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Americans can build tomorrow’s health care system now by re-dedicating ourselves to the ideals that have made this country strong: expanding freedoms, empowering individuals, and ensuring value for consumers and taxpayers. These ideals can be achieved by focusing on Access: Every American should have access to basic, affordable care; Quality: Americans benefit when health care providers are free to compete; Innovation: Innovation will lead to better care and better value for patients; and Prevention: Focusing on prevention will enable Americans to live longer, healthier lives.
Speaking Points
Democrats’ Misplaced Priorities by the Numbers
How Will A Job-Killing Health Care Bill Help Unemployment?
Even as President Obama now attempts to re-focus his attention on the economy, a look at Democrats’ actions over the past year shows the party’s stubborn focus on a government takeover of health care that would kill jobs, not save them:
5,298—Total pages of health care legislation passed by three House and two Senate Committeesi
30—Number of days House and Senate Committees spent marking up health care legislationii
25—Number of days the Senate spent debating health care legislationiii
$729,500,000,000 and $518,500,000,000—Tax increases in the House and Senate-passed health care billsiv
5,000,000—Number of jobs that could be lost as a result of the taxes in the Pelosi health care bill, according to a model developed by Council of Economic Advisers Chair Christina Romerv
Meanwhile, all across America millions of workers have been struggling, even as Democrats rushed to pass a health care bill that would destroy jobs:
2,742,000—Number of jobs lost since President Obama signed the $862 billion “stimulus” billvi
6,130,000—Number of workers unemployed for at least six months—an all-time high
29.1 weeks—Average length of time Americans have been unemployed—also an all-time high
15,267,000—Number of unemployed Americans—down only slightly from October’s 26-year high
17.3%—National rate of unemployment, including under-employed individuals and “discouraged workers” who have stopped looking for work
0—Days the Senate spent debating legislation providing permanent tax relief to small businesses
Even now, amidst the economic hardship facing American families nationwide, Democrats refuse to abandon their efforts to pass a government takeover of health care that would kill jobs, not create them. Many may ask: how many more jobs must be lost before the President and Democrats in Congress will abandon their health care scheme that would raise taxes on hard-working families and businesses?
i Includes the 1,504-page Senate Finance Committee bill (S. 1796), the 840-page Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee bill (S. 1679), the 794-page House Ways and Means Committee Chairman’s Mark to H.R. 3200, the 1,040-page House Education and Labor Committee Chairman’s Mark to H.R. 3200, the 1,026-page House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman’s Mark to H.R. 3200, and a 94-page motion to instruct the Rules Committee on H.R. 3200 approved by the
House Energy and Commerce Committee.
ii The Senate Finance Committee spent six days marking up S. 1796; the Senate HELP Committee spent 13 days marking up S. 1679; the House Ways and Means Committee spent one day marking up H.R. 3200; the House Education and Labor Committee spent two days marking up H.R. 3200; the House Energy and Commerce Committee spent six days marking up H.R. 3200, including one day debating a motion to instruct the Rules Committee regarding the legislation.
iii According to the Congressional Record, the Senate debated H.R. 3590 on November 19-21, November 30-December 10, December 13-17, and December 19-24, 2009.
iv Figures based on Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation analyses of H.R. 3962 as passed by the House, and similar CBO and JCT analyses of H.R. 3590 as passed by the Senate.
v House Ways and Means Committee Republican staff calculation.
vi All jobs data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics monthly employment data, http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?ln
