"Sunday night, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the massive health care bill that carries a trillion dollar price tag, cuts Medicare by $500 billion, raises $500 billion in new taxes, and requires every American to purchase health insurance or face a penalty to be collected by the IRS. Unfortunately, this health care bill will now be signed into law.
Now the Senate is being asked to approve a number of so-called "fixes" to the health care bill through a legislative procedure called reconciliation. The changes suggested will make a bad bill worse by adding more tax increases, cutting more from Medicare, and forcing more people into the broken Medicaid system.
The reconciliation bill seeks $50 billion in additional tax increases, it doubles the tax on health insurers, and raises additional taxes and fees on drug makers and medical devices. It also seeks to triple the penalty on small business owners who cannot afford to provide their workers with health coverage, meaning employers might face a $2,000 per person fine.
The so-called fixes offered through the reconciliation process cut Medicare Advantage programs by $60 billion bringing the total cuts to the program to $200 billion. The total Medicare cuts add up to $523 billion. Unfortunately, all of that money will fund new entitlement programs instead of being used to make Medicare secure for our seniors."
---Senator George LeMieux
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