Christopher J. Lee

Madam Speaker, today we are doing what we promised the American people we would do after the November election. We will vote to repeal last year's massive health care law. Most importantly, we will also vote to begin replacing this massive new government entitlement with commonsense reforms that actually remove costs from our health care system.

We can all agree our current health care system is unsustainable. It is ripe for reform.

Passing last year's 2,300-page monstrosity will raise health care costs by $311 billion over the next decade, according to the administration's own actuaries. It will raise health care costs for seniors and cut more than $500 billion for Medicare and Medicare Advantage, which are both very popular plans.

It will cause employers to simply drop the insurance they offer employees because they have done the math and they understand that it's cheaper to just pay the penalty than pay for the insurance, leading to struggling Americans being kicked out of their current plan they have and they like.

That is not the reform Americans deserve. We need to include medical liability reform. The CBO has scored that at a $54 billion savings.

Meaningful reform will allow western New Yorkers to start buying insurance across State lines to encourage competition. And meaningful reform will empower small businesses to group together to cut costs and provide coverage to their employees.

Republicans are pursuing these commonsense reforms because we made a promise to the American people and because we believe health care reforms need to address both affordability and accessibility. It can be done, and we are committed to making it happen.

I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his assistance in bringing this bill to the floor.

Mr. Speaker, our national debt just recently broke $14 trillion. It is well past time for Washington to get serious about cutting spending, and that effort starts right here in our own House.

With this in mind, Speaker Boehner proposed a measure to cut every Member's budget by 5 percent. In a 410-13

vote, the measure to save $35 million easily passed. It's called leading by example.

Another simple way to continue this process is by passing legislation that I brought up in the last Congress and which became part of the YouCut initiative, which gives all taxpayers the ability to vote on what Federal spending they want Congress to cut.

When a Member of Congress introduces or originally cosponsors a bill, we automatically receive multiple printed copies of the legislation, regardless if we have asked for them.

When the health care bill was introduced, the Government Printing Office printed and delivered over 100,000 pieces of paper to the original cosponsors alone. That is just one single piece of legislation we're talking about. At the start of Congress, the Small Business Paperwork Mandate Elimination Act, which repeals the onerous 1099 provision of the health care bill, won the support of 245 original cosponsors, all of whom will automatically receive multiple printed copies of the bill.

For each bill introduced, there are between 300 and 475 copies printed. This overprinting of bills is wasteful and inefficient at a time when we need to be tightening our budgetary belts and looking for greater efficiencies. In the 111th Congress, nearly 14,000 bills were introduced. That is a lot of unnecessary and costly printing.

That is why I introduced the Stop the OverPrinting Act--to save both time and money. This bill is a near mirror image of the legislation I introduced last year in H.R. 4640, keeping with the initial intent to strictly end the wasteful practice of printing copies of legislation for Members.

However, note that this bill will not hinder the daily operation of the House, the archiving process, or affect the transparency that this Congress has made a priority. This legislation will lead to significant savings each and every year--money that can be used, frankly, for better uses.

With technological advancements, we have become a paperless world. It is a waste of taxpayer dollars to automatically print and send multiple unsolicited copies of something that is readily available online. Should a Member's office truly need a printed copy, they will still be available in the document rooms and also in the committees.

Too many people in Washington don't seem to care about the dollar amount unless it has a ``B'' or a ``T'' after it, and that is the type of mentality that needs to change here in Washington and was mandated in the November elections. We need to be looking for cost savings and turning over every possible rock. With our current deficit, there should be no such thing as spending cuts just being a drop in the bucket. Every dollar and every cent counts in the real world, and it should here, too.

The money we spend here in Congress is not ours; it is the people's. House Republicans have been stressing this for some time, and together we proposed over $155 billion in savings for taxpayers throughout the 111th Congress with the YouCut initiative alone. Through this program, Americans asked Congress to support spending cuts on a wide variety of issues, including the End the Stimulus Advertising Act, which would have eliminated the unneeded highway signs notifying the public of stimulus-funded projects. With no real purpose, tens of millions of dollars could have been saved. Also considered were proposals requiring Federal employees to pay back taxes, stopping the cycle of bailouts, and putting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac back on budget.

The American people have spoken loudly that we must get our fiscal house in order. While previous efforts to curb wasteful spending were not successful, I am hoping that under our new leadership we will have far better results.

I would like to thank the leadership for their support in working to implement laws that will reform flawed aspects of our government and save taxpayer dollars, be it a dollar, a million, or a billion. I am encouraged by the fact that the new majority is listening to the will of the people to eliminate inefficiency and waste. Passing the Stop the OverPrinting Act today is an important step in beginning this process.

I urge all my colleagues to support this commonsense bill.

Mr. Chairman, I am amazed how my friends across the aisle now, all of a sudden, have found religion when it comes to fiscal issues.

But where were they when we had the $800 billion stimulus? Where were they with the $1.2 trillion health care bill that they all promoted? Where were they when the Speaker chose not to enact a budget resolution this year, the first time in 36 years? And now they're preaching fiscal responsibility when we are out promoting a bill that is not cutting taxes; it is helping to ensure that every American citizen who pays taxes won't be seeing an increase this year. It is truly, truly amazing.

Simply put, this bill before us today will allow taxpayers to keep more of what they earn and will allow small businesses, the engines of our economy, to invest in themselves and invest in jobs. This bill will provide much-needed certainty that businesses have been screaming for. They are looking to invest in themselves and truly what they want to do is hire more workers, but: tell us what the rules are going to be.

Currently, today, businesses are sitting on close to $2 trillion in cash and liquid assets awaiting to know what the rules are going to be. This bill is not perfect, but it will help set the stage for businesses to get some confidence and certainty in this economy and go out and start investing in U.S. workers. Congress is long overdue in providing this certainty to small businesses, and it is one of the best ways that we can start turning around this economy.

I ran a manufacturing business before coming to Congress. I know what it feels like to look at a production line and not know if you will be able to operate it the next month because Washington is dragging its feet.

By acting now, we can also ensure that small businesses and family farms aren't hit with a 55 percent death tax. We reaffirm our commitment to providing incentives for manufacturers to invest in research and development. And we help every American family by extending current tax rates, the child tax credit, and the marriage penalty relief.

Is this bill perfect? No. Few things are that come out of Washington. But the bottom line is that this bill will allow families to keep more of what they earn and help small businesses grow and invest in themselves.

This is a proven recipe for job creation. I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan legislation so we can protect taxpayers and get on to the tough work of cutting spending next year.