Cong. Flores Marks Anniversary of Obama’s Health Care Law

Says One Year Later, Americans Still Aren’t Celebrating ObamaCare’s Empty Promises, Unwelcome Surprises and Hidden Costs

(CONG FLORES RELEASE)

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Congressman Bill Flores (R-Texas) released the following statement today on the one year anniversary of the signing of ObamaCare:  “Today marks the anniversary of the signing of President Obama's budget-busting, job-destroying health care law, but one year later, Americans still aren’t celebrating.

“President Obama and Congressional Democrats continue to ignore the growing majority of Americans who do not support the government takeover of health care, which will continue to sacrifice American jobs through increasing taxes, imposing costly mandates, and forcing new government bureaucracies on individuals, families and businesses. In the year since the 2,801-page ObamaCare bill was signed into law, we have repeatedly uncovered empty promises, unwelcome surprises and hidden costs and have already begun to see the negative consequences of this disastrous attempt at reform. The bottom line is, ObamaCare should have never been passed in the first place and now should be fully repealed and replaced with common-sense reforms that lower costs and protect jobs.

“The American people want us to focus on creating jobs, cutting spending and growing a robust economy – and that starts with repealing ObamaCare. Since January, I have worked with my colleagues in Congress to continuously pursue strategic opportunities to get defunding and repeal bills to President Obama’s desk:

· In January, one of the very first bills passed by the new House Republican majority was H.R. 2, a simple two-page bill that I co-sponsored to fully repeal the $2.6 trillion health care takeover.
· Then in February, House Republicans passed, with my support, H.R. 1, which contained several bipartisan provisions intended to severely limit the President’s ability to implement and fund ObamaCare.
· We passed H.R. 4 in March, to repeal the job-destroying Form 1099 reporting provision that was added in the health care law to help finance ObamaCare, imposing egregious new requirements on small businesses.
· I co-sponsored H.R. 21, the Reclaiming Individual Liberty Act, a bill that would reaffirm our Nation’s constitutional principles by repealing the burdensome and unconstitutional mandate requiring Americans to obtain health insurance found in ObamaCare.
· In addition, I co-sponsored H.R. 436, the Protect Medical Innovation Act, which would repeal the new job-destroying 2.3 percent medical device tax enacted as part of ObamaCare.
· I also co-signed a Member brief filed with the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals by Congressman Paul Broun (R-Georgia) and the American Center of Law and Justice in defense of Virginia’s challenge to ObamaCare’s unconstitutionality.

“However, Republicans won’t stop there – it’s time that we move forward and create better solutions that empower patients and families to make their own health care decisions. We must begin to rein in wasteful spending and re-establish fiscal responsibility, because hard-working Americans shouldn’t have to continue paying the price for the Democrats’ job-destroying experiment in government-run health care. Repealing ObamaCare is the first step in addressing the nation’s economic challenges so that we may begin to restore America’s promise, prosperity and security for our children and grandchildren.”