Chris Chocola: “Mr. Speaker, before coming to Congress, I was a small business owner. Now that I am a member of Congress, I am on the…”

“Mr. Speaker, before coming to Congress, I was a small business owner. Now that I am a member of Congress, I am on the Committee on Small Business. And not a day goes by that I do not hear from a constituent at home or someone talking to the Committee on Small Business that is a small business owner about the horrors of trying to provide health care to their employees. We in government cannot make people successful. We cannot make businesses successful. But what we can do is create an environment that gives people and businesses the opportunity for success. In creating an environment where small business owners can join together with common interest on a nationwide basis and go out and provide health care for their employees to meet their particular employees needs, is exactly what we should be doing as Members of Congress. I think that we have to pass this bill because the bottom line is that the people who have to live with the reality of providing health care for their employees will encounter lower costs and greater access to the health care coverage they wish to provide for their employees. So I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of H.R. 660 and against the substitute.”