Date: 2013-06-28
Speaker: TOM COBURN (republican)
Chamber: H

a good friendhopefully. he would acknowledge thatfrom Oklahoma. Senator TOM COBURN said thisI wont read the whole statement. theres not adequate time. but a wonderful statement he summarizes very well. He said: It is a $48 billion border stimulus package that grants amnesty to politicians who want to say they are securing the border when. in fact. they are not. Further he quotes Reagan. He said Reagan said: It was a tall. proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans. windswept. Godblessed. and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace. a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls. the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. "Walls with doors" is an immigration policy that can unite our Nation. But today. Democrats sound like they want only doors. Republicans want only walls. The truth is we have neither. We have chaos. Well said. But the Republicans I know want doors. We want immigration. We want the fresh water flowing into this incredible lake. Its a healthy good thing. I love the fact that. generally speaking. most Hispanics I know have a faith in God. a devotion to their family. and a hard work ethic. Thats what I think made America great. Its a great thing. We need more of that. Thats a good thing. But it has to be done legally. and it is heartbreaking that this got pushed through the Senate to what many of us believe will be the detriment of this country. In The Weekly Standard. John McCormack wrote an article that five Senators who support the immigration bill dont know the answer to a key question about it. A great article there in The Weekly Standard. There are plenty of good articles if our friends down the hall had bothered to read them. Eagle Forum has a great article. a great newsletter. on the Gang of Eight and what theyve done to America. What my friend TED CRUZ was pointing out. under ObamaCare. there is a penalty that could be $3.000 per employee. For those over 50 you deduct 30. Its a formula. But basically. in most cases its a $2.000 penalty for any employer that has over 50 employees that does not provide the level of health care that is required under ObamaCare. So TED CRUZ makes a point I havent heard anybody else makeits an excellent point: that under ObamaCare. if youre an employer and youve got 1.000 people working for you. certainly youre under ObamaCare. so youre going to pay a tax of $2.000 per person on your employees if you dont give them the highest level required of health insurance. so they will end up being under ObamaCare. Well. businesses compete to stay in business. If someone else has a lower overhead. then they have to try to get down to that level of overhead. Under the Senate bill. they create these registered provisional immigrants. By that law. the registered provisional immigrants are not under ObamaCare. So if an employer that has. say. 1.000 employees wants to save $200.000 or so. that employer can fire all of the American citizens and all the legal immigrants that he has working in that manufacturing plant and hire the RPIs. the registered provisional immigrants. Then that employer doesnt have to provide them health care. and he doesnt have to pay the $2.000 fine per employee and save a couple hundred thousand. If you have 10.000 employees. then you would save a couple million dollars. It is really profound the detrimental effect it will have on legal immigrants and American citizens. I see that my dear friend from Minnesota is here. Mr. Speaker. how much time do I have remaining?