On the recordJune 28, 2012
first of all, my friend from South Carolina articulated very well what happened today with the Supreme Court. I think it is going to be a wake-up call for a lot of people in America. I think it will, as he suggested, have a profound effect on the elections in November when people realize the Court has ruled that people who don't have coverage are going to be penalized by $695 per individual, and families who do have coverage will have to pay an additional about $2,100, and the employers of America are going to be dealing with the government exchange. People are going to be concerned about it. I think they are going to want to send people to Congress in both the House and the Senate and in the White House who are going to change this system. So I stand on the Senate floor and say that is what I am predicting and we will see what happens. Highway Reauthorization I want to make one comment because we are going to vote shortly on a significant bill. It is the highway reauthorization bill. It makes me very proud because we have been trying for a year and a half to do this. When we passed the last highway reauthorization bill, it was in 2005. At that time I was the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee. It was, as I recall and going from memory, a $286.4 billion bill. It was for 5 years. Of course, that expired in 2009. The problem we have had since 2009 is that we have been operating on what they call extensions.…
