On the recordMarch 19, 2010
This body is nearing what will be a defining vote for the future of our Nation. While the majority leadership continues the arm-twisting to sway enough votes to push the health care bill through the House, the American people are left wondering: Who is listening? Who is listening to us in Washington? The American people have said loud and clear they don't want this bill; they want health care reform, but they don't want this bill. My constituents, by a margin of 3:1, have been contacting me saying they don't want this approach, and with good reason. The bill will cost nearly $1 trillion in the next decade alone. That is more Washington spending, that is more Federal borrowing, and it is more debt for our children and grandchildren, and it is surely going to go higher as entitlement spending soars as other provisions of the bill are phased in. The bill is loaded with job-killing tax increases. An Associated Press analysis has even said that health care premiums will actually increase, will actually go up under this plan. The bill will also allow the IRS, for the first time, to charge up to 2 percent of income and confiscate tax refunds if Americans do not seek what is actually government approved, minimum insurance coverage. The bill will cut $500 billion from Medicare and, in turn, use that money for new entitlement spending. History has certainly shown us that entitlement spending goes up, not down.
