Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor regarding his push for defunding Obamacare:
“I want to start by acknowledging the work of my colleague, the Junior Senator from Texas, who held the floor for nearly a day speaking passionately about an issue that unites every single Republican. Obamacare is wrong for America and needs to be repealed. The Senator from Texas is focused on the dangers of this law, explaining once again why we are all, all of us on this side of the aisle committed to overturning it.
“Later this week, every Republican will unite to vote against any amendment to add funding for Obamacare. And this afternoon, I would like to call on my colleagues across the aisle once again to listen to their constituents and actually join us in this effort.
“I’d like to ask Senators to cast their minds back to Christmas Eve 2009. Some of us remember it well.
“In the early hours of the morning, the Senate Democrat Majority rammed through a massive 2,700-page takeover of the U.S. health care system against the will of the American people, against the principles of open and accountable government, and, I would argue, against their better judgment: because the people who voted for this bill didn’t have to listen to all the speeches I was giving back then to realize it would never, ever, do what the President said it would. But they obeyed the orders of Washington Democrat leadership anyway. And now, on the other side are seeing the results.
“Obamacare is just as bad as many of us said it would be. And it’s about to get worse.
“This train is picking up speed, and there’s a bridge out ahead. It’s sort of like one of those Wile E. Coyote cartoons.
“Except this isn’t funny. Because these are people’s lives we’re talking about. We’re talking about the college graduate who’s faced with a choice between exorbitant premiums and government tax penalties. We’re talking about the working mom forced to scrape by with fewer hours and smaller paychecks. We’re talking about the small business that’s unable to grow and hire more Americans. And that’s not even getting into the concerns about ‘glitches’ that could expose personal information to fraud. Or about Americans losing the health care they like and want to keep.
“Even the Administration is having a terrible time spinning this law. Just look at the cherry-picked report they released today. About the best they could claim was that some premiums would be lower than projected. Note that I didn’t say lower, but lower than projected.
“Basically, this law is a mess.
“So Washington Democrats may have been able to brush the American people off in 2009. But they have no choice but to deal with reality now. We’ve seen how this has worked out over the past four years. It’s hard to blame them for looking back at their Obamacare vote with regret. But here’s the good news: later this week, the Senate will take up a House-passed CR. If passed, it will keep the government from shutting down without increasing government spending by a penny, and – and – it will defund Obamacare.
“So for all those Democrats who shanked it in 2009, here’s your mulligan. Here’s your chance to finally get on the same page with the American people. Because they overwhelmingly oppose this law. And you can’t open a newspaper these days without being struck by some new reason you should too.
“Remember: it’s more than just our constituents who are opposed to Obamacare. Small businesses are opposed. Even Big Labor union bosses are souring on it. All we need are five Democrats to show enough courage to stand against their party and with the American people on this vote. That’s enough to pass the bill…enough to keep the government open — and to keep Obamacare funding out of it — before this train collides with reality.
“So I urge my Democrat colleagues to join us – the members of my conference who are already united in our opposition to Obamacare. Together, we can do this.”