“…people are not just losing their health care, their insurance, it’s affecting their jobs and it’s affecting their paychecks.”
Click here to watch Sen. Barrasso’s speech.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) talked about how the President’s health care law is hurting the middle class by making it harder for Americans to find full-time work and increasing health insurance costs for families across the country.
Excerpts of his remarks:
“I come to the floor today to talk about a new CNN poll. And the CNN poll came out yesterday that said that support for the President’s health care law appears to be waning. Appears to be waning.
“The CNN Polling Director, Keating Holland talks about this. He says that support has dropped in virtually all demographic categories but it has fallen the farthest among two core Democratic groups, women and Americans who make less than $50,000 a year.
“He goes on, to quote him, says, ‘those are also the two groups,’ he says, ‘that are most likely to pay attention to health insurance issues and possibly the ones most likely to be affected by any changes. That may be particularly true for lower income Americans who are most likely to have part-time jobs, be on Medicaid or not currently have health insurance and thus be the first to have to navigate the new system.’
“So there’s the story from CNN polling yesterday, support for the President’s health care law appears to be waning.
“I spent a lot of time as have you over the last month traveling around our home states, listening to our constituents, hearing what’s on people’s mind. And that’s what I did back in Wyoming over the last month—I do it every weekend, meet with lots of people.
“We’ve had lot of county fairs, rodeos, town hall gatherings and one thing that came up just about everywhere I went was the concern so many folks still have about the President’s health care law.
“People, some are confused, many are upset and many more are angry—angry that the law is doing serious damage to middle-class jobs and to people’s paychecks.
“And even the insurance coverage that many already had and liked are things that they’re going to lose.
“Republicans have warned from the beginning that the President’s law created too much red tape, too many new taxes, new fees and expensive mandates.
“And as a result, people were going to end up paying a lot more for health insurance. Well, for months now Americans have been seeing exactly that.
“One of the latest numbers that really stuck out was from Delta Airlines. They say it’s going—they’re going to be paying about $100 million more to cover their employees next year, all of the mandates in the health care law, the President has said so many of these are free—they’re not free. Somebody’s got to pay for them.
“Just covering workers’ children up until age 26 and it’s about 8,000 young people covered by Delta Airlines added to their policy, that’s going to cost them an extra $14 million next year.
“So remember the President said health care costs were supposed to go down, not up. He also said that for 85% to 90% of Americans who already have health insurance, the only impact he said of the law was that their insurance is better than it’s ever been before.
“Well that doesn’t seem to be the case. All you need to do is pull out today’s ‘New York Times,’ business section, first page, b-1, above the fold, ‘Unions’ Misgivings on Health Law Burst Into View. Labor delegates level criticism at Congress and the President.’
“It seems that the President’s promises to people who believed him that they could keep what they have if they like it, they’re now saying, something has to change here. You know, you haven’t leveled with us.
“What we’re seeing now coming out of this administration is not what you promised. And it’s not just ‘The New York Times.’ Today’s ‘Investor’s Business Daily’ above the fold, ‘Obamacare Hitting Union Members and They’re Upset. Unionized part-timers losing health insurance, full-timers losing hours.’
“That’s not what the President promised. What this means is that people are not just losing their health care, their insurance, it’s affecting their jobs and it’s affecting their paychecks.
“Now, another step that some employers have had to take is to drop coverage for spouses who can get their insurance elsewhere. The President said that wasn’t going to happen. He said that if you like the insurance you have, you’ll be able to keep it.
“Once again, the President has failed to see how much harm his health care law would do to middle-class Americans.
“Those hardworking people are now paying the price. A recent memo to employees the shipping company, U.P.S. said that it plans to exclude 15,000 spouses from its insurance plan. They cited the health care law as the top reason for the switch.
“It’s not just businesses. The University of Virginia recently announced plans to drop spousal coverage for some of its employees, too. The President is berating colleges about the cost of tuition but yet his own mandates are making it more expensive for colleges to provide insurance for members of their faculty.
“So, of course, they pass those costs on to the students. The school said that the President’s health care law would add $7.3 million to the cost of its health plan in 2014.
“Just like U.P.S., if a worker’s husband or wife can get insurance from their own employer, the University of Virginia won’t be covering them anymore, even if it’s insurance that they have and they liked, the President said they could keep it. The school directly laid some of the blame on the health care law.
“That’s not something the President admitted might happen—and it’s not something that he’s eager to talk about now.
“He’s also not eager to talk about his promise to cut the price people pay for insurance.
“President Obama promised that by the end of his first term he would lower people’s premiums by $2,500 per family, per year.
“Now, he didn’t just say this once—he said it over and over again. At least 19 times.
“He didn’t misspeak—it was a practiced line, an intentional part of his stump speech.
“He didn’t say that premiums would go down if Congress passes a perfect law that takes effect the first day in office.
“He didn’t tell the audience it would be $2,500 less than the projected rate of growth that someone estimated that we would have otherwise.
“He chose to ignore all of that – to leave out every caveat that he could have included.
“He said $2,500 less by the end of his first term – period.
“Every person, every audience knew what the President was promising.
“Now we know that President Obama broke that promise like so many others, and he and his supporters should stop trying to explain it away and just admit that they failed.
“According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average family premium has soared by almost $3,000 since President Obama took office.
“Now, that’s not a prediction about what will happen over the next four years – it is a simple, indisputable fact about how much more people are already paying.
“So, you’ve got people who are losing their insurance plans that the President’s health care law taxes too heavily.
“You’ve got other people losing the insurance they have now, because employers are dropping coverage for spouses.
“You’ve got some people who will keep their insurance, but they’re going to have less money in their paycheck because costs are going up, thanks to the health care law.
“And, you’ll have a lot of people that the President’s health care law is really hitting in the wallet.
“That’s because we’re continuing to see towns, and counties, and school districts having to cut back on the hours of their workers.
“They need to keep more employees at a part-time status, in order to reduce the burdens and the expenses of the health care law.
“Over the past month, even more places have had to take these steps.
“Middletown Township in New Jersey said they would cut the hours of 25 people. A county in Texas said it would do the same. Another county in Florida figured it would cost them more than a million dollars to cover all of their part-time workers under the health care law.
“So they’re already reducing the hours for some of these people, and they’re planning to make additional cuts.
“Now, the Obama Administration is brushing off these reports. They’re saying its only anecdotal evidence.
“Anecdotal? These aren’t anecdotes—these are people’s jobs.
“One of the analysis out there found that 258 different employers have cut work hours, cut jobs, or taken other steps to avoid Obamacare costs.
“258 employers across the country. Many of them school districts, counties, communities, some private businesses—and more are coming forward every day.
“They’re limiting the hours they can pay bus drivers, librarians, coaches, substitute teachers, and middle class workers.
“The Obama Administration says everything is fine, because some of these workers will get a subsidy to help buy their expensive insurance.
“Well, the people that I talk with aren’t looking for subsidies – they’re looking for a job. They’re looking for more hours. They’re looking for the ability to take home a paycheck comparable to the paycheck that they may have had last year, but is going down because their hours have been cut.
“They want the Obama Administration to stop making it so tough for them to find full-time work.
“They want to go back to the insurance that they had before the President’s health care law went into effect.
“Instead, they’re getting more bad news, more signs that the health care law is a train wreck that’s going to hurt the middle class even more.
“We all knew that the health care system in this country had problems and needed to be fixed.
“Costs were rising, year after year. Too many people were having trouble getting the care they needed. Democrats could have sat down with Republicans to write a law to help those people.
“Instead, President Obama and Democrats in Congress who are in charge of the House and Senate passed their plan—a one sided plan. A plan that is today failing the American people.
“They did it without Republican support – and they did it without seriously considering our ideas.
“Washington Democrats promised the kind of reform—but the reform they promised is not what they delivered. It’s not what’s in this 2,800 page health care law—with over 100,000 pages of regulations, hard for anyone to understand or comply with.
“Republicans have voted to repeal this failed law, and to start over with reforms that solve the biggest problems that families face today.
“We’re going to keep trying to get that done.
“If Democrats are serious about helping middle class Americans, they will join us.”
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