 12. you can imagine having beautiful daughters, hanna and madeline, they're 12 now, when they were 4 years old they were both diagnosed with cancer. both of them. the twins. at 4 years old, diagnosed with leukemia, hanna and madeline faced stem cell transplants, chemotherapy and total body irradation. but as their mother said, we

were very fortunate at the time. my husband had full coverage through his employer. but because of the additional cost of health care we ended up bankrupt. bankrupt. even with full insurance coverage. she told the stories about how the insurance companies used to do this, that and the other thing. but in any event, today hanna and madeline are healthy, happy 12-year-olds. but they still have a pre-existing condition. and according to stacy, and i quote, my children now have protections from insurance discrimination based on their pre-existing cancer condition. they will never have to fear the rescission of their insurance policy if they get sick. they can look forward to lower health insurance costs and preventive care. the repeal suggested today would mean that 17 million american children with a pre-existing

medical condition could lose their health insurance because of that pre-existing condition. it would change everything for hanna and for madeline. in congress, on behalf of these americans, democrats have made a firm commitment that we will judge every proposal that comes to the floor by whether it creates jobs, strengthens the middle class and reduces the deficit. the repeal of patients' rights fails on all three counts. in fact, consider the cost to our federal budget. according to the nonpartisan congressional budget office, repeal would add $230 billion to the deficit over the next decade. just under -- just less than a year ago on this floor, i quoted the late senator kennedy, many

of us did, calling health care reform the greatest -- the great unfinished business of our society. by completing that great unfinished business of our society now patients and their doctors are in charge of their health. not insurance companies. because of the wonderful testimony that we had yesterday, which was representative of what members of congress have told the rules committee and told our colleagues and told us from our districts across the country, because of their stories of success, of this still only being inforced for a few months. some of these provisions, most of them only went into effect since september. because of them, because of hanna and madeline, because repeal would be devastating to so many americans, i am pleased

to join a broad coalition in opposing it. every organization from the aarp to the u.a.w. and everything in between, the catholic health association, easter seals and the naacp. i think we should send a strong message today with a great vote against this repeal which is so harmful to the health of the american people. which is so damaging to our fiscal health as well. and to have people know that we want to have what is best for them. we wall -- we all want them to think that in order for them to have the same kind of access to health care that we do we should say to them, run for congress. we want them to have it because congress has acted upon their needs, their strengths and the strength of our country.

so i urge a no on the repeal and yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. mr. camp of michigan. mr. camp: i yield two minutes to a distinguished member of the ways and means committee, the gentleman from georgia, dr. price. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. price: i thank the gentleman. thank you, madam speaker. madam speaker, over the past four years the previous majority took every opportunity to expand the reach and the scope of the federal government. you see, they believe in government solutions. we believe in people. we believe in solutions that embrace people and individuals. as a physician with countless personal stories, those solutions in health care mean patient-centered solutions. not government-centered solutions. now it's important to repeal this bill for many reasons but two very specific reasons. first, it's exactly what we said we were going to do. if given the privilege of leading once again we would vote to repeal this bill. and, second, it's the principled

thing to do. if you think about it, all of the principles that we hold dear in health care, whether it's accessibility or affordability or quality or responsiveness of the system or innovation of the system so that we have the highest quality or choices, choices for patients, none of them, none of them are improved by the current law or the bill. premiums are increasing, jobs are being lost because of the bill, quality is being defined by bureaucrats, not by patients or families or doctors. the good news is that there are positive solutions that embrace fundamental american principles, that allow us to solve these challenges without putting the government in charge. and that's exactly where we will lead over the coming months and, yes, over the coming years. so, madam speaker, the status quo in health care is unacceptable. the bill that was passed is destructive to both principle and to patients. the work will begin tomorrow

after we vote to repeal today will be focused on patients, on people and not the government. . the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from michigan. mr. levin: i yield two minutes to a distinguished the gentleman from new york, a former member and active former member of our committee, mr. higgins. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. higgins: since 1970, health care costs increased 9.9%. outpacing inflation and creating a drag on our economy by increasing the expense of new hiring and undermining investment. this trend is unsustainable. while costs are increasing, the quality of coverage is declining. last year, the inability to pay medical bills caused 62% of all personal bankruptcy in this country, even though they had

health insurance in 75% of these cases. that is 868,000 american families who went broke last year simply because they got sick, did not have insurance or their insurer refused to cover their bills. this is unacceptable. i often say that health care reform needs a start, not a finish and we will be amending in improving the law for years to come. the bill before us today takes us back with no plan to reduce costs, improve quality and coverage. this challenge deserves a more serious response. i urge opposition to the bill. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from michigan. mr. camp: i yield a 1 1/2 to a member of the ways and means committee, mr. buchanan. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. buchanan: i stand before you today as a self-made businessman

with 30 years of experience. i have created thousands of jobs, meet payrolls and balanced payrolls. we represent businesses across south florida, the number one issue i affordable health care for small businesses. they are the job creators and create jobs. the business round table says today that the average employee and their family of four is $10,000. this bill does nothing to bring down the costs. in the next 10 years, it will go from $10,000 to $30,000. i was with a private pharmacist and employs 20 to 30 people. we talked about various things and he brought out his health care bill. just got up, went up 22%. went up 20% the year before. i don't know who my friends on the other side are talking to,

but most small businesses in florida that i know, they are very, very concerned about health care and the escalation of the costs going forward. it's a job killer. with the national unemployment rate of 9.5% and even higher in our state of florida, this law is going in the wrong direction. we need to be working with small businesses on solutions to help them grow, succeed and provide health care at affordable costs. they do create as i mention before 70% of the jobs. can't get to jobs unless we can have small businesses paying affordable health care and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from michigan. mr. levin: it is now my privilege to yield two minutes to another distinguished former member of our committee, ms. sanchez of california. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for two minutes. ms. sanchez: it's no secret that our economy is still sluggish,

so our top priority in this congress should be about creating jobs and it's my top priority and i want to work with republicans to meet that goal. house republicans are focused on repealing patients' rights, putting insurance companies back in charge and ballooning the deficit. american families have suffered and waited too long for the freedom and security that affordable health care provides. and now the republican majority is trying to take that freedom and snatch that security away. if republicans have their way, families will once again lose their benefits when insurers unfairly cancel or cap their coverage. if republicans have their way, children with disabilities and pregnant women won't be safe from discrimination. if republicans have their way, seniors will be forced to return the $250 in prescription assistance they received under the democratic health care reform bill and millions of hard-working americans will lose the freedom to start their own

business because they will be afraid of giving up the health insurance tied to their current job. this is a costly plan for seniors, children and families in my district and for the taxpayers of america. to stand up for families that deserve and need our help, we must reject this plan. i urge everybody to vote no on the repeal of health care. i thank the gentleman from michigan. and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. the gentleman from michigan. mr. camp: i yield 1 1/2 to the gentleman from nebraska, mr. smith. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for 1 1/2 minutes. mr. smith: i would like to share a perspective from an employer in my district. visiting this small business, actually a few hundred employees but still considered a small business, we toured the plant, shared with me the benefit plans for the employees. he went on to say that orders are coming in, but refraining from hiring new people because

of the unserpt of the costs of hiring a new employee. this shows that the health care bill primarily is causing uncertainty in the employment sector and causing employers hiring new people. it's not good for our economy, it's not good for our deficit and most importantly, it's not good for the american people. and that's why i'm extremely concerned with the $20 billion tax on medical device makers that will increase the cost of medical technology for consumers and patients themselves. we need a patient-centered health care plan, one that does not depend on new government programs, one that focuses more on patients and that will cause a lot of the problems to go away, madam speaker. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from michigan. mr. levin: could you please tell us the time left on each side for our committee, please. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan has 15

1/2 minutes remaining. mr. camp of michigan has 15 minutes remaining. mr. levin: that's equal treatment. mr. levin: i yield 1 1/2 to the distinguished gentlelady from california, ms. lee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognize dollars for 1 1/2 minutes. ms. lee: i rise in strong opposition to this bill. every time we take on or talk about this bill and take it on, this law, we really want to repeal the very important freedoms provided by the health care reform law. it's a critical minute that we aren't focusing on jobs. we should be debating how to create jobs, how to get our economy going and how to reduce the deficit. instead, republicans want to add $230 billion to the deficit and empower health insurance companies, mind you, to take away patients' rights and their own health decisions that they should be making with themselves

and their health care physicians, nurses, providers. this repeal gives insurance companies much, much, too much power. their idea is to return to the same failed system that has left 50 million people, including 7.5 million children without health care. in the current economic environment where more people are without health coverage and making it difficult to access health care or keep their health care coverage is downright wrong. repeal of the law would set us back where once again health care would be a privilege for those who can afford it, rather than a basic human right for each and every american. when i voted for health care reform, i said it was in the memory of those who died prematurely because they had no health care and also in honor of and support for those who will live longer and health year lives because they would have health care. repealing this health care law

is really morally wrong and fiscally irresponsible. the speaker pro tempore: mr. camp of michigan. mr. camp: at this time, madam speaker, i yield 1 1/2 minutes to a distinguished member of the ways and means committee, mr. shock. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. shock: i rise today in strong support of the repeal of this job-killing health care law. how many times did we hear the president say on national television, if you like your health care coverage, you can keep it? but for the rest of the americans, let me talk to you. well, ladies and gentlemen, wake up, because if you are one of the 80% of americans who have an employer-provided health care plan that you like, you are about to lose it. simply put, the burdens placed on employers by this new law are too costly. the estimated costs for employer to provide the, quote, minimum essential package as prescribed

by this bill will cost them per full-time employee $12,250 a year. as we speak, businesses all across america are crunching the numbers and figuring out it is financially more beneficial for them as companies to pay the $2,000 per employee penalty and dump their employees into the government-run health care plan. the result, of course, will be the 80% of americans who currently like their health care coverage will be put in a government-run system that, of course, will be riddled with inefficiencies and limited options. think the d.m.v. or fema for your health care plan. additionally, this health care legislation is riddled with job-destroying regulations, burdens and tax increases that will stifle private sector growth and smother economic recovery. according to the national

federation of independent businesses, the chamber of commerce has said it will cost 1.6 million jobs. i urge passage of this repeal and yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. mr. levin of michigan. mr. levin: it's my privilege to yield 1 1/2 minutes to the gentleman from georgia, mr. scott. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. scott: thank you very much, chairman levin. i appreciate it very much. i have listend to the last two days and i have heard my friends from the other side refer to this as obamacare, so mean spirit he hadly. let me assure you that's the law of the law of the land today, it's not obamacare but health care for all the american people, it is the health care for that senior citizen sitting down at her kitchen table thankful that she now has a 50%

discount on all of her prescription drugs and she does not want to see this repealed. this is that youngster who now can be on his parents' insurance until they are 26 years old in these tough economic times. the american people want this and do not want to see it repealed. and i want to say to the american people, have no fear, let not your heart be troubled, this law will not be repealed. yes, they will vote for it today, but it's not going to be taken up in the senate, and it's not going to be signed by the president. so what do the american people say about this? they want us to be concerned about jobs. and certainly, if we have to deal with this health care, why should not we be dealing with some of the critical issues. the american people do not want this bill, this law repealed. they want it fixed. they would love to see democrats and republicans working together

on the 1099's. there is too much paperwork for small businesses, let us work on that. medical liability issue, number one reason kids aren't going into medicine, let's work on that. and the reimbursement rate for our physicians. the american people want us to fix it, not repeal it. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. camp of michigan. mr. camp: i yield 1 1/2 minutes to the gentleman from new york, mr. lee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. >> we will vote to repeal last year's massive health care law and we will vote to begin replacing this massive new government entitlement with commonsense reforms. we can all agree our current health care system is unsustainable and ripe for reform. passing last year 2,300 page

monstrosity will raise costs over the next decade according to the administration's own actuaries and raise health care costs for seniors and $500 billion from medicare and medicare advantage, which are popular plans. it will cause employers to drop the insurance they offer employees because they have done the math and understand that it is cheaper to pay the penalty than pay for the insurance, leading to struggling americans being kicked out of their current plans they have and they like. that's not the reform americans deserve. we need to include medical liability reform where the c.b.o. has scored that at $54 billion savings. western new yorkers will be able to buy insurance across state line and encourage competition and meaningful reform will empower small businesses to group together to cut costs and provide coverage to their employees. republicans are pursuing these reforms because we made a

promise to the american people and because we believe health care reforms need to address affordability and accessibility. it can be done and we are committed to making it happen. i yield back. . the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan. mr. levin: i yield one and a half minutes to the gentlelady from new york. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for one and a half minutes. ms. ma low nee: -- mrs. maloney: i rise in opposition to this repeal of the health care bill which would take health care away from millions of families and individuals. i have heard my republican colleagues mention costs throughout this day. make no mistake, there would also be a cost in leaving tens of millions of americans uninsured. according to a recent study published by the american

journal of public health, uninsured, working-age americans have a 40% higher risk of death than their privately insured counterparts. the study estimates that lack of health insurance causes over 44,000 excess deaths annually. that works out to about one death every 12 minutes from lack of health insurance. my colleagues, let us not forget to count those lives as a very real and continuing cost. over 44,000 deaths a year, one every 12 minutes. i urge my colleagues to support the democratic plan, life-saving legislation, and vote against the republican repeal of health care. it is wrong for america. i urge a no vote and i turn back the balance of my time and request to revise and extend. thank you.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. the gentleman from michigan, mr. camp. mr. camp: i yield one and a half minutes to the gentlewoman from kansas, ms. jenkins. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for one and a half minutes. ms. jenkins: thank you, mr. speaker, i thank the gentleman for yielding. last march, i voted against obamacare. rather than helping bring down health care costs for all americans or helping small businesses provide health insurance for their employees, this law will result in higher premiums for family, costly unfunded mandates, including an absurd 1099 requirement, additional job-killing taxes and more than half a trillion dollars in cuts to medicare. it was irresponsible to pass this massive job-killing plan by means of arm twisting and gimmicks and it is even more irresponsible to allow implementation to begin, given our national debt is over $14

trillion, unemployment rates are still over 9% and many states remain on the verge of bankruptcy. not only is the bill unaffordable but it's such an overreach of the federal government's power a u.s. district judge has already deemed it unconstitutional. americans want reforms to our health care system, but they've spoken clearly. this bill is not the change they wanted. i will be voting in support of h.r. 2, voting to repeal this government takeover of our health care system, just as i promised my constituents i would. let's repeal this bill so we can go to work replacing it with reforms the american people want and support. i encourage all of my colleagues in the house to listen to their constituents and join me in voting yes. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the time of the gentlelady is expired. the gentleman from michigan, mr. levin.

mr. levin: i yield a minute and a half to ms. edwards from maryland. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for one and a half minutes. ms. edwards: i stand today in strong opposition to republican attempts to repeal and dismantle our health care law. the law that congress has passed to give health care to the american people. mr. speaker, this repeal bill will make -- may fulfill an empty campaign promise but fails to put the key american objectives of creating jobs and reducing the deficit at the top of the agenda. in fact, the independent congressional budget office estimates this repeal will increase the deficit by $230 billion over the next 10 years and in maryland, by contrast, we'll save $800 million in 10 years with the new law. we heard the debate but now it's time to hear the stories of countless millions of americans who have a chance at real health care. i know these stories because i hear them every day, mr. speaker. stories like chuck, an engineer

from hyattsville, maryland who suffers from a chronic thyroid condition and believe he is will be denied health care coverage should the law be repealed. nancy a mother in germantown, maryland, who is happy that the new law has alow loued her 20-year-old daughter who is in college to stay on her health insurance. i've even heard of people having to repay the money they slipped into the doughnut hole. i want tell you about annie, a friend of mine, 28 years old, diagnosed with leukemia, who would reach lifetime caps because she and her parents were trying to save her life. it's unfortunate we're here today. let's create jobs and stop this theater. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman, mr. camp. mr. camp: i yield to the gentleman from minnesota, mr. paulson. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentleman is recognized for one and a half minutes. mr. paulsen: i rise to o-- to support this repeal of the health care law that most american os pose. last year, congress put jobs on the back burner and had a trillion-dollar overhaul of the health care system. last year, we passed a bill to find out what's in the bill. we found it's a long list of tax increases and job-crushing mandates that will make it harder for for families to make ends meet. this is so serious that the national federation of independent businesses, representing countless small businesses that drive the engine of the economy, found the new employer mandate would cost 1.6 million jobs. in and around my district, hundreds of medical technology companies are facing higher taxes to the tune of $20 billion. we're penalizing innovation when

we should be encouraging it. we're preventing life-saving technologies from coming to market when we should be promoting them. the american people deserve health care reform that doesn't break the bank. we need health care reform that lowers cost and doesn't increase premiums. we should repeal this law now and replace it with common sense, patient-centered alternatives. otherwise the economy will stagnate and the medical device industry in my district will continue to suffer. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from michigan, mr. levin. mr. levin: i yield a minute and a half to the gentlelady from california, ms. speier. ms. speier: i thank the gentleman for yielding. the real question is, who is supporting this repeal of health reform? are the doctors of america supporting it? no. the american medical association opposes this. is aarp supporting the repeal? no. they're opposed to it.

are the hospitals esupporting repeal? no, they're opposed to it as well. who supports a repeal of health care reform? the national chamber of commerce. period. so what do our constituents want? they want the costs to be brought down. there's not one of us that hasn't heard a complaint from a constituent say, i can't afford it anymore. health care reform requires that 80% of the premium go to providing health care. it's starting to put a governor on the cost of health insurance. the second thing people are concerned about is access, for their kids and for themselves. let's talk about these children. in my district, there are 30,000 children with pre-existing conditions. i know that you've got the same phone calls they've gotten a parent calling, crying on the phone, talking about the lee lue chemoa their child has or the asthma their child has and their fear that if their spouse loses their job they won't have health

insurance and they'll go to the individual market and there will be no hushes. let me tell you about sophie o'reilly who hat 5 years of age has very serious asthma. her parents went to every insurer in the individual market and couldn't get health insurance. what did they do? they went bare for a year in order to be able to access insurance. can i have 15 more seconds? h.r. 2 is bad medicine. i urge a no vote. the speaker pro tempore: the time of the gentlelady is expired. mr. camp. mr. camp: i yield one minute to the gentleman from north dakota, mr. burke. >> this is a $500 million tax when we -- mr. payroll taxes

will increase, penalties and fees will be imposed on small businesses. mr. berg: repealing this law and removing these barriers will provide the certainty they need to help get america back on track. my wife is a family practice doctor. when the law first passed our first concern was, this puts government between a patient and their doctor. we need to repeal this law and put those health care decisions back between the patient directly and their doctor. i urge my colleagues to support this legislation and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan, mr. levin. mr. levin: i yield a minute and a half to the gentleman from north carolina, mr. price. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one and a half minutes. mr. price: mr. speaker, this bill lays bare what this new republican majority is all about. a yes vote would take away tax credits available to up to 17,000 small businesses in my district alone. credits that will let them offer

employees insurance coverage like their larger competitors do. a yes vote on repeal would increase the average cost of prescription drugs for seniors in the doughnut hole coverage gap by more than $500 this year and more than $3,000 by 2020. a yes vote on repeal would say to parents who now for the first time can get affordable coverage for their children with pre-existing conditions, once again, you can be denied coverage altogether. this legislation is flying under disgracefully false colors. fiscally sound? the c.b.o. says it will increase deficits by $230 billion over the next 10 years. job-killing? repeal regular form would cost as many as four million jobs over the next decade. our republican colleagues have put their tea party base above everything else, including the health care needs of the american people. we must recognize their cynical political gesture for what it

is. this house can and must do better. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from michigan, mr. camp. mr. camp: i yield one minute to the distinguished gentleman from ohio, the speaker of the house. the speaker pro tempore: the speaker is recognized. the speaker: let me thank my colleague for yielding and i'm going to thank all the members of the body for a spirited but respectful debate on what is a critical issue to the american people. both sides of the aisle have very different viewpoints on what government's role in this health care issue should be. if there's one thing we do agree on, it's that this health care law needs improvement. the president said so ins a much -- said so yesterday. why does it need improvement? one only has to look at the facts. yesterday, economists and experts put out a letter calling

this bill a barrier to job growth. it talks about how employers are struggling to keep up with mandates and tax hikes in this law, flooding the job market with additional uncertainty. one thing the american people wanted out of health care reform was lower costs, which the authors of this law promised. according to these economist this law will increase spending by binearly $1 trillion and that's a minimum number and add nearly $1.5 trillion to the national debt. so if we agree that this law needs improve, why keep it on the books? why would we keep one hand tied behind our backs when we're dealing with 10% unemployment and a $14 trillion national debt? let me be clear what repealing this health care law means for families, small businesses and taxpayers. repeal means preventing more than $770 billion in tax hikes

and eliminating all the mandates and penalties so that small businesses can grow and hire new workers. repeal means redeucing spending by $540 billion, another step in tackling the massive debt that faces our kids and grandkids. repeal means protecting more than seven million seniors from losing or being denied coverage under medicare advantage, a program they like. and repeal means paving the way for better solutions that will lower the cost without destroying jobs or bankrupting our government. this is what we said we would do. we listend to the people and made a commitment to them, a pledge to make their priorities our priorities. when you look at the facts and when you listen to the people, this is a promise we're keeping. let's stop payment on this check

before it can destroy more jobs and put us into a deeper hole. then, let's work together to put in place reforms that lower the costs without destroying jobs or bankrupting our government. let's challenge ourselves to do better. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from michigan, mr. levin. mr. levin: i now yield one minute to the the gentleman from texas, mr. reyes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized for one minute. mr. rahall: i thank the gentleman for yielding. i express my strong opposition to h.r. 2, which seeks to dismantle the patient protection and affordable care act. repealing this law would be detrimental to my district. nationally, about one in five people are without health insurance. the problem in my district means

one in three is without basic health coverage. that's 230,000 people in my district alone. and these individuals can't get preventative care and they get sick, they wind up in the emergency room, which is the most expensive kind of health care there is. according to the latest figures from our county hospital, more than $500 million of local property tax have been used to cover the costs of those who could not pay for treatment and services, $500 million. we passed the patient protection and affordable care act to help address this problem and provide affordable health care insurance to those who currently are uninsured. i urge my colleagues to vote against h.r. 2. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from michigan, mr. camp. mr. camp: if i might inquire how much time remaining. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentleman from michigan, mr. camp, has seven minutes remaining and the gentleman from michigan, mr. levin, has 5 1/2 minutes remaining. mr. camp: i yield one minute to the distinguished the gentleman from florida, mr. crenshaw. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. crenshaw: i thank the gentleman for yielding and his great leadership. mr. speaker, i plan to vote to repeal this health care law and replace it with workable solutions. why? because i have been listening to my constituents, listening to what they have to say and what they asked for and they are not asking for a bill that we -- that weakens our economy and causes jobs to disappear. they're not asking for a brand new entitlement and then pretending only partly to pay for it. they're not asking for a bill that takes away the rights of seniors to have a choice in the medicare program and certainly not asking for new taxes.

but that's what they're getting under this health care bill unless these replaced. what they're asking for is the right to choose their own doctor and get the treatment they need when they need it. that's what they're asking for, but they're asking we bring down the cost, make some commonsense reforms, make it more affordable and accessible. that's what we should focus on. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from michigan, mr. levin. mr. levin: it's now my privilege to yield to mr. davis, a former distinguished member of our committee 1 1/2 minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. davis: under no circumstances would i vote to repeal the most effective, most meaningful, most sensitive health legislation that has been passed in this country since the medicare/medicaid provisions of the 1960's.

under no circumstances would i vote to repeal legislation that would provide the 107,000 individuals in my congressional district who have pre-existing conditions. would i vote to repeal health insurance for more than 32 million americans who otherwise would have no coverage? no way. vote this legislation down. let's support the american people. keep them with health care. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from michigan, mr. camp. mr. camp: i yield one minute to the the gentleman from alabama, mr. brooks. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. brooks: thank you, mr. speaker. americans enjoy the best health care in the world. every year, profit motive and american entrepreneurs create

better diagnose gnostic tools and treatment. there are ways to improve america's health care, but president obama's socialized medicine is not it. for example, we can cut health care costs by implementing tort reform, by forcing health care competition, by removing i will ell -- i will legal aliens who get free health care costs. this obstructs life saving medical advances. it is care rationed by bureaucrats with mind numbing regulations. socialized medicine pulls all health care down. livings and freedom are at stake. we must repeal this job-killing government takeover of america health care. today i will probably vote to do exactly that. i yield. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from michigan, mr. levin. mr. levin: it's now my privilege

to yield 1 1/2 minutes to the gentleman from rhode island, mr. langevin. the gentleman is recognized. mr. langevin: permission to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. . mr. langevin: mr. speaker, i rise today in opposition to the patients' rights repeal bill and republicans have made this their first priority. rhode islanders sent me here with a clear purpose, to create jobs, strengthen our economy and reduce the federal deficit. those are the issues we need to address and in doing so, so should be our first order of business and our top priority. we are considering a bill that will increase already skyrocketing health care premiums for rhode island families and businesses, give insurers back the power to deny or drop coverage when people get sick and raise the deficit by an additional $230 billion over the next 10 years and $1 trillion the decade after that.

pressing the reset button on health reform will not only bring our progress toward affordable and accessible health care to a screeching halt but will rescind tax breaks to small businesses that fuel our economy. i urge my colleagues to oppose this bill and join me in getting to work on the people's priorities, job creation, economic innovation and deficit reduction. we have come such a long way. we have already seen the benefits of health care reform in covering children with pre-existing conditions, allowing young adults to stay on their parents' health care coverage, these are major steps forward and all that goes away if we repeal this health care law that we have seen put into effect. please oppose this republican bill that's before us today. thank you. and i yield back.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from michigan, mr. camp. mr. camp: i yield one minute to the distinguished the gentleman from mississippi,. mr. palazzo: i rise in strong support of h.r. 2. it was passed over the objections of the citizens of mississippi based on individual mandates and unprecedented mandates. this government takeover is poised to destroy the greatest health care system in the world. don't take my word for it but look at what the backers have been quietly working to obtain special waivers so they will not be held to the same standards most small businesses face. mr. speaker, it's time to give americans the same relief, relief from the job-destroying legislation by voting in favor of this repeal. i am proud that the first speech i have given in this chamber and

first bill i have co-sponsored in this congress is one to repeal this 2,700 page monstrosity. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan, mr. levin. mr. levin: i yield one minute to the gentlelady from florida, ms. wasserman schultz. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. ms. wasserman schultz: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise to share the story of pat, as her friends call her, lives outside of tucson and one of the heroes during the tragic shooting of our colleague. pat will knocked the second gun clip out of the shooter's hand as he was attempt toing reload saving the lives of other people. she was in line to share the thoughts that the thought the title of the bill was disingenuous. the spouse of one of their employees has a pre-existing condition and unable to find affordable insurance to cover her. she wanted to say that the

health care reform law will help. she wanted gabby to stand up to attempt to repeal health care reform. pat was unable to deliver her story but asked that i share it. heed the words of pat maisch, don't repeal health care reform. thank you. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan, mr. camp. mr. camp: i yield one minute to the the gentleman from texas. mr. flores: one of the owners of a waco, texas software company showed me a notice that showed as a result of obamacare, he was facing a 0% increase in his health care premiums. he has to deal with the harsh reality of cutting of size of his work force or worse, cancel coverage all together. what is even more disturbing is this is just the beginning of

what is to come under obamacare. all across our nation, cost-increasing, job-killing, tax-hiking bill is inflicting damage on american employers and families. rather than learn from this, democrats choose to oppose and dismiss republican efforts to repeal obamacare and replace it with something better. there are solutions and alternatives to improving our health care system and the first step is to repeal obamacare. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from michigan, mr. levin. mr. levin: i yield to the the gentleman from new york for unanimous consent. >> i rise in strong opposition and ask unanimous consent to revise and stepped my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. levin: could i ask, mr. camp, how much time is left on both sides? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan, mr. levin has two minutes remaining.

the gentleman from michigan, mr. camp, has three minutes remaining. mr. levin: could i ask my colleague, are you going to close? i will close now. do you have any more speakers. mr. camp: i have three remaining speakers. mr. levin: why don't you use up some of your time and i'll close. mr. camp: i yield one minute to the distinguished the gentleman from michigan, mr. huizenga. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. huizenga: i thank the gentleman for yielding and i rise in support of h.r. 2. a lot has been said about what the american people want. some have said the american people want obamacare, many others have said they want a repeal of it. i was not in washington over this past year, but in michigan hearing complaint after complaint from regular citizens and small business owners about the cost and unreasonable mandates that are in obamacare.

i told them to stay tuned. they have spoken. over the past week, i have had the opportunity to engage my constituents even more hosting three telephone town hall meetings and did a survey as part of the town halls, and over 2/3 of the people that took part in this survey agreed with my position of repealing obamacare. i understand the concerns and health issues people have, but we will address these issues in the replace portion so please stay tuned. i'm a small business owners and i have talked to others and they are frustrated. the costly mandate requiring them to file 1099's have made them angry. mr. speaker, i ask you to join me in voting to replace this bill. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from michigan, mr. camp. mr. camp: mr. speaker, i believe we have the right to close.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's correct. mr. camp: i have two remaining speakers and second one will be the speaker who closest. mr. levin: why don't you call on one and i'll close. mr. camp: i yield one minute to the distinguished the gentleman from mississippi, mr. nunnelee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. nunnelee: as a former member of the appropriations committee in the mississippi state senate, i was responsible for balancing our state's budget. the affordable care act will push costs to cash-strapped states and increase costs. the overall costs is 1.7 billion over 10 years. for fiscal years 2014 to 2020, this increase will cost our taxpayers $250 million a year, adding approximately 400,000

individuals to our medicaid rolls and one in three will be on medicaid. more money devoted to medicaid means less funding for other necessary state services and added financial burdens on our taxpayers in mississippi as well as the rest of the taxpayers of this nation that will further stifle job creation. because of that, i will proudly vote to repeal this law. . the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. levin. mr. levin: i ask unanimous consent that 200 organizations opposed to this bill be enter into the record. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. levin: i regret this bill being brought up today but there are two silver linings. one, the bill will not become law. health care reform me re-mains the law of this land. secondly and most importantly,

it gives us democrats a further chance to talk sense with the american people. we on this side are on the offensive on this issue. we are going everywhere. we are an american truth squad. there will be a vote today on this bill. it may well pass. it will not prevail. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yield back. the gentleman from michigan, mr. camp. mr. camp: i yield one minute to the gentleman from ohio, mr. johnson. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. johnson: today we are debating the repeal of economically damaging legislation that punishes job creators and does nothing to control rising health care

costs. we can't afford the $1.2 trillion price tag on the government health care while the national debt stands at $14 trillion. today we can right a serious wrong and still achieve the goals we share like ensuring access to quality, affordable health care for all americans. real health care reforms that control costs and ensuring that americans with pre-existing conditions get the care they need at a price they can afford. in my district, more than 20,000 senior citizens currently enrolled in medicare advantage are at risk of losing this program because of the $200 billion in cuts to medicare required by this job-destroying health care law. later today we'll vote to repeal the government takeover, giving us the opportunity to start over and enact real patient-focused health care reforms. i yield back the remainder of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. all time for this portion of the debate has expired. under the rule, an additional 30 minutes of debate is ordered to be equally divided and

controlled by the majority leader and the minority leader or their designees. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the majority leader mr. cantor: i now yield one and a half minutes to the gentlelady from new york, ms. buerkle. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for one and a half minutes. ms. buerkle: i rise in support of h.r. 2 because i believe the american people deserve health care reform that will actually reduce costs and improve access without damaging the quality of

our health care. last year, the enacted health care reform was a victory for big government and an affront to our constitution. this law is so fundamentally flawed it must be repealed. when our founders envisioned this legislative process, it was meant to be a deliberative one, thoughtful and respectful oaf american citizen's free dm. -- citizens' freedom. that vision faltered and congress failed in its duty ott american people they enacted this affordable care act. as a registered nurse and an attorney who represented a major teaching hospital, i am aware of the problems of our current system, in particular the problems arising from government restrictions on the purchase of health insurance, government regulations on hospitals and businesses and tort liability issues. unfortunately, this afordable care act does not alleviate these problems and will further

damage and over-- damage an overburdened system. according to the health care association of new york state, my home state, we will face a $15 billion reduction in medicare, medicaid, affecting our hospitals, our skilled nursing facilities, our home health agencies and hospices over the next 10 years. we need to implement true health care reform. in a manner that preserves patient choice, protects access to health care and controls cost without hurting job growth. i yield. the speaker pro tempore: the time of the gentlelady is expired. the chair recognizes the gentleman from south carolina as the designee of the minority leader. mr. clyburn: i yield myself two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. clyburn: 1966, dr. martin luther king jr., whose life and legacy we just finished celebrating, expressed his concerns about health care.

he stated that of all forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane. those words were brought home to me last year when a constituent from florence, south carolina, told me that she'd just been informed by her insurance carrier because of her 8-year-old daughter's cancer treatments, her family had reached their lifetime limits. what could be more inhumane than repealing this law of patients' rights and telling that mother that the life-saving treatments for her daughter must end? what could be more shocking than the injustice suffered by the middle-aged woman who called into a radio program to complain that although she'd paid her premiums her entire adult life, she was dropped by her insurer when she contracted breast cancer. how can we repeal the remedy for

this injustice. dr. king also taught us that the time is always right to do right. after nearly a century of debate, last march, the time was right. and getting raid of these discriminatory practice -- practices was the right thing to do. that's the reason i called the bill, the civil rights act of the 21st century. interestingly, today we're hearing some of the same rhetoric about repeal of patients' rights that we heard regarding voting rights. do i feel that changes should not be made? absolutely not. when the civil rights act was passed in 1964, it did not cover public employees. when the 1965 voting rights act became law, -- i yield myself 30 additional seconds. it did not cover congressional

and legislative redistricting. the fair housing law wasn't perfect when it was passed. bipartisan changes were made to improve all of these measures. i sincerely hope that we can develop some bipartisan modifications that increase efficiency and effectiveness and decrease costs and duplication. none of which will be achieved through repeal. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the majority leader. mr. cantor: i now yield one and a half minutes to the gentlelady from minnesota, mrs. bachmann. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for one and a half minutes. mrs. bachmann: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the gentleman from virginia. obamacare as we know is the crown jewel of socialism. it is socialized medicine. the american people spoke soundly and clearly at the ballot box in november and they

said to us, mr. speaker, in no uncertain terms, repeal this bill. so today, this body will cast a vote to repeal obamacare and to those across the united states who think this may be a symbolic act, we have a message for them. this is not symbolic, this is why we were sent here and we will not stop until we repeal a president and put a president in the position of the white house who will repeal this bill, until we repeal the current senate, put in a senate that will listen to the american people and repeal this bill. because what has been the result, mr. speaker? it's been this. it's been job loss, it's been increases on cost to the american people, i've seen everything from 26% increases on health insurance, to 45% increases on health insurance.

this will break the bank. and we won't let that happen to our country. so make no mistake, mr. speaker, we are here to stay and our resolve is firm. we will continue this fight until obamacare is no longer the law of the land and until we can actually pass reform that will cut the cost of health care. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the time of the gentlelady has expired. the gentleman from south carolina. mr. clyburn: i'd like to yield two minutes to the chair of the democratic caucus, mr. larson of connecticut. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. larson: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the gentleman from south carolina. equal protection under the law is a cornerstone of our constitution. that is why we as a nation strive to form a more perfect union in a common sense way of

looking out for one another. no one can prepare for a birth defect, catastrophe or accident of life that may await any one of us. this congress cannot disenfranchise the 129 million americans with pre-existing conditions impacted by this repeal proposal. the proposal that is before us is not worthy of the party of lincoln or the tea party. repeal, repeal, repeal is not a plan, it is an empty political refrain. colleagues on the other side of the aisle are honorable people. i cannot accept that they are indifferent to the 129 million americans with pre-existing conditions who would continue to be denied coverage and forced to

pay higher rates with repeal. i cannot accept that they are indifferent to millions of children who have once again faced denial of health care coverage. i don't believe they are indifferent to the millions of seniors who would be facing higher prescription drug costs because of repeal. i cannot accept that they are indifferent to the families that face cancer diagnosis and will once again be subject to lifetime limits on coverage, impossible -- and possible bankruptcy because of repeal. addressing these fundamental issues of fairness was what the health care legislation and law is all about. in this chamber, and clearly down the hall, we are -- we understand the charade of this repeal legislation, but it is not lost on the 129 million americans with pre-existing

conditions that -- that are counting on us. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. ms. -- mr. cantor: i yield one and a half minutes to mrs. noem. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. mrs. noem: i rise for the first time on the floor of the house of representatives to make a case for a very important piece of legislation, namely h.r. 2, the health care repeal bill. mr. speaker, there are a multitude of reasons why this law should be repealed but the most important is because it is a major impediment to job creation for small businesses about job creators in south dakota and across this country. according to one study, an employer mandate alone could lead to the elimination of 1.6 million jobs between 2009 and 2014 with 66% of those coming from small businesses. mr. speaker, one of the most important jobs in job creation measures we can do this year is

to repeal this bill and replace it with common sense policies that actually lower costs for families and for small businesses, expand access for affordable care and protect american jobs. what i heard time and time again on the campaign trail last year from south dakota's small business owners is that they are simply waiting. they're waiting to hire another worker or to invest in new technology because of the looming threat of this health care law. whether it's a foundry own for the northeastern south dakota or a motorcycle parts manufacturer in central south dakota, the refrain is the same. get the government off our backs. we'll be in the small business job creation engine that this country so desperately needs right now. i urge my colleagues to listen to the citizens of this great country on this important issue. thank you and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from south carolina. mr. clyburn: i'm proud to yield two minutes to the gentlelady

from connecticut, the chair of our committee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. ms. delauro: yesterday, men and women came here to tell us what the repeal of health care would mean for them. one told us how her 11-year-old twin daughters were both diagnosed with leukemia at age four and explained how the affordable care act ensured their daughters could get coverage and the care they need. another from maine told us how health care reform had given her access to critical preventative care, the type of care that saves money and saves lives. ed burke told us how the prohibition on lifetime caps

brought security and peace of mind after years of living with a disease. we hear stories like this every day across america. a report found up to 129 million americans under aged 65 have pre-existing conditions and could lose their coverage if reform is repealed. i understand their fears. i, too, had a pre-existing condition. i'm an ovarian cancer survivor. the centers for american progress says the repeal would add 2,000 to insurance premiums and destroy 400,000 jobs a year and the congressional budget office said repeal would add $230 billion to the deficit. repeal will take away valuable deficits, destroy jobs, cause premiums to rise and add billions to the deficit. if my colleagues across the aisle will not listen to the

facts and the numbers, then listen to the poignant stories of their and our constituents. what will happen to stacey, claude et, ed and millions of other americans if health care reform is repealed? what will happen to children with pre-existing conditions? to seniors in the doughnut hole? to employers? repeal is a mistake. we should not work to further strengthen our health care system and should do that. health care should not be a political game. the speaker pro tempore: the time of the gentlelady has expired. the majority leader. mr. cantor: i now yield 1 1/2 minutes to the secretary of the republican conference, the gentleman from texas. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. carter: i'm delighted to find that the president has finally found common ground with the conservatives. the president wrote in the "wall street journal" yesterday that he issued an executive order

calling for all agencies to identify job-killing and costly red tape that could be eliminated. we should help him resolve this by eliminating thousands of new regulations that will be dumped on individuals and businesses over the next four years by this bad health care law. the federal register contains 6,123 pages of requirements for the new health care rules created by this law. the center for health care transformation lists 159 new federal agencies created by this law. we can replace this bad bill with bipartisan reforms and let the people keep their job and health insurance. mr. speaker, let's support the president's initiative and reduce bad regulations by repealing this bad law. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from south carolina. mr. clyburn: may i inquire as to

how many more speakers on the other side? mr. cantor: we have five remaining speakers. mr. clyburn: i continue to reserve. i only have two speakers. mr. cantor: mr. speaker, i now yield two minutes to the chairman of the republican conference, the gentleman from texas, mr. hensarling. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. hensarling: mr. speaker, let me offer 1.6 million reasons why we should repeal obamacare. that's the number of jobs that will be lost from just one provision, the employer mandate, according to the nfib, the largest small business organization in america. the half in trillion in taxes, 1099 form, all job-crushing regulations. mr. speaker, when it comes to obamacare, you cannot help the job seeker by punishing the job

creator. let me offer 2.6 trillion more reasons we must repeal obamacare, that is the true cost of this legislation. $700 billion more added to the deficit. now i know my friends on the other side of the aisle will contend something else, but somehow in their accounting, they left out the $115 billion to implement, they double counted half a trillion dollars in taxes, social security, cutting medicare by half a billion. the slight of hand of 10 years of taxes, six years of spending. mr. speaker, you cannot improve the health care of a nation by i am poffer issuing its children. here's one more reason, mr. speaker. the american people don't want it. it's personal. here's my story, two days ago, i

was in san antonio, texas, and my mother had a large tumor in her head. by noon, i was talking to her along with the rest of our family. it proved benign, thanks to a lot of prayers and good doctors at the hospital in san antonio. my mother's fine, i'm not sure that would be the outcome in canada, u.k. or in europe. when it comes to the health of my mother, i don't want this president or any president or bureaucrat making decisions for my loved ones. let's repeal it today, replace it tomorrow. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. clyburn: i continue to reserve. mr. cantor: mr. speaker, it's now my pleasure to yield two minutes to the majority whip, the gentleman from california,

mr. mccarthy. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. mccarthy: i respect my friends on the other side of the aisle and i do believe you want to improve america's health care system. congressional republicans and democrats don't differ on that goal. where we differ and differ quite drastically is on how to accomplish this goal. and the american people's opinion on health care reform differs from president obama and the congressional democrats. americans understand that our health care system is still the very best in the world. we have the best doctors, nurses, hospitals and health innovators in the world. we should be working together to improve the system rather than turning it over to thousands of health care bureaucrats, who believe they can make better choices than patients and doctors. they know that it's different

than the debate i remember when this bill was passed, mr. speaker. members are not held over for a weekend vote. they are not protestors outside rallying wanting to have their voices be heard. today is an open, cordial discussion. that's what the american people ask for, a health care system that works, that doesn't deter. a health care system devised by the patient and doctor. our families deserve better, our small businesses deserve better and to all my colleagues, america deserves better. let's repeal this health care bill. start to replace it with an open and honest debate where the american people are involved, patients are involved, doctors are involved and the american public can have a health care bill that lowers the cost without destroying jobs and

health care system that keeps the innovation we know so well. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the time of the gentleman has expired. the gentleman from south carolina. mr. clyburn: i yield two minutes to the vice chair of the democratic caucus, mr. becerra of california. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. becerra: i thank the gentleman for yielding. listening to this debate, i can understand why americans might be confused about the direction of health care in this nation. but let me thank my republican colleagues for producing one important result by debating this misguided republican plan to repeal patients' health care rights. millions of americans are now beginning to understand the valuable rights and freedoms they secured when the affordable health care act became law last year. last year, when eric, a self-employed architect in my district wrote to me that he and

his wife were in a terrible bind, he explained something, they had insurance, but they could only secure the most costly of insurance with the highest deductible. but the real bind wasn't that. the real bind was that their insurance company refused to include within their health insurance policy their eight-year-old son because their son had suffered from a stroke. now for eric and his wife and his son, health care reform was real. and today, eric and his family can get insurance for their son because today, eric and his wife have a right to be insured and to have their son insured because no insurance company today can discriminate against any child for a pre-existing condition. that's what health care reform was all about.

it was also about making sure that today, america's businesses could afford to offer health insurance to their employees. health insurance reform was about reducing the cost of health care and that's why the impartial referee that we use here in congress, congressional budget office, has said that this health reform that was passed last year will save us money despite the rhetoric that you hear. my republican friends say repeal. do that today and in the future, we'll restore those rights and make them prettier as well. we have a bird in the hand. we don't want to go after two in the bush. for six years they had a republican president to work with and never did it. keep that bird in hand and move forward for eric and the rest of america. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. majority leader. mr. cantor: i yield 1 1/2 minutes to the the gentleman from south scoorl, mr. scott.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. scott: thank you, mr. speaker. this health care bill is a job-destroying bill. shifting who pays simply does not reduce the cost of health insurance. as a matter of fact, when you look at it, c.m.s. says over the next two years, we will see an increase of $311 billion in the cost of health care. this is $2.3 trillion of new taxes on americans. the deficit, over the first decade, over $500 billion of new deficit spending. $1.5 trillion in the second decade. massive bureaucracy. 68 new programs, 47 new bureaucratic entities and 29 pilot programs as a part of this bill.

it destroys the relationship, intimate relationship between a patient and a physician. the nfib, national federation of independent businesses says that over the next 10 years, we will lose $-- 1.6 million jobs in america because of this bill by destroying the bill that destroys jobs, we make progress. finally, we already have a $76 trillion hole in unfunded entitlements. by increasing the number of entitlements, we simply increase the hole. another $2.7 trillion expansion in entitlement spending. 10 years' revenue simply does not pay for the six years of benefits. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from south carolina. mr. clyburn: i yield two minutes