| Health Care |
March 26, 2012 |
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Jon Kyl, R-AZ
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"The editorial, entitled “Liberty and ObamaCare,” lays out the constitutional problems with the affordable health care act and focuses on the bill’s centerpiece: the individual mandate to purchase health insurance. As the editorial notes, the case against this provision is anchored in ample constitutional precedent, and I quote their conclusion:"
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| Affordable Health Care Act |
March 21, 2012 |
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Richard Durbin, D-IL
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"Madam President, there has been a lot of discussion about the affordable health care act passed by Congress. In fact, just next week, across the street, the Supreme Court will take up this bill and decide whether it is constitutional. It is an important decision. It is one that will affect millions of Americans, and scarcely anyone understands the impact of this law and what it means to their daily lives."
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| Health Care |
March 19, 2012 |
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Pat Roberts, R-KS
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"Senator Sessions, who is our resident bulldog on the budget, hit it on the second counting. I thank him for that. That is a half trillion dollars. The other half of that is that it is a half trillion that goes to all these exchanges and the rules and regulations in setting up the Affordable Health Care Act. Basically, it denies Medicare reimbursement to all sorts of folks—doctors, nurses, hospices, pharmacists, ambulance drivers, hospital administrators—on and on. We had a health care summit in Topeka, KS, and 34 regulations popped out of the woodwork. We could have had 164 but we sent the 34 in to the Secretary of HHS. Then he went out to Hays, KS. That is really out there in the rural health care system. We had seven different regulations. I hope later when we have a colloquy on regulations we can certainly insert those into the Record."
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| Moving Ahead For Progress In The 21St Century Act |
February 29, 2012 |
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Roy Blunt, R-MO
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"Members who were in the Senate when the health care act, the affordable health care act passed, said they believed if it had passed in a more normal way, this would have been in the final bill, that would have been an understanding, as it was in the Patients’ Bill of Rights draft and legislation that was introduced in 1994 or the health care bill in 1999. This same language was an accepted and bipartisan part of who we are as a country enforcing the first amendment."
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| The Budget |
February 14, 2012 |
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Johnny Isakson, R-GA
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"This document we are looking at in this budget does not portend a single change in benefits or in obligations for Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security, which simply means the day they go broke comes that much faster. We are defaulting on the obligation we have to the American people. Whereas, if we sat down honestly, put those programs on the table, looked at the outyears, when my grandchildren and children may be beneficiaries, and modify the obligation, pushing out the eligibility, we can save the obligation we owe the American people for Social Security and Medicare. But if we do not do it, it will be gone. That is something they paid for that we took out of the trust fund and used for something else—not the least of which was the $500 billion the President took out of the trust fund for Medicare to help pay for the affordable health care bill, which has not even gone into effect yet."
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