Having now passed the health reform repeal vote, 245-189, full repeal dies now, and the House moves on to the protracted strangulation process of each provision, piece by piece. But at least the GOP can tell their Tea Party tormenters that they held the damned vote, and "won" it. Last year, 34 Dems voted against the Affordable Care Act, and just 13 of them are still in office. Today, 4 3 voted for repeal. (When the roll call is posted, I'll update with names.)
Update: The three Dems voting for repeal: Dan Boren (OK-2), Mike McIntyre (NC-7), and Mike Ross (AR-4).
Meanwhile, a couple of Democrats very clearly focused on the real hypocrisy at work in this vote in their floor statements. Here's Rep. Joe Crowley (NY-7) with his version of "Speaker Boehner, where are the jobs?"
Madame Speaker, today we consider the first major piece of legislation of the 112th Congress, the first. Does this bill does this legislation create one job? Not one single job will be created by this legislation. In fact, if this bill were to become law, over 4 million jobs that would be created in the next ten years will not come to fruition. Does this bill reduce the deficit? This bill does not reduce the deficit by one penny. In fact, if it became law it would increase the deficit by $230 billion. Does it strengthen the middle class? No! This bill will not strengthen the middle class, it will devastate the lives of millions of Americans who are finally free from the fear that they or their children will not have health insurance....
Republicans are not offering a single solution to this problem. They can't even tell you what their secret plan is. It's part of the "Harry Houdini Healthcare Strategy." Now you have healthcare, now you don't. Our constituents deserve better.
And here's Rep. George Miller, ranking member on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. Below is just a snippet of his remarks, focusing on jobs. The entire transcript is below the fold, and it's worth the read.
I want to thank all of our colleagues who participated in this debate today. I think it's shown fundamental disagreements and fundamental differences. First of all there's a strong suggestion here from an NFIB study done before this law was ever written that has nothing to do with this law saying you might lose jobs. But what do we see since the law has passed? We see for employers for under 10 employees, health care coverage has risen by 10%. Because we have made it less expensive for small businesses to offer that health insurance. That's not a self-interested study.
What you see from United Health Care, the largest health insurer in the country, 75,000 new customers to their health plan from employees of small businesses because the small businesses find it affordable to extend health insurance as a benefit of working for that small business. Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Kansas City says the number of small businesses buying insurance since April for the first month after the legislation was signed has jumped 58%. Small business employers are for the first time able to extend insurance, affordable insurance to their employees. And that's why the job creation that Mr. Andrews referred to of $1 million jobs since the passage of this bill has continued and expected to continue. That's why it's different than the history prior to the Obama administration when over eight years, almost 800,000 jobs were lost during those years of the Bush administration.
Mr. Miller: I want to thank all of our colleagues who participated in this debate today. I think it's shown fundamental disagreements and fundamental differences. First of all there's a strong suggestion here from an NFIB study done before this law was ever written that has nothing to do with this law saying you might lose jobs. But what do we see since the law has passed? We see for employers for under 10 employees, health care coverage has risen by 10%. Because we have made it less expensive for small businesses to offer that health insurance. That's not a self-interested study.
What you see from United Health Care, the largest health insurer in the country, 75,000 new customers to their health plan from employees of small businesses because the small businesses find it affordable to extend health insurance as a benefit of working for that small business. Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Kansas City says the number of small businesses buying insurance since April for the first month after the legislation was signed has jumped 58%. Small business employers are for the first time able to extend insurance, affordable insurance to their employees. And that's why the job creation that Mr. Andrews referred to of $1 million jobs since the passage of this bill has continued and expected to continue. That's why it's different than the history prior to the Obama administration when over eight years, almost 800,000 jobs were lost during those years of the ush administration.
But there's something more important in this legislation. And that is whether or not families will have the control of their health insurance destiny. Whether they will have the freedom to make these choices. Many on the other side of the aisle say this is a bureaucratic system. Has anybody, any family in America, any single mother, any spouse, any child, any grandparent met a more bureaucratic system than the American health insurance system? There is no more bureaucratic system. When you send in your premium they tell you you sent it to the wrong place. When you send in your person you send it to the wrong person. When you send it to the right person they say that person's left their job. When you say I went to the doctor, they said you should have called us first. When you say I had emergency surgery, you should have called us first. You want to talk about bureaucracy, ladies and gentlemen.
That's why this legislation is growing in popularity because small businesses see, senior citizens see, parents with children under 26 they see a chance to liberate themselves from the most arbitrary, the most capricious, the most bureaucratic system in our entire free economy. And that's the insurance company. Everybody has been run around the block by their insurance companies. It's something they all share. It's almost the problems they share with their cable company. Not quite. But it's not as dramatic here because this is life and death. This is the security of your family. This is whether or not you can change jobs. This is whether or not your children will be protected. This is whether or not your parents will be able to afford their drug because that's what this legislation enables and gives the freedom to American families to have. Repeal.
We go back into the clutches, the clutches of these bureaucrats spread across the world in the insurance company, you call for help, and you reach somebody in another country, another time zone, with know understanding of the emergency that your family, your child, your grandparent, your parent faces. Nobody wants to go back there, ladies and gentlemen. Nobody. They have been there for 50 years and health care cost vs. Gone up faster than anything in our economy . . . faster than anything you can imagine . . . faster than Superman.
