Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, in all of my years in business, I can honestly say that I have never seen an administration so prepared to regulate nearly every ailment, either real or perceived. Nearly every segment of industry has been subjected to increased regulation, whether it be banking, energy, automotive, services, and of course, health care. Ronald Reagan once said, ``Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.''

As a nurse and small business owner, I worked with my husband as a clinical director of the Trinity Wound Care Center in Dunn, North Carolina, where I saw firsthand the damage that government regulations can do to the growth of small businesses. The costs of these rules pile up. It's easy to understand why businesses are reportedly sitting on $2 trillion in cash. Businesses don't know the true cost to comply with the rules just imposed and are concerned about the costs and rules yet to come.

No business can properly plan with roaming regulatory activity. This halts job growth and investment in its tracks. Just yesterday, a small business owner in my district testified in the Small Business Committee about this issue. He said working through a recession is tough, but adding to the burden with cumbersome and confusing new laws and regulations makes a recovery twice as hard. The uncertainty being created by Washington is stifling his small business recovery. He testified that the new health care law and the uncertainty it is creating for small business owners makes it harder for

him to determine what his costs are. This is a time when he is struggling to meet the most basic costs of running his business. Another witness, a restaurant owner, even stated that if he had to start his business today, he would probably decide against starting.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

He even stated that he wouldn't start his business. He further stated that he still may have to close his doors. Beyond existing businesses, regulations may prevent new firms and startups from entering the market. These startups are the very businesses that create the jobs in America.

According to a study using business dynamic statistics between 1977 and 2005, in their first year new firms add an average of 3 million jobs. My message today is simple. We must remove burdensome regulations so that businesses can grow and entrepreneurs can start new businesses.

Madam Speaker, when I ran for Congress, I vowed to repeal ObamaCare, and with one of my first votes in the 112th Congress, I will do so.

As a nurse for 20 years, co-owner of a wound care clinic, and in practice with my husband in his general surgery practice, we know the problems that exist for Americans in health care. Instead of being a remedy to these problems, ObamaCare has already done more harm than good to both the quality of health care in our country as well as our economy. As a nurse, I look for pathways to solutions; this is a problematic pathway undoubtably.

In the face of rising unemployment, unsustainable Federal deficits, and overwhelming public opposition, it took more than a year to cobble together an unpopular government takeover of health care so riddled with provisions that violate right-to-life principles and support government rationing of care that it cannot simply be patched.

ObamaCare is bad for workers. It's bad for employers and bad for America.

Repealing it allows us to start with a clean slate and look at market-based reforms that will actually lower health care costs, increase accessibility, let Americans keep the plans they have and like, and forestall impending drastic changes that have created uncertainty in the lives of so many Americans and businesses.

To this Congress, I will work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to repeal and replace the law's job-killing regulations and State-bankrupting mandates. The bill to repeal the so-called ``Affordable Care Act'' is very simple, and my vote will be to overturn this job-killing law.

To this Congress, I will work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to repeal and replace the law's job-killing regulations and State bankrupt mandates.

``Or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support to the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House remove such disability.''

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 3, had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''