John Garamendi: “I thank Mr. Payne for his consistent work here on the floor on multiple issues. Healthcare issues have always been at…”

“I thank Mr. Payne for his consistent work here on the floor on multiple issues. Healthcare issues have always been at the front of his agenda for him and his constituents, and he has fought fiercely since 2012 to see to it that the Affordable Care Act remains in place. Mr. Speaker, I am going to put up one more chart that I think graphically displays what we have been talking about here. This is 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013. The Affordable Care Act really took hold in 2013. It took a couple years to set up the administrative systems and the like. You can see in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017, the number of uninsured in America went from 44 million down to 27 million, which is just, in large numbers, a clear description of what the Affordable Care Act was able to do in bringing insurance to Americans. Here we have a President who was unable to get his wall and decided to go around Congress and the Constitution to try to fund the wall by moving money from one military account to another so that he could build his wall. Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution clearly states that it is the Congress that appropriates money. It says no money shall be appropriated from the Treasury without law. Congress passed a law that said $1.2 billion was for border security. That is it. Now the President wants $8 billion, literally going around Congress and the Constitution. He is doing it once again with the Affordable Care Act.…”