By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R) from Alabama delivered a speech on ObamaCare’s broken promises on the Senate floor Thursday.
Sen. Shelby addressing the U.S. Senate said,
“Last week in Illinois, President Obama attempted to blame opponents of ObamaCare for the law’s broken promises. He lashed out at ‘folks out there who are actively working to make this law fail.’ ‘[A] politically-motivated misinformation campaign is afoot’, he said. And he strongly implied that fault rests not with those who conceived the law, but with those who have not, in his estimation, ‘committed themselves to making [it] work.’”
Sen. Shelby said, “This flailing, of course, was nothing more than an effort by President Obama to dodge and deflect accountability for the law that bears his name. Let’s be real, Mr. President. ObamaCare is not a failure because so many Americans reject it. Rather, so many Americans reject ObamaCare because it is a failure.”
Shelby said, “Americans are growing increasingly anxious about how the law will affect them and their families. They wonder what it will mean for their health insurance and tax bills. They wonder whether they will be able to get the care they need, when they need it. They wonder whether the quality of American health care will remain the best in the world. And they wonder how a government reorganization of one-sixth of the economy will impact a weak jobs market.”
Sen. Shelby was that the administration will delay the implementation of the law’s employer mandate until 2015 because workable reporting requirements still are not in place. Shelby said that many employers are cutting back hours for their current workers and are postponing hiring new ones.
Sen. Shelby said, “Mr. President, I welcome any relief from ObamaCare for anyone. But why should such relief not apply to individuals and families as well? And if the administration hasn’t gotten its act together by now, what leads us to believe that it ever will?”
Sen. Shelby said that instead of temporarily delaying part of ObamaCare for some, the best course would be to permanently delay all of it for everyone.
Sen. Shelby added that the administration is about to rolllout ObamaCare even though the government still has no plan in place to verify that applicants actually qualify for the subsidies. Shelby said, “These provisions are unworkable or problematic not because people don’t like them, but because they were poorly designed.” “This isn’t about a lack of commitment on behalf of those forced to comply with these mandates. Rather, it’s about a lack of competence on behalf of those who conceived and crafted them.”
Shelby pointed out that President Obama said his health care overhaul “could save families $2,500 in the coming years.” Instead health insurance premiums for the average American family have increased by $3,065 since 2008, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation Employer Health Benefits and is expected to double or even triple for young healthy Americans. ObamaCare has not decreased premiums, but has increased taxes imposing a trillion dollar tax hike on the economy in the first ten years and will still add $6.2 trillion to the debt over the next 75 years, based on Government Accountability Office projections.
Shelby said that he believes that ObamaCare will not only fail to control costs, but will destroy the best quality health care in the world and will lead to rationing and slow the pace of medical research. Shelby said that the Obama administration has also backtracked on the president’s promise that “If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period.”
Shelby said that a U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s survey finds that “71% of small businesses say the health care law makes it harder to hire,” and that “one-half of small businesses say that they will either cut hours to reduce full time employees OR replace full time employees with part-time workers to avoid the mandate. Mr. President, labor unions agree with businesses that ObamaCare will hurt the economy.”
In a scathing letter to Democrat leaders in Congress, the presidents of the Teamsters, the UFCW, and UNITE-HERE wrote that ObamaCare “will shatter not only our hard-earned health benefits, but destroy the foundation of the 40 hour work week that is the backbone of the American middle class.”
Sen. Shelby concluded, “President Obama conveniently blames Republican opposition for the stumbles and failures of ObamaCare, despite the fact that Americans across the political spectrum have spoken up about its many flaws. Mr. President, Republicans are committed to finding solutions that actually lower health costs; that do not tax and spend us into oblivion; that preserve the world’s highest quality health care; and that foster economic growth. We have said all along that ObamaCare would fail on each of these counts.”
Some Republicans are promoting the idea of shutting down the government in an attempt to force the Democrats to defund Obamacare.
