Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, the President filed his budget yesterday, and what a budget it is. It is going to increase spending by $791 billion--that is right, billion with a ``b.'' You would think we had all this money to spend. And when you look a little deeper, you see that the priorities are all askew in this budget.

I want to point out just one to my colleagues, and it deals with the Tennessee National Guard and the way they are being adversely impacted by what this budget is bringing to bear, what the President would want to bring to bear.

The Tennessee Guard has flown the Kiowa Warrior helicopters all throughout Iraq and Afghanistan. They used them in our natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina and the Tennessee flood. And today, due to that budget that I have mentioned that the President filed yesterday, he would like to put them on the chopping block. All 30 Kiowa helicopters, 692 soldiers, and 113 workers are all on the chopping block.

Let's talk about priorities. It is our responsibility in the House to get this right.

Madam Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 465, I call up the bill (H.R. 7) to prohibit taxpayer funded abortions, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 7.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I come in support of H.R. 7, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act.

This legislation is written with the same simple principle that has been supported on a bipartisan basis for decades. No taxpayer dollars should be spent on abortions and abortion coverage. H.R. 7 establishes a permanent Governmentwide prohibition on taxpayer subsidies for abortion.

This bill is all the more necessary because of the President's health care law and its attack on this long-standing protection of taxpayer dollars. For example, the health care law's premium subsidies can be used to purchase coverage on exchanges that include coverage of abortion.

The ACA breaks with the tradition of the Hyde Amendment, which has ensured that Federal dollars do not subsidize plans that cover abortion.

The bill before us would simply codify the Hyde amendment language so it applies across the Federal Government.

Consumers should also have the right to know whether the plans they are selecting on an exchange include abortion coverage. While the ACA included some notification provisions, many of our constituents are simply unable to find out whether a plan is paying for abortions. In fact, this inability to find out whether exchange plans provide abortion coverage seems to extend to the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

In October of last year, Secretary Sebelius committed in testimony before the Energy and Commerce Committee to provide the Congress and the American people a full list of exchange plans providing abortion coverage. She was asked again to provide this list in December. Yet we are still waiting as the days tick by. We do not have this list.

The self-appointed most transparent administration in history is simply either unwilling or unable to comply with this request. This is why we have added provisions of the Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act. This would ensure Americans have the right to know whether plans on the exchange are providing abortion coverage. This bill is about protecting taxpayer dollars and protecting life. It also ensures we have at least some transparency under the President's health care law.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, at this time, I yield 1 minute to the gentlelady from Minnesota (Mrs. Bachmann).

Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlelady from North Carolina (Mrs. Ellmers), who is a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Stutzman), who has been such an advocate on our life issues.

Madam Speaker, at this time, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Meadows).

Madam Speaker, I think it is important to realize over 60 percent of the American people agree with us on this issue. You can look at survey after survey. They do not want taxpayers funds used for abortion.

I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Alabama (Mrs. Roby), joining us in this fight to make certain that we preserve taxpayer funds, a member of the Appropriations Subcommittee.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

What an interesting debate we have and what a difference we have in philosophies as we approach the work of this Nation.

I have found it quite curious, as we have some who say we should be talking about how we live better lives and jobs and futures. You know what, Madam Speaker? As we talk today, what our focus is on is making certain that these precious unborn children do have that right to life, to liberty, to the pursuit of happiness. Yes, indeed.

Today, let me just clear up the record for the legislation before us where we talk about no taxpayer funding of abortion. I want to read from the legislation itself, Madam Speaker.

Section 304 in title I:

Nothing in this chapter shall be construed as prohibiting

any individual, entity, or

State or locality from purchasing separate abortion coverage

or health benefits coverage that includes abortion so long as

such coverage is paid for entirely using only funds not

authorized or appropriated by Federal law.

Reading directly from the bill and then going to section 306:

Nothing in this chapter shall repeal, amend, or have any

effect on any other Federal law to the extent such law

imposes any limitation on the use of funds for abortion or

for health benefits coverage that includes coverage of

abortion, beyond the limitations set forth in this chapter.

So, Madam Speaker, may I lay the fears aside of my colleagues. This is an issue that 60 percent of the American people agree with us on. It is an action that they think is important to take; that it is important for taxpayers to have the assurance from their government that we are not going to have taxpayer funds used for abortion.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I reserve a point of order against the motion to recommit.

Madam Speaker, I withdraw my point of order and rise in opposition to the motion.

Madam Speaker, I find it so interesting that we have an MTR when just 2 weeks ago we brought to this floor a bill that Chairman Pitts brought from Energy and Commerce that addressed the privacy issues and concerns of all Americans that have had to go to the healthcare.gov site. I would remind my colleagues that there were 67 Members of their caucus that crossed the aisle and voted with us. Privacy is an important issue, and we are concerned about that issue for all Americans.

I would also remind my colleagues who have inquired about the possibility of an IRS audit that we have seen many of those come out of this administration. I would remind them when they say we are remembering our history as women that we all stand and we remember that the first guarantee, the first right is the right to life. We have a responsibility as Members of the people's House to make certain we do the will of the people, and over 60 percent of all Americans say do not use my money. All money we have is taxpayer money, and do not use it to fund abortions. This is what we are doing.

I would remind all of my colleagues in the House that the bill that is before us today upholds and follows a longstanding principle that the American people and Members from both sides of the aisle have supported for decades, that is, that taxpayer dollars should not be spent on abortions and abortion coverage except in the instance of rape, incest, and life of the mother.

The vast majority of my colleagues, Democrat colleagues, voted for this same principle in last month's appropriations bill; yet this simple fact seems to be eluding most of them who have come to the floor today. I would encourage my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this motion to recommit and to vote for H.R. 7 and the underlying legislation.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for the great work that he has done on this bill.

What is so interesting and one of the reasons we find it necessary to come and address these issues is Secretary Sebelius told us in December that 5,000 people a day were getting access to health care that they had not had before.

The other side of that story, which was not told, is 74,000 American families a day were getting cancelation notices. They were looking at one another across the dinner table and saying, Guess what, our insurance has been canceled.

It has had a devastating effect. And as we try to do oversight and due diligence and continue to push for that oversight and due diligence and carry it out, even this morning at the Energy and Commerce Committee, where we had Mr. Cohen, what we have found is it is very difficult to get information, even when we are sometimes hearing from employees admitting what they told us was wrong; but then we do not get the straight story.

So it is very appropriate that we require HHS to release weekly detailed reports about the exchanges, including their enrollment, their functionality, and efforts to address the technical issues at healthcare.gov.

It is absolutely appropriate because this is all being done with the taxpayers' money. The American taxpayers have paid for every bit of this. It is not the Federal Government's money. It is not President Obama's money. It is not Congress' money. It is the taxpayers' money. This is a failed rollout and a failed program.

This administration was supposed to be the most transparent administration in history. It has not been that. It is well documented that it hasn't been. Indeed, the rollout and the implementation of this law have been even less transparent. The reason, I think, is because there have been so many problems, such as millions of Americans losing access to their health insurance.

None of the information being shared by the administration regarding enrollment means much of anything. We talk about people that enrolled, but we don't know how many people have paid and how many people have completed that process. What are the demographics of the individuals that are enrolling?

All of this is information that the individual that is paying for this--the American taxpayer--deserves to know.

Who has paid for this insurance? The White House has backed away from using any measure of enrollment as a means to determine success.

As recently as September, Secretary Sebelius herself said that 7 million enrolled by the end of March would define success of the law. Well, is that 7 million that go to the Web site, put an insurance product in their cart, and then go think about it?

Mr. Speaker, when I was growing up, I spent a lot of time working in the retail industry selling clothes in a little dress shop. Every once in a while we would have somebody that would come in and put something on hold. They would say, I'm going to be back.

Well, we called them the ``be-backs'' because, guess what, more often than not, they did not come back and complete that purchase. Yes, they put it on hold. Yes, they put it in an online shopping cart. But then they move away from it because this program is broken, it is too expensive to afford, and the American people do not want it.

Mr. Speaker, when is this administration finally going to start paying attention to the warning signs?

When career staff at OMB warned the administration that Solyndra wasn't ready for prime time, they moved forward anyway and lost hardworking taxpayers a half billion dollars.

When private consultants told the White House and HHS officials last spring that there were problems with healthcare.gov, they moved forward anyway.

When CMS sent a memo just 4 days before healthcare.gov went live and warned about ``inherent security risks''--their terminology--the administration moved forward anyway. So their failed policy of forward is costing us money and is getting people into trouble. This is what we are hearing from an Experian report. America's personal information is at high risk on healthcare.gov. There is a great opportunity for a data breach.

Mr. Speaker, this is something we can stop. The bill today does that. It is simple. It addresses the problem. What it does very simply--and I commend the gentleman from Pennsylvania for the Health Exchange Security and Transparency Act--it accomplishes what this administration has failed to make a standard practice. It will force HHS to inform anyone if their information has been breached, and they have to do this within 2 business days. They can't hide it. They can't spin it. They have got to tell you if your information has been breached.

We do this because if the administration is going to require us--and, yes, to my colleagues, it is a requirement--to use healthcare.gov, at least they can notify you when your information has been breached.

Mr. Speaker, every great community has a grand storyteller; one who proclaims the greatness of the land. The Music City family has many great tellers, all worthy of praise, but standing behind the city's legacy is one particularly great teller of its story and song. I rise today to honor Jo Walker Meador for her outstanding service to country music.

Inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1995, Jo Walker Meador is no stranger to accolades from her beloved industry and her successes are well known. From the beginning days of Fan Fair to the Country Music Association and on to the CMA award shows, Jo's mark is ever present. It is no small truth that country music would not hold the audience and devotion around the world were it not for Jo Walker Meador.

Now in its sixth year, the Cecil Scaife Visionary Award honors those whose life and work paved the way for the next generation of award winning musicians, artists, and business leaders. It is fitting then that you celebrate Jo today. I ask my colleagues to join with me in celebrating Jo Walker Meador, the Matriarch of Music Row, as she is honored with the Cecil Scaife Visionary Award.

I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding, and Mr. Flores has really done a wonderful job of outlining the problem that we have come to the floor to address tonight.

Quite frankly, Mr. Speaker, it is a problem and a situation that so many of our constituents never thought that they would witness or experience in this great Nation. They always felt that they had the right to free speech because it is a guaranteed right.

How dare that they, or their groups, find themselves subjected to mistreatment by a Federal Government agency because of what they chose to say or to do, all in defense of liberty and the Constitution of this great land.

Well, we had some of our Tennessee groups that were unjustly targeted through this process. They brought that to our attention because they realized that they were the brunt of this mistreatment, that they were facing a Federal Government agency who came bearing the power of the Federal Government to try to fear and intimidate citizens.

Yes, indeed, it is the example of the government turning against the citizens and the power of the government being used to silence the citizens.

So many of our constituents that were involved with this process said, What happened? How did this change? What has caused this to take place?

And what they began to say to us was, if they can do this to others, what are they going to do to us?

If they can do this to us in our group, what will they end up doing to others?

So we have worked very closely and continue to follow what is happening with these groups and, of course, have been very concerned, as we have heard and watched the hearings for how the IRS carried out this data-mining and these word searches.

I have to tell you, Mr. Speaker, it is no doubt at all, no doubt in my mind at all why the American people are so concerned about the security of the President's health care law. They know that their data may be used against them because they have living proof with the IRS, that they took information, applications, donors to groups, and then they turned that information against those donors from those groups in order to silence them and to impair their free speech.

I want to read a letter tonight from one of the groups in my district, in our State, that has been unfairly and unjustly treated by the IRS. And this one comes from Linchpins of Liberty. It is stating their posture as of October 21 of this year.

And the gentleman who is the executive director of Linchpins of Liberty is a gentleman named Kevin Kookogey, who started his organization because he loves his country. He loves freedom. He wants to preserve this for his children and future generations.

So he did what a lot of Americans do, decided to put together an organizational structure that individuals could come together under to further the cause of freedom, something more individuals could and should do.

But this is what happened to him, and I am quoting from his letter, which I will enter, Mr. Speaker, as a part of the permanent record for the proceedings of this evening:

Dear Congresswoman Blackburn,

As you know, I am president and founder of Linchpins of

Liberty, an American Leadership Development Enterprise.

On January 2, 2011, we filed our application with the IRS

seeking to obtain a 501(c)(3) status as an educational

organization.

Now, Mr. Speaker, that date is important. January 2, 2011:

For over 33 months now, the IRS has unlawfully delayed and

obstructed that application. Under threat of perjury, the IRS

has demanded that I disclose the identities of my students,

some of whom are minors. One letter from the IRS contained in

excess of 90 inquiries of intimidation intended to force me

to disclose my donors and to identify the political

affiliation of my mentors.

This has come at great cost to me. I have already lost a

$30,000 grant from a reputable nonprofit whose executive

director advised me that he had never seen such treatment of

a 501(c)(3) applicant in his 25 years of making grants.

On June 5, 2013, the day after I testified before Congress,

I then lost most of my business when my largest client

advised me that it was uncomfortable with the public

expression of my political views in defending my

constitutional rights.

A few days later, Congressman McDermott suggested on

national television that I may have lied before Congress

simply because I was not under oath when I testified. Perhaps

he was projecting, because I don't make a distinction between

whether or not I am under oath. I tell the truth all the

time.

If the intent of the administration is to intimidate and

silence the voices of freedom, then it has grossly misjudged

its citizens. The government is not our master. It is our

agent. We are the principals, and we delegate our rights. We

do not surrender them.

I therefore respectfully appeal to you to confront this

abuse of power by the executive branch, and, in so doing, to

protect, defend and preserve human liberty for ourselves and

our posterity.

Sincerely, Kevin Kookogey, president and founder, Linchpins

of Liberty.

Mr. Speaker, when you read the letters such as the one from Mr. Kookogey, such as the ones that you are going to hear from other organizations tonight, what you realize is there is an outstanding field of questions relative to what has transpired with the IRS:

Why did they go about this?

What was their purpose?

Was it maliciousness?

Were their actions purposeful?

Was it intended to silence, to silence those that stand in opposition to the practices and the positions of this administration?

Those are some of the questions that our constituents are still seeking to find the answers to. They would like to have their IRS designation because they recognize we are a Nation of laws. We abide by the law, and they would seek to operate within the law.

October 21, 2013.

Re Linchpins of Liberty--The Cost of Speaking for Freedom

Hon. Marsha Blackburn,

Washington, DC.

Dear Congresswoman Blackburn: As you know, I am President

and Founder of Linchpins of Liberty: An American Leadership

Development Enterprise.

On January 2, 2011, we filed our application with the IRS,

seeking to obtain 501(c)(3) status as an educational

organization.

For over 33 months now, the IRS has unlawfully delayed and

obstructed that application. Under threat of perjury, the IRS

has demanded that I disclose the identities of my students--

some of whom are minors. One letter from the IRS contained in

excess of ninety (90) inquiries of intimidation intended to

force me to disclose my donors and to identify the political

affiliation of my mentors!

This has come at great cost to me. I have already lost a

$30,000 grant from a reputable non-profit whose Executive

Director advised me that he had never seen such treatment of

a 501(c)(3) applicant in his 25 years of making grants.

On June 5, 2013, the day after I testified before Congress,

I then lost most of my business when my largest client

advised me that it was uncomfortable with the public

expression of my political views in defending my

Constitutional rights.

A few days later, Congressman McDermott suggested on

national television that I may have lied before Congress

simply because I was not under oath when I testified. Perhaps

he was projecting, because I don't make a distinction between

whether or not I am under oath. I tell the truth ALL the

time.

If the intent of the Administration is to intimidate and

silence the voices of freedom, then it has grossly misjudged

its citizens. The government is not our master. It is our

agent. We are the principals, and we delegate our rights. We

do not surrender them.

I therefore respectfully appeal to you to confront this

abuse of power by the Executive Branch, and in so doing to

protect, defend, and preserve human liberty, for ourselves

and our posterity.

Sincerely,

Kevin Kookogey,

President & Founder, Linchpins of Liberty.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased today to stand in support of the rule that will allow us to bring the Keep Your Health Plan Act to the floor.

It is important that we take this action today on H.R. 3350 because we have heard from the American people, from coast to coast, that they do not want the President's health care law. They do not like the President's health care law. They feel as if, and have realized that what is happening with this law is that, number one, it is restricting their choice and options when it comes to health insurance, and, number two, the cost is skyrocketing.

Now, we know that that is very important to our families who have chosen health plans that meet their needs--health savings accounts that allowed them to take individual responsibility for their health care, allowed them the opportunities for choosing doctors and physicians and keeping those doctors and physicians--and what the American people are telling us and our constituents are telling us is that they do, indeed, feel betrayed by the empty promises that the President and this administration have made.

They are also quite concerned about the botched Web site rollout; as I said, the insurance premiums; and, oh, those cancelation notices that are hitting the mailboxes of millions of Americans. They say, This is not what we bargained for. It is not what we were promised. It is not what we voted or spoke in favor of. And so they are asking us to take an action, and H.R. 3350 does take that action.

Now, Mr. Speaker, I want to go back to 2010 when we had a conference and the President was before us, and I asked him a question about the ability to keep plans and for individuals to stay insured. I spoke because of the experience we had had in my State of Tennessee with the test case for HillaryCare, which was called TennCare. We saw the effects of that. We knew it was the test case for a public option in health care; we knew it was too expensive to afford; and, overall, we knew it did not work.

In his response, the President mentioned a little bit about some stray cats and dogs and that he thought they had that cleaned up. But I have to tell you that our constituents and their policies are not stray cats and dogs, and they deserve to have the opportunity to keep their health care and not to be treated in a disrespectful manner or to be discarded to the sidelines.

So the President needs to realize he cannot go around waving a magic wand and fixing this by executive fiat. This is a law. We are a Nation of laws, and we abide by the rule of law. ObamaCare, the President's health care law, is the law of the land. In order to provide relief to the American people who have clearly spoken to say they do not want this law, it requires an action of Congress.

Today's action will provide relief for some individuals--not as many as we would like, but it is one step in providing some relief. The American people have grown weary of this administration spending money that it does not have on programs the American people do not want. The President's health care law is a great example of a program that the American people do not want, so they have come to us as the people's representative and reminded us that we are a government of, by, and for the people that should be working for the people. And as one of my constituents told me Monday, we, the people, are going to start being the people and holding this administration and this Congress accountable. Today is one of those steps that we are taking on behalf of our constituents and the people of this great Nation.

I thank the gentleman from Texas for the exceptional work that he has done in working with Chairman Upton from Michigan in bringing this to the floor.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for the superb job that he has done on bringing H.R. 3350 to the floor; and I thank him for listening to millions of Americans who have been so forthright in saying we do not want the President's health care law; it is destroying our access to the health care that we like; it is taking away our health care plans.

Never has there been a Federal mandate that has just swept so many people aside and said you must buy this product.

Some of you have asked, why are we doing this? Let me tell you why. We are doing it for my constituents like Carolyn and Lucy and Cindy and Wilma, all small business owners, all female heads of households, who have written us and have said we are being forced out--forced out--of the plan that we like, we are being forced away from the doctor that we like, we are being forced to buy a product we do not like.

Mr. Speaker, a great society is often given their place in history based on how they serve the least among them. A great people are often judged from how well they serve the least of all. I rise today to honor the work of My Life Speaks as they work to bring aid to orphans in Haiti.

Cited as one of the poorest countries in the world, Haiti has almost 500,000 orphans. With high illiteracy and unemployment rates, the Haitian society struggles with poverty, and the high orphan rate it accompanies. Often forgotten, children with special needs are orphaned and overlooked completely. My Life Speaks works to provide the best quality of life possible to orphans, those with and without special needs, by providing safe housing, quality education, and accessible medical care.

I ask my colleagues to join with me in celebrating the good work of all who follow the call of the Almighty to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and care for the orphan. May our vocations be a light of the old prayer, ``at the end of our lives, may we all be found in the service of others.''

Madam Speaker, I want to visit with my colleagues this morning for a few minutes about the impact of our Federal Government and what it is doing to our country's future and to future generations. That is something that has been foremost in my mind this week.

This week, our family has welcomed a new baby. Georgia K. Graham was born in New York City at 2:25 Monday morning. So as we have welcomed her, as we think about her future, one of the things we are discussing is: What kind of America will she have to grow up in? How solvent will we be? Will we still be the country that celebrates the American Dream? Will we be the country that focuses on opportunity, that looks to entrepreneurs and innovators to create a better day, not only for America, but for the entire world?

This is also the time, Madam Speaker, as we look at what has happened with our Nation's budget, with our Nation's spending, that we look at the long-term effects of so many of the programs and entitlements that are placed before us. One of those is a program that is commonly known as ObamaCare, and some of my colleagues say: Why is it that we talk about ObamaCare in conjunction with the budget? I would like to remind my colleagues it is because it is a very expensive program. And I have a chart that shows what has happened with the cost of that program since the law was passed and now as we are focusing on implementation.

You will see we were told this was to be a program that would run about $900 billion over a 10-year period of time. It was to be access to health care insurance for those that did not have that access. But when we look at the chart that reflects the Congressional Budget Office's findings--this is a chart that was prepared on the Senate side--what we see is the cost estimate over that same 10-year period of time from when the law was passed. Remember, we had to pass it in order to read it and find out what was in it? From when it was passed, there at $900 billion, to today, as we look at the implementation of ObamaCare, it has become a $2.6 trillion-over-10-year program. It is a tripling of costs, and we don't even have it out of the starting gates yet. This is why we are looking at the total cost of health care.

In the Budget Committee, as we look at the long-term outlook for our Nation and the implications that our budget will have on the private sector, on hardworking taxpayers, what we find with the cost of health care is that those programs are expected to double in their impact on the budget. We have to remember that every single dollar the Federal Government has comes out of the pocket of taxpayers, men and women who go to work every day and earn that dollar and then have to send more and more of that dollar to the Federal Government.

As we look at the challenges that face this Nation, we focus on what we will spend, how we will use that money, and we think about the children, the grandchildren that we have and their future and the impact our spending habits today will have on their tomorrows.

Mr. Speaker, there's an old quote that reminds us women hold up half the sky. I rise today, Mr. Speaker, to honor one woman who holds up half the Tennessee sky and all the State House. I congratulate State Representative Beth Harwell as she receives the Joe and Honey Rodgers Leadership Award.

Unanimously elected as Tennessee's first female Speaker of the House in 2011, Beth Harwell began her elected service in the state's 96th General Assembly. Receiving the Rodgers Leadership Award as the 2013 Christian Civic Leader of the Year, Speaker Harwell is recognized for her work in areas such as preventing child abuse, lowering unemployment, and reforming welfare.

Citizens have a divine obligation to serve their communities. I am grateful for organizations like The Operation Andrew Group and United 4 Hope as they offer their time, talents, and treasures to the Middle Tennessee area. Along with her husband Sam and children Allie, Sam, and Tucker, I congratulate Speaker Harwell and I ask my colleagues to join with me in celebrating Speaker Harwell's good work, her dedication to serving the least among us, and her leadership in Tennessee.

Mr. Speaker, Tennessee is home to many young talents. Whether in the music, technology, health care, or artistic communities, America's youth find success. I'm please today to rise and add one more group to the list of outstanding young talent: baseball players.

The South Nashville All-Stars headed earned their place in the World Series with a 5-3 win over Henrico, VA in the southeast region final. While they did not leave the Series with the title, they returned home to Middle Tennessee to fans, friends, and family all proud of their outstanding accomplishments.

I ask my colleagues to join with me in celebrating the hard work, perseverance, and dedication of: Austin Kasick #14, Ben Pickman #32, Blake Kirchenbauer #3, Blake Money #15, Bricen Russell #23, Christopher McElvain #7, Connor Smith #13, Knox Preston #24, Robert Hassell #9, Tanner Morgan #1, Trae McLemore #21, and Zane Denton #25.

I join with their friends, parents, coaches, and supporters in celebrating their wonderful season.

Mr. Speaker, the Tennessee Seventh Congressional District is home to many young talents. Whether in the music, technology, health care, or artistic communities, America's youth find success. I'm please today to rise and add one more group to the list of outstanding young talent: baseball players.

Led by coach David Weathers, the young men from Lawrenceburg left Babe Ruth Baseball League 13-year-old World Series as the Southeast Regional Champions. Dedicated to athletics, sportsmanship, and the great sport of baseball, these 13 young men represented Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, and the Southeast Region with great pride.

I ask my colleagues to join with me in celebrating the hard work, perseverance, and dedication of Ben Stagg, #43; Bradley Huckaba, #6; Clay Gambel, #9; Jacob Hallmark, #7; Jacob James, #10; Jacob Laws, #23; Jett Beasley, #1; Kendall Franklin, #88; Koltar Houser, #14; Lance Pope, #4; Ryan Weathers, #25; Sam Crane, #5 and Sawyer Turnbow, #18.

I join with their friends, parents, coaches, and supporters in celebrating their wonderful season.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate being recognized for the time, and I appreciate the recognition that this Chamber and my colleagues are putting on the issues before us.

As we look at Federal spending, what we have to do is say: What is causing us to be in a position where we are borrowing $2 billion a day? And if we are borrowing $2 billion a day, we have to ask: Is that a sustainable practice and something that we as a Nation can continue? Of course the answer to that is, no, it is not sustainable. Therefore, we have to look at what is causing us to spend more money than we are taking in, and one of the things that is at the top of that list that is too expensive to afford is the ObamaCare program, the Affordable Care Act.

What I would like to do today is focus my comments on what we are seeing from the Affordable Care Act and what has happened with the cost of this program and why it has become too expensive to afford and why we have to talk about it and focus on it and put it on the table as we talk about what our Nation spends.

Now, we all remember supposedly ObamaCare, the Affordable Care Act, was going to be a $900 billion program, roughly, that was to give access to affordable health insurance for those who didn't have access to health insurance, but let's look at what has happened.

This was the estimate: under a trillion dollars, $900 billion, when the program was passed. But, oh, remember, we had to pass it in order to read it to find out what was in it. After we read it the first time, $1.4 trillion. My source on this is the Congressional Budget Office, the CBO. Every time it has been reviewed, with some of the nearly 13,000 pages of rules and regulations, guess what has happened? The cost estimate has gone up. Now ObamaCare is a $2.6 trillion program. So what we are looking at is a near tripling in cost before the program goes into effect. This is why we continue to say, as we look at fiscal health, fiscal restraint, you have to look at what is happening with the cost projections on ObamaCare.

Now, for those of us from my State of Tennessee, this is something that is not new to us. We had the test case for HillaryCare in our State. It is called TennCare. What happened with the TennCare program was it ended up quadrupling in cost in a period of 5 years.

Now, this causes us a little bit of concern because we look at what has happened with the cost of government-managed and -delivered health care services. Well, let's take a look at Medicare and where it was supposed to be in 1968 and then what has happened with its costs. You can look at these lines, the red line.

These are on my Web site for our colleagues that would like to go and look at the Web site.

You can see what happened in 1968, and the red line shows where it has grown to today. For something that was to end up being about $12 billion a year, we are now spending over $400 billion a year on. You can see what were to be the projections here on this bottom line, and you see how far it has exceeded its projections. So because of this, we are quite concerned with the growth and the projections of growth for ObamaCare.

Look at the track record of government spending. Do programs generally come in below their estimates? No. They generally exceed those estimates. So we continue to be very concerned about what will happen with the cost of ObamaCare and the impact this is going to have on our $3.5-trillion-a-year budget, and we continue to say: We have to review this; it is too expensive to afford; and does it fit into what the American taxpayer is willing to pay for?

Because every penny we spend here in Washington, D.C., comes out of the taxpayers' pockets from money that they have earned and then have paid in taxes, sent to Washington, they expect us to be very careful stewards of those dollars.

Before my time expires, Mr. Speaker, I just want to point out one other concern that we have with the exchanges and the way they are going to handle information. Six hundred million dollars to build a computer system that doesn't work and doesn't protect the

identity and the information of enrollees in the health care exchange is another of the problems there that is worthy of discussion of this program.

Mr. Speaker, a picture is worth a thousand words, and I felt like it was appropriate today because so many of our colleagues say, Why do we want to discuss ObamaCare when we talk about the budget or talk about the continuing resolution?

And here is the reason why. It is a program that is too expensive to afford.

Take a look at this graph. We all know that, supposedly, when ObamaCare started out--by the way, as an insurance access program for the nearly 40 million that didn't have insurance--it was to be under $1 trillion, exactly $863 billion.

So now we look at what has happened to the growth of this program. CBO shows us, looking at this, when you address $1.4 trillion, 1.7, we are now at $2.6 trillion in costs over a 10-year period of time.

So to my colleagues, Mr. Speaker, I say, this is why we have to put this program on the table and discuss it. It is now a nationalization of 17 percent of our Nation's economy and has gone from under $1 trillion to $2.6 trillion. Let's get the spending under control.

Mr. Speaker, it is so interesting to hear my colleagues talk about how they want a clean CR. Just so that everyone realizes, Mr. Speaker, what they are saying is give us the money--no strings attached, no accountability.

What we continue to say to our colleagues is we want an accountable CR--accountable to the U.S. taxpayer, who is footing the bill for this government. It is not Federal money that we appropriate or that we spend. It is taxpayer money coming out of the pockets of hardworking men and women.

As I read emails from my district in Tennessee, what I hear repeatedly is, number one, We cannot afford the $17 trillion in debt. It really scares us. It frightens us for the future of our children and grandchildren.

We cannot continue to monetize $75 billion worth of debt each month. We have to get our fiscal house in order. That is what we seek to do.