Paul Tonko: “There you go. Always a pleasure to join you on this House floor. And thank you for leading us in a very important…”

“There you go. Always a pleasure to join you on this House floor. And thank you for leading us in a very important discussion this evening here on the floor. It's important for us to recognize that for our business community to compete, and compete effectively, they need to be able to contain costs; they need to be able to have predictability and stability in their day-to-day routine. And I think that the Affordable Care Act takes us toward those goals. It is a predictable outcome. It enables our small business community to have a sound and well workforce. {time} 1950 I know that that is in the ether of the mind-set of our business community in that they know a productive workforce begins with the soundness of a health care plan. We are the last industrialized nation to come to the table to begin to resolve that dilemma, and it has held back our business community. What we will have with this important Affordable Care Act is the opportunity for exchanges to be developed, either along the State line or in a national setting, that enables us to provide for the opportunities for business and to do it in a way that is vastly improved over present situations. Status quo, just about everyone agrees, will not cut it. It is unsustainable to continue with a system of health care delivery that we currently operate under. This, I believe, will be welcome news for our business community.…”