Political Quotes

“I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, you know, there has been some discussion here. The gentleman from Illinois said there isn't anything being taken away. That is simply not true. The basis for the Joint Tax and CBO estimate is that there will be the loss of hours for hundreds of thousands of people. And as a result, 1 million people will no longer be enrolled in employment-based coverage, and of those, 500,000 will have no insurance. So that statement is not correct. And, if I might say so, when the chairman said the House will take up a bill to define full time as 40 hours per week so more people can work full time, the basis of the CBO estimate is that fewer people will be working 40 hours or more. That is the basis for their conclusions. So let me just, if I might, emphasize what has been said by a conservative, Yuval Levin--not related: Putting the cutoff for the employer mandate at 40 hours would likely put far, far more people at risk of having their hours cut than leaving it at 30 hours. That would make for a worse effect on workers and on the economy. That is just a fact. The ACA has eliminated discrimination in terms of preexisting conditions. It has dramatically reduced the uninsured rate--now 12.9 percent, the lowest since that began to be tracked. It has increased Medicare benefits, and it has held health care cost growth to record lows. If you don't like the ACA despite all of these achievements, continue to try to repeal it.…”