Breaking the Gridlock Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BEAN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding time.

Mr. Speaker, when your old roof keeps leaking, you can keep adding shingles to it, but eventually you must admit the structure underneath isn't built to weather the storm. Rather than double down on a problem that keeps getting more expensive, it is time sometimes to rethink the foundation. Such is the case with ObamaCare.

Mr. Speaker, we all remember those promises made when Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. It turns out that wasn't true. It is also not true the promise made that this ObamaCare will bend the cost curve for healthcare downward. That is not true at all. Premiums for the average ObamaCare plan have skyrocketed much higher than traditional inflation leaving patients with higher costs and fewer choices.

If Americans are just tuning in to C-SPAN, you might assume that Republicans are eliminating the Affordable Care Act or ObamaCare altogether. That is simply not the case.

The premium tax credits were developed during COVID to subsidize Americans making more than 400 percent of the Federal poverty level, including those making up to $600,000. People making up to $600,000 are getting subsidized by the American taxpayers. In northeast Florida, we call people making $600,000 rich, and that is who we are subsidizing with these premium tax credits.

I have also got a news flash for you, Mr. Speaker: COVID is over. We made these premium tax credits during COVID. COVID is over, and these subsidies should be over with it.

ObamaCare will continue for those who need it. Americans making up to 400 percent of the poverty level are still eligible for the tax credits. At this very moment that is still happening. That means a family of four can make up to $128,000 and still qualify for help.

To call this, and I have heard it said a couple of times already, a Republican healthcare crisis is fake news. There is new hope, Mr. Speaker. Instead of throwing more money away, we can have a new day for America to look at health savings accounts, to look at the Lower Healthcare Premiums for All Act that according to the CBO is going to lower premiums for everybody, all Americans across the Nation.

It is time to give more choice and more competition. Those are the only ingredients that are going to make costs lower. We can't keep patching the same roof. Everybody has sticker shock.

Mr. Speaker, I urge everybody, the right answer is to vote ``no'' on extending these horrible tax credits.

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