WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor regarding Obamacare not ‘working as planned’ and the need for the President to grant a reprieve from the law to families and workers, not just businesses:
“As I mentioned yesterday, I’m glad the Majority saw the light and stepped back from committing a tragic mistake. It’s good news for our country. It’s good news for our democracy.
“Now that it’s behind us, we can get back to debating the issues our constituents are most concerned about. And for a lot of my constituents, that means Obamacare. This is a law that was basically passed against their will, and it’s a law that is now being imposed upon them by a distant bureaucracy headquartered in Washington.
“If the folks in D.C. are to be believed, its implementation is going just swimmingly. The Democrat Leader in the House of Representatives called it ‘fabulous.’ The President said that the law is ‘working the way it’s supposed to.’
“And my friend the Majority Leader, he said just the other day that ‘Obamacare has been wonderful for America.’
“Fabulous…Wonderful…these aren’t the kind of words one normally associates with a deeply unpopular law, or one that media reports suggest is already having a painful impact on Americans we represent. Which sets up an important question for Senators to consider. Just who are you prepared to believe here when it comes to Obamacare: the politicians who developed it, or the people?
“The politicians in Washington who forced this law on the country say everything is just fantastic. They spend millions on slick ads with smiling actors and sunny-sounding scripts that blissfully – I’m being kind here – blissfully dismiss what the reality of this law will actually look like for so many Americans. Or what the reality of the law has already become for some of them.
“That’s why the people have taken a different view. They’re the ones worried about losing the coverage they like and want to keep, which is understandable given the growing number of news stories about insurance companies pulling out of states and markets altogether. And they’re the ones worried about their jobs and their paychecks. Each anecdote we hear about a college cutting hours for its employees, or a restaurant freezing hiring, or a small business already taking the ax to its workforce at such an early stage – each one of them is a testament to just how well this law has been working out for the people we were sent here to represent.
“And, according to the Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business survey released yesterday, anxiety about the requirements of Obamacare now surpasses economic uncertainty as the top worry for small business owners.
“Here’s another thing: when even cheerleaders for the law start to become its critics, that’s when you know there’s something to this ‘train wreck’ thing everyone keeps talking about.
“Unions are livid, even though they helped pass the law. It’s because they see their members losing care and becoming less competitive as a result of it. That’s why they fired off an angry letter to Congress this week.
“The California Insurance Commissioner is troubled too, even though he’s been one of Obamacare’s biggest boosters. He’s so worried about fraud that he warned we might ‘have a real disaster on our hands.’
“Well, it’s hard to argue with him.
“The President was so worried about some of this law turning into a disaster that he selectively delayed a big chunk of it. But he only did that for businesses.
“A constituent of mine was recently interviewed by a TV station in Paducah, and here’s what she had to say about the President's decision... ‘It ain’t right’. Well, she's not alone.
“We can argue about whether the President even had the power to do what he did, but here’s the point today: if businesses deserve a reprieve because the law is a disaster, then families and workers do too. Because if this law is ‘working the way it’s supposed to,’ then it’s a terrible law. And if it’s not working as planned, then it’s not right to foist it upon the middle class while exempting business.
“That’s why the House will vote this week to at least try to remedy that. It’s an important first step to giving all Americans and all businesses what they really need: which is not a temporary delay for some, but a permanent delay for everyone under this law.
“The politicians pushing Obamacare might not like that. But they’re not the ones who are going to have to live with this thing the same way most Americans will.”
