On the recordJanuary 13, 2017
I thank the new chairman of the Budget Committee for yielding. Mr. Chairman, I have listened to the debate and I understand the difficulty that both sides have with fixing this system. We clearly believe the system needs to be repealed and replaced. Moreover, the system needs to be reformed. And there is perhaps no better prominent Democrat in this country who has made the case for reforming this system. I quote former President Bill Clinton, who said just last October: So you have got this crazy system where, all of a sudden, 25 million more people have health care and then the people who are out there busting it, sometimes 60 hours a week, wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half. It's the craziest thing in the world. President Bill Clinton. Mr. Chairman, this is just the first step in terms of fixing this problem. The taxes, the premium increases, the loss of coverage, the small businesses who have been priced out of the market, the discouragement of employment in our country because of the costs that are imposed on the business sector through the ACA have to be fixed; they have to be addressed. Today is just the first step in addressing that. Later, we will have regulatory changes that come from the Department of Health and Human Services. More importantly, we will all have to come back here to work out a new plan to fix it. Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to vote for this resolution.
