On the recordJuly 10, 2012
I thank the distinguished chairman. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the bill before us this afternoon and in opposition to what is colloquially called ObamaCare. All of the comments of the proponents of the bill that have been made in the past in support have generally turned out to either not be true at all or to be only partially true. They said that they were having the individual mandate under the Commerce Clause. The Supreme Court said that's unconstitutional, you couldn't do it. So even though you said that's what you were doing, you're really not. The proponents said the penalties in the bill were not taxes. Well, the Supreme Court in a 5-4 majority several weeks ago said, well, really, you're not regulating the mandate and the penalties under the Commerce Clause because that would be unconstitutional. You're actually doing it under the taxation clause. We're kind of in an Alice in Wonderland situation here. What is true is that if this law is enforced, millions of Americans are going to pay much more for health care, and we're not going to get better quality care. People like myself oppose the bill, not because we don't want every American to have health care, but because we want Americans to have choices and to make individual choices about their health care. This law, if enforced, mandates things. It mandates the coverage. It mandates what you have to have. It mandates what can be paid for it.…
