Ron Kind: “I thank my friend for yielding me this time. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition of the repeal of the Independent…”

“I thank my friend for yielding me this time. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition of the repeal of the Independent Payment Advisory Board. This is another classic example of a solution in search of a problem. Of all the things that we should be working on in Congress in a bipartisan fashion to improve and to fix the problems that exist within our healthcare system, we have legislation on the floor before us today that calls for the repeal of a nonexisting commission, based on nonconsistent spending cuts being proposed for Medicare, based on a nonconsistent cost of rate of increase in spending under the Medicare program, all of which is going to add $17.5 billion to the deficit over the next 10 years because this bill isn't paid for. And the irony is they are coming forward with this legislation, which will add another $18 billion to the debt, on the same day they release a tax bill that calls for an additional $1.5 trillion worth of deficit spending because the tax bill hasn't been offset. At some point and at some time, we have got to take a bipartisan stand on fiscal responsibility in this place again because it is not happening today. Instead, we should be working on short-term, practical solutions to stabilize and bring more certainty to the health insurance marketplace, in light of what the administration is doing to completely undermine the marketplaces today.…”