Paul Ryan: “Mr. Speaker, this debate is really puzzling. If this was a status quo bill, if this was the same law that we already…”

“Mr. Speaker, this debate is really puzzling. If this was a status quo bill, if this was the same law that we already have in place, no new people, then why does it cost $130 billion in more money? Why does it cost so much more? This bill goes way beyond insuring low-income children. If this was all about just giving health insurance to uninsured low-income children, no problem. You would have a near unanimous vote out of here. That's not what this bill does. They say this bill doesn't have those income limits. This bill has no income limits. This bill says to the States, give it to whomever you want, no asset test, no income limits. That's why this test costs so much money. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office is saying in analyzing this bill that they will push 2.4 million kids off of private insurance onto government health care, not my statistics, the Congressional Budget Office. They are already acknowledging that this is more about insuring low-income, uninsured kids. This is really about putting people on government health care, especially those who even have health insurance today. My friends, our constituents, the U.S. taxpayer, don't want to pay for health care that's already being paid for by someone else. But that is what this bill does. This bill creates an enormous budget mess.”