Joe Crowley: “I thank my friend from Michigan and the ranking member of the Committee on Ways and Means for yielding me this time. Mr.…”

“I thank my friend from Michigan and the ranking member of the Committee on Ways and Means for yielding me this time. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this bill. As we look at this redefinition of terms under the Affordable Care Act, let me take a minute or 2 or 3 and go to the facts on the health care law as it exists today. Some people on the other side of the aisle and in the media continue to refer to this provision that we're talking about today as a glitch. As we learned from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Tax at the markup of this bill in the Ways and Means Committee, this provision was not a glitch. Again, the other side will report that this was a glitch in the law. It was not a glitch. It was written into the law deliberately, and anyone who actually read the bill would have known that. This language was deliberately put into the health care law to expand affordable health insurance and will particularly help early retirees between the ages of 62 and 64, as well as Americans on disability. {time} 0950 But, again, for those of us who support this law and supported the passage of this law, we have heard a lot of distortions and a lot of falsehoods and outright lies about what is in this bill. That is why I encourage all my colleagues, Democrats and Republicans, especially those of you who are new to Congress who were not here when the bill was passed, to read the bill. I bet that if you did so, you'd like a lot about what is in the bill.…”