On the recordMay 16, 2013
I thank the gentleman for yielding. In my role as chairman of the Health and Human Services Subcommittee of Appropriations, we oversee the budget for ObamaCare. I can tell you that the money is not there even for implementation. The request was for $1.2 billion. Now it has accelerated up to $1.7 billion, and there is no funding for it available. So here we are on the eve of the largest takeover of a private sector function in United States history, and the money is not there to implement it. So what does the Secretary of HHS do? She goes to the private sector and says, We need to get money from you to implement ObamaCare. Now, that is like the Mafia's shaking down businesses for protection money. I'm not saying at all that the Secretary would be trying to do that purposely, but it is similar to it. How can you ask people for money, whom you regulate, in order to implement a program that they're going to fall under? That is just repugnant to any American, and we can't let that happen. The money is not there. We need to vote ``no'' and send this thing back to committee and look at it another day and in another way.
