Andy Barr Reiterates Pledge to Repeal Obamacare
Mar 23rd, 2010
Legislation passage not the end of the fight, but the beginning
LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY – Andy Barr, candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Kentucky’s Sixth District, released the following statement regarding President Obama’s signing of H.R. 3590.
“Today, President Obama will sign into law the most radical restructuring of our nation's health care system in U.S. history--and he will do so against the will of the American people. Sadly, this is what one-party control of Washington has given us.
Make no mistake, this is a government takeover of one-sixth of the American economy. And it was rammed through Congress by circumventing traditional legislative procedures, ratifying shady backroom deals and asserting power Congress simply does not have under Article I of the Constitution.
Among its many troubling features, this legislation will:
- commit the federal government to an additional $1.2 trillion in new spending over the next ten years, not including the $208 billion to fix the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) to prevent a reduction in Medicare payments to physicians;
- cost more than $2 trillion per decade when fully implemented;
- raise taxes by nearly $570 billion, including $52 billion in new taxes on employers who cannot afford to pay for health insurance for their employees at a time when unemployment is at 9.7 percent;
- force 46 percent of families making less than $66,000 a year to pay an individual mandate tax;
- double health insurance premiums for families and triple health insurance premiums for individuals;
- result in an estimated 16,500 new IRS auditors, agents and other employees to collect hundreds of billions in new taxes levied on the American people;
- cut over $520 billion from Medicare, including $202 billion from Medicare Advantage, forcing millions of seniors to lose their current coverage;
- add massive new unfunded liabilities on state governments to expand Medicaid;
- cause insurance company bankruptcies, prompting new calls for a "public option" and a "single-payer" system; and
- do absolutely nothing to lower health care costs for millions of Americans.
Let me be clear: This is not the end to the fight over health care reform. It is just the beginning. Later this afternoon, the Attorney General of Virginia will be filing a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of key provisions of this legislation. Other Attorneys General will soon follow. We must play our part.
We must redouble our efforts to elect new leadership to Congress this November. That is why I have pledged that, if elected, I will sponsor and support legislation to repeal the Obama-Pelosi health care takeover and replace it with real reforms that lower health care costs without growing government. I will do what Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Congress refuse to do: listen to the voices of the American people.”
