On the recordJuly 23, 2014
I wish to speak for a few minutes and start by talking about these court cases yesterday that create more complications particularly for the President's health care plan. The idea that the law is specific, which is what the Washington, DC, Federal Court of Appeals said--the law specifically says, in the case they dealt with, that people can only get the taxpayer subsidy if they work through the State exchanges. There is no question that the law, in dealing with this issue, in clear language makes that case, and the judges agreed that was the case made. What happened was that not only did many States decide not to set up the exchanges because of the expense involved and the problems involved and the complications of the law, but even the States that did set up the exchanges couldn't get them to work. I don't know that any State spent more money than Oregon did--certainly they spent a lot of money-- and in the first 6 months did not sign up anybody--nobody. Not a single person was able to sign up through the exchange they set up. Massachusetts--a State which actually had experience with its own law and which I would have thought would have been the easiest possible exchange to set up--also admitted they failed. Massachusetts has to go through the Federal exchange. I think 36 States have either not set up the exchange or tried to and failed.…
