On the recordFebruary 2, 2015
It is week five for the new Congress--and it happens to be Groundhog Day--and my Republican colleagues, unfortunately, I think, are still stuck in the shadow of their extreme agenda. Instead of taking up a jobs bill or an infrastructure bill or a minimum wage bill to give working families bigger paychecks, they have again decided this week, for the 56th time, to take up repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Never mind that repealing the ACA in this House would take away insurance for millions of individuals or raise insurance premiums on working families or allow insurance companies to once again discriminate against those who have preexisting medical conditions. This extreme bill we know will never see the light of day or become law, however. Similar bills were dead on arrival the first time that the Speaker brought it up, and it is not going anywhere this time. This vote, pandering to the most extreme voices at the expense of a jobs bill or the first vote on a national manufacturing plan or the first vote to repair our crumbling roads and bridges, takes away the time to deal with those important issues and continues this House on the road to another repeal of the ACA. ____________________
