On the recordMarch 9, 2017
I thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Rodney Davis). He brought up a very astute point. This is collapsing on itself. If we were to do nothing, this would collapse, and the American people would be left without any coverage. We have heard other people on the other side say: Leave it alone. That is irresponsible, and we will not do that. We will repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, and we remove it from Washington bureaucrats and government mandates. If government can tell you what kind of insurance to buy, you have to buy it, and if you don't, they penalize you, what else can they force you to do? Our Constitution is not a function of the government. Government is a function of the Constitution. Yet when government steps beyond the boundaries of the Constitution, it is up to us, we, the people--and we are the representatives of we, the people--to change how government works. That is what we are doing with the repeal and the replacement of the Affordable Care Act. We have heard about the nightmare this has caused to the American people, to our economy, the loss of jobs, the depression of job growth, wage growth. We can go on and on for hours, but it is not going to fix this problem. What I want to focus on for the next few minutes is what the replacement does do. We have heard about the mandates that are going away, the taxes that are going away, the expansion of Medicaid. The reality in America, our country is in financial dire straits.…
