Date: 2015-10-23
Speaker: VAN HOLLEN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman. I yield myself the balance of my time. I have been listening to the debate. and I am sorry to report that as I come here to close the debate. not much has changed from when we started this debate this morning. This is still. in my view. an unproductive end to an already unproductive and shameful week. We saw in this House just yesterday the spectacle of a kangaroo courtstyle special Benghazi hearing. using taxpayers dollars. engaged in a political witch hunt. abuse of power. misuse of taxpayer dollars. and in fact the Republican majority leader himself. Mr. MCCARTHY. told the country that that was all about bringing down Secretary Clintons poll numbers. Then. just earlier this week. we pretended. in passing a piece of legislation. that the United States doesnt have to pay all the bills that are due and owing. We passed a piece of legislation that says we will only pay some of our bills but not all of our bills. No American citizen can get up in the morning and say: "You know what? I am not going to pay my mortgage bill. I will only pay my car payment." When a country like the United States puts its full faith and credit at risk. it puts the entire economy of our country and the international economic order at risk. But to add insult to injury. in passing a piece of legislation that said the United States will only pay some of our bills. so forget about that full faith and credit. we passed legislation that says. well. we are going to pay the big bondholders first. So China gets paid first. Wall Street gets paid first. Troops dont get paid. Veterans dont get paid. Doctors providing Medicare services. they dont get paid. Now here we are. for the 61st time. passing a piece of legislation to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. which. according to the analysis of the Congressional Budget Office. will cost 15 million Americans access to affordable health care. including 3 million children. Now. I have heard some of our colleagues come to the floor and say. well. we want to improve the Affordable Care Act in certain ways. We understand that the Affordable Care Act is not perfect. but a piece of legislation that takes away affordable health care from 15 million Americans. that is nothing to celebrate. That is nothing to be proud of. We shouldnt be doing that here on the floor of the House. taking away access to health care for women at places like Planned Parenthood. when the chairman of the Oversight Committee. Mr. CHAFFETZ. has also stated on national television that they didnt violate any laws and later said that they hadnt engaged in inappropriate activity. When our Republican colleagues got that kind of answer with respect to Benghazi. when the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in the House and the Committee on Armed Services in the House concluded that there had been no wrongdoing in the tragedy in Benghazi. our Republican colleagues invented the Select Committee on Benghazi. When they didnt get the answer they wanted on Planned Parenthood. they invented a special committee on Planned Parenthood that is going to waste taxpayer money. just as the Select Committee on Benghazi has. Mr. Speaker. I showed. earlier. a chart that shows just how fed up the American people are with what is happening here in the House. The problem is everything we have done this week. from the Benghazi hearings to pretending the United States will only pay part of its billsand when we do. we are going to pay China firstto dismantling the Affordable Care Act or attempting to do it for the 61st time. They want us working on the important issues. A few weeks from now. our national transportation infrastructure system is going to run out of money. In just a few more weeks. the Federal Government will shut down if we cant come together and work something out. I have introduced the Prevent a Government Shutdown Act. I tried to get a vote on it here on the floor today. but the Committee on Rules said no. Their priority was not to prevent the government from shutting down in a couple weeks. Their priority was. for the 61st time. to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. even at the cost of 15 million Americans affordable health insurance. Mr. Speaker. lets get on with the big issues of this country. Lets invest in our infrastructure. Lets shut down some of the tax loopholes that perversely incentivize American corporations to move jobs and capital overseas and invest it here at home. Lets make sure we lift the unproductive caps. sequester caps that are slowing down economic growth right now. according to the Congressional Budget Office. Lets invest in our kids education. Lets invest in scientific research. and lets do it while we shut down some of these ridiculous tax breaks for hedge fund managers. We should end this inversion that is going on where U.S. corporations just change their address to some tax haven overseas to escape their responsibility to the American taxpayers and their country. We have got a lot of pressing issues to take care ofinstead. Benghazi. pay China first. pass this legislation to take away health care from 15 million Americans. including 3 million American kids. We can do better. We can do a lot better. Mr. Speaker. Lets defeat this legislation and get on with the real work of the American people. Mr. Speaker. I yield back the balance of my time.