Authority for Mandate Delay Act

Floor Speech

Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, what truly makes America unique is that everybody is treated fairly and equally under the law. That's what makes us so great. That's why people say, at least if I'm in America, I know I'm going to be treated the same way as everybody else. It's not going to matter what the color of my skin is; it's not going to matter how I worship; it's not going to matter whether I'm wealthy or poor; I'm going to be treated equally and fairly under the law.

And yet today, we're talking about something that is going on in our government right now where the President has decided to pick winners and losers. The President has decided that he is going to divide the country even further now because he's not going to do what is fair and what's equal, he's going to do what's convenient.

Now, it's pretty easy to understand what fair is. Fair is marked by impartiality and honesty. It's free from self-interest, prejudice, or favoritism. Equal means of the same measure, quantity, amount, or numbers, as in any other person, any other group, any other class, or any other part of society.

So I ask you, How in the world can you say businesses don't have to comply? We're going to go ahead and give them a year off. But yet the individual is going to be held to the letter of the law. If we are truly a country of laws, if we are truly going to treat everybody equally and fairly under the law, then how in the world can we be here today discussing this and debating this on this great floor. It just doesn't make sense.

A piece of legislation that continues to unravel before our very eyes, that creates uncertainty in our society, that creates uncertainty in our businesses, and now, we wonder when's the next shoe going to drop? What else is going to be changed? What laws will we enforce, what laws will we walk away from?

I would just tell my friends on both sides of the aisle, do what we all believe. Let's treat people fairly and equally under the law. Could there be anything more American than that? And the answer is, no; it's self-evident. So I ask all of us today to do what's right for America. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

If it's not good for business, why should it be good for individuals?

Pass both pieces. Let the American people put their head on the pillow tonight with some kind of surety that they're going to be protected under the law and treated fairly and equally.

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