Washington, D.C. – U.S. Representative Charles W. Boustany, Jr., (R-Southwest Louisiana), last week introduced the Fiscal Responsibility and Retirement Security Act, H.R. 5853, requiring Congress to vote specifically on the fiscal stability of CLASS before it may be implemented.  Today, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce praised the Boustany legislation.

"The CLASS Act is yet another problem in President Obama’s 2,000 plus page health care law,” said Boustany. “Billed as a long-term care benefit program, Congressional Democrats raided the CLASS Act before if began to pay for other aspects of the trillion dollar new law.  Once implemented, the CLASS Act will quickly run deficits, requiring taxpayer funding to bailout the program.  The Fiscal Responsibility and Retirement Security Act forces Congress to re-evaluate the CLASS Act and reject the program if it fails to achieve fiscal stability.”

Boustany, a former heart surgeon, continues to work to prevent egregious parts of the new health care law from being implemented.  He also advocates targeted solutions to lower health costs to help more Americans form a meaningful doctor-patient relationship.

The CLASS Act forces workers to contribute to the program, which would pay a benefit if long-term care became necessary, unless workers opt out of the program.  Unfortunately, to pay for the massive new law, Congressional Democrats used the contributions to the program to fund other parts of the health care law.  Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND), called the Class Act a “Ponzi scheme of the first order.  The kind of thing that Bernie Madoff would be proud of.”

Today, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce supported Boustany’s effort, writing in part, “[p]erhaps more importantly, the bill would prevent the government from collecting CLASS premiums until the program’s governing regulations are finalized.  This is critical, especially considering the flood of regulations required by other more immediate provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  The unsuitably close deadline between regulations being finalized and when employers would begin offering and enrolling their employees could have a harmful effect.”

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