Floor Statements

Mr. President, the repeal resolution we have been debating in the Senate this week will complete the first step toward reducing the Federal Government's role that has prevented Americans from pursuing affordable and accessible health care that meets their needs without emptying their wallets. After we complete our repeal work, the Senate can then vigorously pursue putting the Nation on a more responsible and sustainable fiscal path and address government's out- of-control spending and a mammoth national debt when we begin our work on the fiscal year 2018 budget.

I thank my colleagues for their consideration and cooperation for bringing us to this point, and I thank Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for his leadership in pushing the Senate to take the first steps to repair the Nation's broken health care system and to remove Washington from the equation in order to put control of health care back where it belongs: with the patients and their families and their doctors.

This commitment to an open, honest, and transparent legislative process is crucial to helping Congress restore the trust of the American people.

Thanks, as well, are due to many Members on this side who came and spoke on the resolution's behalf, who worked with us and each other to move through the resolution, the debate, the amendments, the votes, the whole process.

I have enjoyed my partnership with Senator Sanders as we took on new roles as the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee last Congress. We have known each other a long time, and we have served on some of the same Senate committees. I believe he and my colleagues across the aisle share the same goal of establishing a robust and affordable health care system for hard-working families. I truly hope that they will work with us to find common ground that delivers more choices and lower costs in the weeks and months ahead.

Also, I would like to focus for a moment on some of the staff who helped lead us here.

I thank the Republican staff of the Senate Budget Committee, including my acting staff director, Dan Kowalski; the director of the budget review and acting deputy staff director, Matt Giroux; the chief counsel, George Everly; senior budget analysts Peter Warren and Steve Robinson; budget analysts Greg D'Angelo, Tom Bork, Becky Cole, David Ditch and Susan Eckerly; and assistant counsels Clint Brown and Thomas Fuller; outreach director Jim Neill; editor Elizabeth Keys; policy assistant Kelsie Wendelberger; and communications director Joe Brenckle.

As well, thanks are due to my personal office staff, especially my chief of staff, Tara Shaw; my legislative director, Landon Stropko; my health care policy staff, Elizabeth Schwartz, Alec Hinojosa, and Chris Lydon; as well as the entire Wyoming team.

I want to pay specific attention to thanking Tara Shaw, who is my chief

of staff. She has been filling a dual role for some time. She was my legislative director. We have filled that position now. But she has been acting as the assistant here on the floor as well and done a tremendous job of manipulating and coordinating both centers of action.

Now, we have also been supported by the great work of our leadership, floor, and cloakroom staff. I thank them for their continued good work and dedication to this institution and the country as a whole. In particular, I want to thank Sharon Soderstrom, Hazen Marshall, Jane Lee, and Scott Raab in the leader's office, and Monica Popp, John Caphuis, and Emily Kirlin in the whip's office, and very especially Laura Dove and Robert Duncan in the cloakroom.

These folks, as well as my budget team, worked hours over the holiday break to ensure our success. Without all their work, we would not be here this evening standing on the verge of passing the Senate's repeal resolution that will set the stage for true legislative relief from ObamaCare that Americans have long demanded, while ensuring a stable transition in which those with insurance will not lose access to health care coverage.

This will allow us to move step by step on a new set of reforms, listening carefully to the advice of the millions of Americans who are affected, a step we left out when we did it previously. Or, as Senator Alexander of Tennessee, the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee put it, the ObamaCare bridge is collapsing, and we are sending in a rescue team. Then we will build several new bridges to get better health care. Finally, when those bridges are finished, we will close the old bridge.

After 5 days of consideration, many hours of debate, and numerous amendments reviewed and voted on, this part of the process can now be concluded. With that, I ask for the continued support and discussion on this valuable issue. If people have ideas for what ought to be included, I hope they will talk to us about them. I hope the American people will talk to us about the ideas they think need to be included.

There has been a lot of fearmongering, a lot of supposition about what will happen at the next stage. There were amendments that were put in about the next stage. Those, of course, wound up being nongermane. But we have our work cut out for us. We do have to come through now with a system that will solve the problems for the American people.

I mentioned before that when we started the whole debate on ObamaCare, there were 30 million people uninsured. Today, there are 28 million people uninsured. I think that the 30 million people was probably closer to 28 million at that time. One of the differences is some people who could not get insurance have insurance, and a bunch of people who had insurance can't afford their insurance, and a bunch of people who have insurance can't afford their insurance, as you heard through the debate.

We want all the people who want insurance to be covered, and to be covered in such a way that they can actually get the treatment. If you have a $12,000 or $10,000 or $6,000 deductible, that may not happen.

But I thank all of the people who have worked to get us to this point. Our work is now cut out for us even more so.

I know that we can have a spirit of cooperation and work through this, or we can use the reconciliation process and do it with 51 votes. But it is far better if we can find common ground and common solutions and get the work done.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 12:30 p.m., Thursday, January 12--that would be today; further, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day; finally, that following leader remarks, the Senate be in a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Wyoming, the doctor, the Senator who has been involved in health care all of his adult life and particularly since he got to the Senate. He has been looking at alternatives to what we have and will play an intricate part in any replacement that we do.

We know what the problems are, and we are in the land of denial right now with the Democrats making speeches about the fearmongering of what might be changed. This isn't the point at which it gets changed. This is the point at which it gets set up so that it can be changed, and I look forward to actually doing the repeal and the replacement under the guidance of Senator Barrasso from Wyoming.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I call up amendment No. 52 and ask unanimous consent that it be reported by number.

Mr. President, I don't think that is exactly what this is about. This amendment is corrosive to the privilege of the budget resolution, meaning it is outside of the scope of what is appropriate for a budget resolution. Any inappropriate amendment could be fatal to the privilege of this resolution, which would destroy our efforts to repeal ObamaCare.

In other words, a vote in favor of this amendment is a vote against repealing ObamaCare. In addition, this amendment is not germane to this budget resolution. This budget resolution is much more focused than a typical budget resolution. The Congressional Budget Act requires that amendments to a budget resolution be germane. Since this amendment does not meet the standard required by budget law, a point of order would lie; as such, I raise a point of order under section 305(b)(2) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974.

Mr. President, I want to thank the Senator from Tennessee, Mr. Alexander, who is also the chairman of the Health Committee--that is, the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee--for the succinct speech that he gave. I will be encouraging everybody on both sides of the aisle to read that speech. I know that many were not here to listen. But it is a fault that we have in this Chamber. We often speak to an empty Chamber.

But it is all recorded thanks to the people who do that for a job. You placed that so well that there should not be much doubt about what we are going to try to do. You heard it from the chairman of the Health Committee. He is the one that will be in charge of the health aspects of this.

The Finance Committee is a part of the bill too. But they are in charge of the monetary part of this. But without the health care part, that does not work. I love the way you expressed that in the way of taking care of a collapsed bridge, because I think people across America do realize that the bridge on health care has collapsed and they want to know what we are going to do about it.

You stated that very well. That should relax a lot of people. It probably won't because of the process that we are in, but I certainly hope that it does. So I thank you for your words and your effort and know that it is in good hands as we lead it through this process.

All that this resolution we are doing right now does is set it up so that this can be done. This really does not change any health care at this point. It sets it up so that we can do reconciliation, so that we can repeal what we can, so we can replace what we can, and then we can set up that system of bridges that will get us to the point where all Americans who want insurance can have insurance, but more importantly, so that all Americans can get the health care they need and deserve.

I thank the Senator for his comments.

Mr. President, I only need to add one footnote to that fantastic summary; that is, that the Senator from Tennessee is the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. For years we heard about the difficulties with No Child Left Behind. There were a lot of efforts to build a different bridge, and they never got completed within the timeframe that was necessary, even though both sides recognized there was a problem.

The Senator from Tennessee undertook that, got bipartisan solutions on it, and put forward a bill that did kind of what we are talking about with ObamaCare. It sent it back to the States. It got rid of the national school boards, and that passed, I think, with 88 votes in the Senate. That is very bipartisan. That is the kind of an effort he puts forth. You can tell from the comments he has made about what we need to do that he has that well in mind, and I am certain some from the other side will join us to make sure we can get that done as well.

I thank the Senator, and I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum, and I ask unanimous consent that the time be equally divided.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate be in a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. President, I have five requests for committees to meet during today's session of the Senate. They have the approval of the Majority and Minority leaders.

Pursuant to Rule XXVI, paragraph 5(a), of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the following committees are authorized to meet during today's session of the Senate:

committee on armed services

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Armed Services be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on January 10, 2017, at 9:30 a.m.

committee on homeland security and governmental affairs

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on January 10, 2017, at 3:30 p.m.

committee on the judiciary

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on January 10, 2017, at 9:30 a.m., in room SR-325 of the Russell Senate Office Building, to conduct a hearing entitled ``Attorney General Nomination.''

select committee on intelligence

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Select Committee on Intelligence be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on January 10, 2017, at 1 p.m. in room SD-106 of the Senate Dirksen Office Building.

permanent subcommittee on investigations

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on January 10, 2017, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing entitled, ``Backpage.com's Knowing Facilitation of Online Sex Trafficking.''

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 12 noon, Wednesday, January 11; further, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day; finally, that following leader remarks, the Senate resume consideration of S. Con. Res. 3, with 3 hours of debate remaining on the resolution for the majority and 3 hours for the minority.

Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand adjourned under the previous order, following the remarks of Senator Brown.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of the quorum.

Madam President, I thank the Senator from Texas for his comments about the Senator from Alabama. Senator Sessions has been an outstanding Senator. He came to the Senate at the same time I did. He has served for 20 years. That is a lot of votes that a person can pick apart, if they want to. But here is how it came out. I don't think we have emphasized enough that Senator Sessions didn't have a primary opponent in Alabama. I don't know how many Senators in the Senate haven't had primary opponents. Even more unusual, he didn't have a general election opponent. I am not sure if that has happened before. I know it hasn't happened for a long time. But that says something about the kind of respect he has in his home State, which has a wide variety of people. So I thank the Senator for his comments on that.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that following disposition of the Paul amendment, there be 2 minutes of debate, divided in the usual form, and that the Senate then vote in relation to the Hirono amendment No. 20.

Madam President, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, it is my understanding there is 2 minutes equally divided between the proposer and the opposition.

Mr. President, this amendment is corrosive to the privilege in the budget resolution, meaning that it is outside of the scope of what is appropriate for a budget resolution. Any inappropriate amendment could be fatal to the privilege of this resolution, which would destroy our efforts to repeal ObamaCare. In other words, a vote

in favor of this amendment is a vote against repealing ObamaCare.

In addition, this amendment is not germane to this budget resolution. This budget resolution is much more focused than a typical budget resolution. The Congressional Budget Act requires that amendments to a budget resolution be germane. Since this amendment does not meet the standard required by budget law, a point of order would lie against it; as such, I raise a point of order under section 305(b)(2) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that all time be considered time on the resolution.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that during the periods of a quorum call, the time be equally divided between the two sides.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that at 2:45 p.m. today, the Senate vote in relation to amendment No. 8.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, today I have been listening to the diatribes against the repeal resolution we are working on, and I think some things need to be answered.

The Republicans are not trying to throw 30 million people off of their insurance. What we have seen over the time of ObamaCare is that there were 30 million people who were uninsured when we started that debate, and today there are 30 million people who are uninsured. Now it is a different 30 million people. The 30 million people who couldn't get insurance have insurance, and we want them to have insurance. And the 30 million people who are now off insurance used to have insurance, but they can no longer afford it. There has been a huge increase in the cost of health care. That is not how it was supposed to be. The prices were supposed to come down.

Yesterday we took the first step in fulfilling the promise of repealing ObamaCare, which will pave the way for real health care reforms to strengthen the doctor-patient relationships, expand choices, lower health care costs, and improve access to quality, affordable, innovative health care.

As I discussed yesterday, while Republicans will start by repealing ObamaCare immediately, we will ensure a stable transition in which those with insurance will not lose access to health care coverage. This will allow us to move step by step to a new set of reforms, listening carefully to the advice of millions of Americans affected and making sure we proceed wisely, doing no harm.

There is a common misconception that some of my friends across the aisle have promoted. It is the idea that ObamaCare was a success and that repeal will be tearing down a functioning program. That is not true. ObamaCare has put our health insurance markets on the brink of collapse in many parts of the country. And what Republicans face now is an imperative to do something that the Democrats couldn't bring themselves to do when they had control, and that is to fix the problems they created.

ObamaCare became the epitome of a sacred cow for them, and any changes, as you can see, unless done by Executive action, were out of the question.

Interestingly, President Obama recently admitted in October 2016 at Miami Dade College that the law has real problems and that, in his words, ``There are going to be people who are hurt by premium increases or a lack of competition and choice.'' That is the President of the United States talking about ObamaCare. In that same speech, he went on to call these issues ``growing pains.'' I think that is a troubling

blind spot about this law that he and many of my Democratic colleagues share. Millions are facing impossibly high health insurance premiums for plans they may not even want to have. Costs are going up, and they can't afford it. Somehow these casualties of ObamaCare don't deserve relief, apparently; they are just written off as growing pains by the authors of the law.

My colleagues will recall ObamaCare architect Jonathan Gruber, who was paid in a number of different ways, who was famously exposed in 2014 for stating, amongst other things, that while crafting this bill, he believed that ``the lack of transparency is a huge political advantage'' and that it ``was written in a tortured way to make sure the CBO did not score the mandate as taxes.'' Mr. Gruber may have succeeded in masking the consequences of ObamaCare to obtain passage, but there is no way to hide the results.

A recent poll by the Gallup organization showed that more Americans continue to disapprove--53 percent--than approve--42 percent--of the law and that a majority of Americans want to see the law changed. Let me highlight that point again. A majority of Americans want to see ObamaCare either changed or replaced altogether. In fact, since passage of ObamaCare in 2010, there has never been a majority of Americans supporting the law. A quick glance around the Nation quickly explains why. For more and more Americans, there is only a single insurer from which they can select health plans, a monopoly. In fact, on Federal exchanges, one in five consumers will only be able to select plans from a single insurer. Many residents across the country only have one choice of health insurer. That is including my home State of Wyoming as well as the entire State of Alaska.

What does this lack of competition mean? Prices are surging for hard- working families who now have to choose between unreasonable insurance rates or an unreasonable fine. That doesn't even include the deductible problem we have. That doesn't even include the additional taxes and prices people are paying as a result of other things that are built into the law, which I will go into later--not in this speech.

The irony of a Democrat-led effort to help resulting in the creation of a lose-lose proposition for families ran true to voters in the most recent election when they voted for change. In Wyoming, some families would be forced to pay more than 30 percent of their total income on premiums to obtain health care coverage, which often includes deductibles of over $1,000. One family faced premiums of more than $1,600 per month. That is one family, $1,600 a month. As an alternative, their tax penalty for not carrying coverage was only $1,700 for the whole year. So guess what they did. They paid the fine because they couldn't afford the insurance premium. They could also see no way that they were going to be able to get a benefit from that.

For those lucky enough to be able to afford insurance, particularly in the individual market, under the new health law, premiums are expected to increase faster in 2017 than in previous years. Some States will see insurance premiums rise by as much as 53 percent. I think that makes it truly an emergency.

After discussing the why, it is important to talk about how we are going to do this. Passing the repeal resolution we are currently debating today will allow Republicans to use the budget reconciliation process to untangle the country from this unworkable, unpopular, and unaffordable law. This is the exact same procedure congressional Democrats and President Obama used to secure passage of portions of ObamaCare. Let me say that again. This is the exact same procedure congressional Democrats and President Obama used to secure passage of portions of ObamaCare.

After Congress passes this repeal resolution, it can then move forward on reconciliation legislation that will provide for the repeal of ObamaCare and pave the way for real health care reforms. I think Members are looking forward to an open and serious debate about the future of America's health and its health care system and the importance of restoring the trust of hard-working taxpayers. I think that is something both sides can agree on, and that is what will happen.

This resolution we are debating does two things. It recognizes the point in the budget we are at considering the points of order and things that happened up to this point in time. We are just recognizing that is where this budget is. It still keeps in place the points of order to maintain some control over our spending, but the significant part is the repeal part. That is where we institute the reconciliation, and all that is, is an instruction to two committees on the Senate side and two committees on the House side. The two on the Senate side were the Finance Committee--they are the ones who deal with all of the taxes and the finance and the Medicare and the Medicaid, and they need to save $1 billion over 10 years. That is peanuts around here. They will do much better than that, I am certain. And then the HELP Committee-- Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions--also has an instruction to save $1 billion. That is it.

This isn't a debate over what the changes are going to be to ObamaCare; this is a debate about whether we are going to give two committees, which have jurisdiction over this situation, the ability to consider it and bring us something. It has to conform with the budget requirements, and that is going to save some money. That is why we have a very low threshold, each of them saving $1 billion. That is the time when we will have the debate on what is happening with health care. If somebody wants to raise the threshold of the $1 billion for each of the two committees, that would be perhaps acceptable--unnecessary but perhaps acceptable. If somebody wants to change the budget, we are going to have an actual chance to change the budget right after we finish this process because there is a budget for 2018. We are already a third of the way through 2017, and there are no spending bills approved. That is wrong, but that is what this budget reflects. That is where we are at this point in time on our spending. Hopefully, we will do well on the new budget and come up with a plan that is going to pull the United States out of the hole that we are in on our deficit spending, which results in huge debt.

I would like to make that distinction. Deficit is our overspending. Debt is the amount that we owe that we have to pay interest on--like pouring money down a hole--and that interest rate is going up. We get to make decisions on about $1 trillion each year, and the interest rate right now spends $200 billion right now by itself--that is at about 1 percent. If it goes to 5 percent, which is the norm for the United States, that would be $1 trillion dollars. That is the amount we get to make decisions on. What shape will our country would be in if we have to spend $1 trillion dollars on interest and that is all we have to make decisions on?

We have to do something. Health care is affecting more people in this country than anything else. So we will start immediately. We normally have a recess that would begin from the time we reorganize until the time the President is sworn in, but Republicans recognize that this is an emergency. This is something that needs to be taken care of. So we are going to stay around and get it solved.

We are going to do the processes we have to do. This is the first of the processes. There is another more important step, which has to be the actual savings part in order to do the reconciliation, and we are going to do that.

We will hear all kinds of stories of ways that people have been helped by health care, and we will hear stories about how people have been hurt by this health care. We need to fix it for both of them.

So I think Members are looking forward to an open and serious debate--I hope, a serious debate--about the future of America's health care system and the importance of restoring the trust of the hardworking taxpayers. I hope that is something we can both agree on.

Thank you. I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at 2:45 p.m. there be 2 minutes of debate, equally divided in the usual form, prior to the vote in relation to Kaine amendment No. 8.

I yield the floor.

Amendment No. 8

Mr. President, this amendment is corrosive to the privilege of the budget resolution, meaning that it is outside the scope of what is appropriate for a budget resolution. Any inappropriate amendment could be fatal to the privilege of this resolution, which would destroy our efforts to repeal ObamaCare. In other words, a vote in favor of this amendment is a vote against repealing ObamaCare.

In addition, this amendment is not germane to this budget resolution. This budget resolution is much more focused than a typical budget resolution. The Congressional Budget Act requires that the amendment to a budget resolution be germane. Since this amendment does not meet the standard required by budget law, a point of order would lie. As such, I raise a point of order under section 305(b)(2) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974.

Mr. President, I call up amendment No. 1 and ask unanimous consent that it be reported by number.

Mr. President, would the Senator mind if it comes off of the resolution time?

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand in recess until 2:15 p.m. for the weekly policy lunches.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the time be equally divided between the two sides during quorum calls.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that for the duration of the Senate's consideration of S. Con.

Res. 3, the majority and Democratic managers of the concurrent resolution, while seated or standing at the managers' desks, be permitted to deliver floor remarks, retrieve, review, and edit documents, and send email and other data communications from text displayed on wireless personal digital assistant devices and tablet devices.

I further ask unanimous consent that the use of calculators be permitted on the floor during consideration of the budget resolution.

Mr. President, today we have a new Congress. Soon we will have a new President. For the first time in years, hardworking Americans will have their voices heard as we take the first steps to repair the Nation's broken health care system--steps to remove Washington from the equation and to put control back where it belongs-- with the patients, their families, and their doctors.

The President's health law has pushed insurance markets to the brink of collapse. Premiums for hardworking families are soaring, while patients' choices are dwindling. I urge my friends on the other side of the aisle to face the facts that ObamaCare has failed to deliver on its core promises and is hurting far more than it is helping.

I know our colleagues on the other side of the aisle share our goal of a robust health care system for hardworking families, and I truly hope they will work with us to find common ground that delivers more choices and lowers costs. I welcome the input from all the Nation's lawmakers as we endeavor to listen to the American people in this pursuit. But first, it is important to remember how we got here so that the actions that we will be taking this year are considered in proper context.

After the 2008 election, Democrats controlled the Presidency and had a majority in the House and a supermajority in the Senate. This allowed Senate Democrats in 2009 to pass a health care plan without any Republican support, which is exactly what they did. House Democrats had initially approved a health care reform bill with several important differences. So congressional Democrats needed to address these concerns in a conference committee. But plans to iron out the differences between the House and Senate versions were derailed in early 2010, when Democrats lost their filibuster-proof majority with the Massachusetts special election that resulted in placing Senator Scott Brown in the seat formerly held by the late Senator Ted Kennedy. He had held that seat since 1962.

With the filibuster-proof majority lost, Democrats in the House approved the Senate-passed health care bill without any Republican votes and sent it to the President, while vowing to use the budget reconciliation process to address their colleagues' concerns with the Senate legislation.

Subsequent budget reconciliation legislation was passed by Democrats and signed into law by President Obama. Combined with the initial health care bill, ObamaCare was created.

Now, I share this brief history of ObamaCare only as a reminder that, while my colleagues will surely complain about using the reconciliation process to untangle the country from this unworkable, unpopular, and unaffordable law, they should remember they actually employed the exact same procedure to secure the passage of ObamaCare.

Recent headlines show the ObamaCare problem is only getting worse and discourages people from seeking so-called coverage. Last October, at Bloomberg's The Year Ahead Summit in New York, the CEO of Aetna discussed the issues surrounding their decision not to participate in ObamaCare exchanges, saying:

As the rates rise, the healthier people pull out because

the out-of-pocket costs aren't worth it. . . . Young people

can do the math. Gas for the car, beer on Fridays and

Saturdays, health insurance.

Now, if you are young and healthy, ObamaCare has made it an easy choice to opt out of health coverage. But if you are not so fortunate-- for those who must have coverage--it quickly becomes a frightening reality. I have constituents in Wyoming who have written to me, with worry and concern about their surging health insurance premiums. I recently heard from a young woman who is experiencing the worst of this law. She said:

Dear Senator Enzi,

I am writing with concerns specifically in the way that our

country is heading in respect to healthcare services.

I am a 25 year old with no medical conditions, I rarely

need a doctor visit, however as I looked into the health

insurance for me and my 8 month old son, also without health

problems, I have found insurance to be incredibly expensive.

Based on the cost of our health care last year, which

included a C-section and the birth of our son, our family

would spend less on health care if we paid for medical

expenses out of pocket and did not have health insurance.

However, in order to obey the law this is not an option.

I have researched and calculated the most cost effective

health care option for our family. We are looking at paying

almost $800 a month for our insurance, even with my husband

receiving insurance through work. This is almost 1/3 of our

family's monthly income. . . . Insurance is becoming a huge

burden for our family.

Now, that is the reality for many of our constituents across the country. She is trying to do the right thing for her family's health, but the law is crippling them financially. Our answer must be to not ignore these problems. For many Americans caught up in ObamaCare's tangled and expensive web of regulations, the situation is grim and only getting worse by the day. It is time to act.

One of the most disturbing parts of this law is that Americans are now paying more in taxes to pay for the very health law that is driving up their insurance premiums. The law will saddle American households with $1 trillion--$1 trillion--in new taxes and penalties over the next 10 years, unless Congress acts. ObamaCare's crushing regulations mean smaller paychecks for families, while holding back small businesses from expanding and hiring new workers. For every American, ObamaCare has meant more government, more bureaucracy, and more rules and regulations, along with soaring health care costs--along with soaring health care costs.

It is time to lift the burdens and higher costs this law has placed on all Americans. The Senate is poised to pass a repeal resolution that will set the stage for true legislative relief from ObamaCare that Americans have long demanded, while ensuring a stable transition in which those with insurance will not lose access to health care coverage.

Let me repeat that. The Senate is poised to pass a repeal resolution that will set the stage for true legislative relief from ObamaCare that Americans have long demanded, while ensuring a stable transition in which those with insurance will not lose access to health care coverage. This will allow us to move step-by-step on a new set of reforms, listening carefully to the advice of the millions of Americans affected and to do our best to make sure that we proceed wisely and do no harm.

Fortunately, America now has a President committed to repealing ObamaCare and moving toward a system that offers more choices, lower costs, and more individual control for millions of hardworking Americans.

The American people have endured a lot under ObamaCare and its broken promises. As a Presidential candidate not so long ago, then-Senator Barack Obama, a Democrat from Illinois serving here, promised Americans they could keep their health plan if they liked it. Millions soon learned they couldn't, and others soon wouldn't. This is because ObamaCare has drastically reduced Americans' choice of health care plans through a Federal takeover of the insurance marketplace. In fact, the President's promise that ``if you like your plan, you can keep it'' has proven to be one of many unfulfilled and unattainable promises of ObamaCare.

In Wyoming, we have seen the real impact of ObamaCare on our health insurance market. Wyoming now only has one health insurer in the individual market, both on and off the ObamaCare exchange. Many States are experiencing a similar issue of having insurers leaving the exchanges entirely. So for Wyomingites, the Obama administration's talking points about ``choice'' were in the end just more empty promises.

Americans were also promised lower health care costs, but even the administration admits that ObamaCare is failing to address costs, with average premiums rising by 25 percent for silver-level plans on the Federal exchange. That is in 1 year. This means that families have to decide whether to purchase unaffordable insurance or to pay a fine. In most cases, they are literally paying more money for less control over their health care.

Health care costs in Wyoming continue to be among the highest in the Nation, with other States not far behind. ObamaCare's mandates and taxes on employer-sponsored health plans are not only leading to higher out-of-pocket expenses but also to fewer choices and fewer services for the 150 million Americans with employer-sponsored health benefits. Let me repeat that: The mandates and taxes on employer-sponsored health plans are not only leading to higher out-of-pocket expenses but to fewer choices and services for the 150 million Americans with employer- sponsored health benefits.

According to the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, individual employees who have job-based insurance have seen their out-of-pocket expenses climb by hundreds of dollars year after year. Employees working for small businesses now have deductibles of over $1,800 on average. Since ObamaCare became law, several large employers have stopped offering benefits to part-time employees altogether.

Over the past 50 years, our Nation has made great strides in improving the quality of life for all Americans, but these transformative changes are always forged in the spirit of bipartisan compromise and cooperation. These qualities are essential to the success and longevity of crucial programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

This is a crucial time for health care in America. We do not have the luxury of ignoring the growing problems in the health insurance markets and the crushing premiums faced by families across our country. That is why we are doing this first. The failures of ObamaCare have metastasized since its passage.

We must act now to repeal ObamaCare and provide relief to the millions of Americans who have been harmed by this law. Relief will require a stable transition period, which ensures those with coverage today continue to have access to health care tomorrow. Unwinding this tangle of partisan gridlock to make meaningful changes will not be easy. Our goal is to create a health care system where Washington makes fewer decisions and families are empowered to control their own health care with more choices and lower costs.

This is where we find ourselves today. Congress and soon the new President will be in a position to begin the process of repealing ObamaCare. Passing this resolution is just the first step on a path to repair health care for millions of hard-working Americans whose experiences with ObamaCare have meant broken promises, higher costs, and fewer choices.

This is the budget resolution we are debating now. As far as the budget part of it, all this is, is a statement of where we are at the moment. This budget went into effect last October. It has been changed a few times in the meantime, and this is a reflection of the changes that have been made up to this point.

The difference is in title II, which is where the reconciliation can take place. You will notice that it is a very simple title. There is not much to it. It requires that the Committee on Finance of the Senate shall report changes in laws within its jurisdiction to reduce the deficit by not less than $1 billion for the period of fiscal years 2017 through 2026. The Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions will report changes in laws within its jurisdiction to reduce the deficit by not less than $1 billion for the period of fiscal years 2017 through 2026. There is no specificity in this as to how the reconciliation will take place. That is up to the Finance Committee and the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on the Senate side and the Energy and Commerce Committee and the Committee on Ways and Means on the House side to come up with the reconciliation bill, which has to pass a lot of Senate rules in order to be done, but you will notice that there isn't any specificity in here on how to do that.

That comes later. That will be another budget debate we will have, but it sets the stage so that can be done. Hopefully, it will be done quickly and we will be able to find solutions for the hard-working Americans whose experiences with ObamaCare are broken promises, higher costs, fewer choices. I hope our Democratic colleagues will join us in this effort so that we can come up with solutions so that Americans can afford the insurance they want and need.

I remember when we started this debate, I think there were 30 million people uninsured. Today, I think there are 30 million people uninsured. It is a different 30 million, though: The 30 million who couldn't get insurance now have insurance, and 30 million people who had insurance now can't afford their insurance. It is time for us to take care of both 30 millions and not just one. We will have that opportunity if we pass this concurrent resolution to fix ObamaCare.

I yield the floor and reserve the remainder of my time.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum, and I ask unanimous consent that the time be divided equally.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the time in the quorum call be equally divided between both sides.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Tara Shaw and Matt Giroux from my staff be given all-access floor passes to the Senate floor during consideration of the budget resolution, S. Con. Res. 3.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

I ask for the yeas and nays.