The Congressional Research Service confirms that all new plans will be forced to have essential health benefit packages that are dictated by the Secretary.

Anyone who thinks that insurers will not pass these costs along to individuals and small businesses in the form of higher premiums is deluding themselves.

Actually, everyone has to pay for all of those for free, and they are mandated benefits.

Insurance premiums are going up because health care costs are going up, and health care costs are going up, at least in part, because of the new health care law.

the only way that we can stem the increasing cost is by raising deductibles.

Now, on a different question, apparently HHS prohibited the Institute of Medicine from considering cost implications when they drafted the recommendations.

More than 2 years ago, the Congressional Budget Office told us that the new health care law was going to increase premiums for individuals and families by 10 to 13 percent.

The authors of the new health care law do not want to acknowledge the reason premiums are going up is because of the law they enacted.

I still think the small business health plans would have increased the number of companies that were out there participating, and I'm hoping that this health care reform does, too.

The Administration's chief actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released a report last week that said that insurance premiums are estimated to increase by 9.4 percent in 2014.

The new health law is already driving up health insurance premiums.

I appreciate the comments of the Senator who preceded me. We are heading into a territory where we have never been before. In Washington you get to get your Sunday funnies on Saturday, so I took a little peek at ``Dilbert'' today. I hope…

I do believe, however, that the FDA can do better.

I am pleased that a rare earth mine may be opened in Wyoming.

the success of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was to prevent the economy from continuing its dramatic decline.

taxpayer dollars are going to fund foreign jobs, as well as being extremely expensive per job in the United States.

I will work with Senator Harkin to see what the Federal requirements are and appreciate you bringing that to our attention.

Thank you Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Enzi, and members of the committee; it is a privilege to be here today.

I really believe it is the debate that we have to have.

Is the middle class worth saving in America? Is it something that makes us a kind of unique country?

We are not broke. I keep hearing people say we are broke, we are poor. Well, America still remains the richest Nation in the history of the world.

Under this Administration, employers are being punished for creating new jobs in the right-to-work States of our country.

We need a national discussion on this.

Clearly, the actions taken by the Administration and this Congress have not created the jobs middle-class families desperately need.

Mainstream economists, of all political persuasions, agree that the Recovery Act did what it was intended to do.