On the recordMarch 17, 2010
As I said in my opening statement, I urge support for H.R. 4851 to continue unemployment and health insurance benefits for long-term unemployed workers, along with extensions of other important expiring provisions like the Medicare reimbursement provisions that my colleague from Texas just mentioned. But as we, as a Congress, redouble our efforts on the task of empowering Americans to create jobs, we need to remember the four causes of this. Even as we help in those places where jobs are hardest to find, promoting job growth ultimately needs to be the broader goal. One thing that we could do as a Congress to promote job growth and help our economy stand up and restore confidence in investing would be to stop the ramming of this health care bill through the House of Representatives presumably without even taking a vote on it. I think there is a small detail in the Constitution that would suggest my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have a small problem explaining that to their constituents. But let's look at the base principles in this bill. There are good elements in it, small individual elements. But the framework, the foundation on which it is built is not only flawed, it would be destructive to the American economy and make it into the equivalent of an Eastern European health care system within 10 years. First of all, it's based on huge tax increases.…
