Barrasso Calls on Senate to Repeal CLASS Act

Click here to watch Sen. Barrasso’s remarks.

In his State of the Union address last week, President Obama said that under his leadership:

“We will not go back on an economy weakened by outsourcing, bad debt, and phony financial profits.”

It’s clear now that he has two different standards for accounting—one for the public sector and one for the private sector.  In fact, the President’s health care law is based on phony financial profits through the CLASS Act. 

Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) called on the President and Majority Leader Reid to repeal the CLASS Act. 

Excerpts of Senator Barrasso’s remarks on the floor of the U.S. Senate:

“President Obama’s health care law established the CLASS Act, a brand-new federal long-term entitlement program.

“It turns out that the math for the program doesn’t add up, and it will not work.  The worst part about it is that the administration has known from the very beginning that this program—and the President’s entire health care law was built on phony financial profits.

“Specifically, the Obama administration hid behind a Congressional Budget Office estimate showing that this program would reduce the deficit by $70 billion over a ten-year period.  These savings were entirely mythical.

“This is the very practice used by the President that the President now objects to.

“I applaud the House for taking the lead on this and voting to repeal the CLASS Act.   And I call on President Obama and my colleagues in the Senate to do exactly the same thing.

“Senate Majority Leader Reid should bring H.R. 1173, the Fiscal Responsibility and Retirement Security Act, to the Senate floor for a vote. This bill will repeal the CLASS Act so that the American people have a clear understanding of the costs of the President’s health care law.

“It is time to end the phony financial profits in the President’s health care law.  These phony financial profits that continue to burden our economy and our nation.

“And it’s time to finally find out if the President truly does believe in fairness, because if he does, he will repeal the CLASS Act and make it clear that he has the same accounting standards for Washington that he has for the private sector.

“Washington should not be able to cook the books and to make the President’s health care law look more financially sound than it really is. 

“The American people are sick of phony financial profits, and they are demanding fairness in the public sector as well as the private sector.”

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