Boehner: House Will Vote On Continuing Resolution That Defunds Obamacare | McConnell: The Grim Obama Economy

Today in Washington, D.C. - Sept. 18, 2013
The Senate reconvened at 9:30 AM today. Following an hour of morning business, the Senate resumed consideration of S. 1392, an energy efficiency bill. Yesterday, the Senate voted 64-35 to confirm Elaine D. Kaplan to be a Judge of the US Court of Federal Claims.

The House reconvened at 10:00 AM today. IT is expected to take up the following bills:
H.R. 301 — "To provide for the establishment of the Special Envoy to Promote Religious Freedom of Religious Minorities in the Near East and South Central Asia." {Was debated yesterday and Voting ordered]
HR 761 — National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act of 2013
HR 1526 — Restoring Healthy Forests for Healthy Communities Act

Yesterday the House passed the following bills:
H.R. 1410 (Voice Vote) — "To prohibit gaming activities on certain Indian lands in Arizona until the expiration of certain gaming compacts."
H.R. 3092 (407–2) — "To amend the Missing Children's Assistance Act, and for other purposes."
H.R. 2449 (407-0)— "To authorize the President to extend the term of the Agreement for Cooperation between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Republic of Korea Concerning Civil Uses of Nuclear Energy for a period not to exceed March 19, 2016."
S. 793(383-24) — "To support revitalization and reform of the Organization of American States, and for other purposes."

This morning, Speaker Boehner held a press conference and addressed the Debt Limit and Defunding ObamaCare. He siad the House would vote on a Continuing Resolution (CR) that defunds Obamacare. He reiterated that, for decades, presidents of both parties have worked with Congress on debt limit legislation that includes spending cuts, and this year should be no different. Boehner also highlighted House Republicans’ continuing effort to protect all Americans from the president’s train wreck of a health care law. Following are Boehner’s remarks:

You know, the president thinks that American families and small businesses are doing just fine in this economy. Speech after speech is about justifying his failed policies. And one of his biggest failures is adding $6 trillion to the national debt.

You know, for decades, congresses and presidents have used the debt limit for legislation to cut spending, and even President Obama worked with us two years ago in the debt limit negotiations to put controls on spending. This year is not going to be any different.

We’re going to continue to do everything we can to repeal the president’s failed health care law. This week, the House will pass a CR that locks the sequester savings in, and defunds ObamaCare. The president has signed seven bills over the last two and a half years to make changes to ObamaCare, and I sincerely hope our friends in the Senate have plans to make this an eighth time.

The law is a train wreck. The president has protected American big business, it’s time to protect American families from this unworkable law.A recently released CNN poll shows that 57 percent of Americans favor their current health care plan over Obama's Affordable Care Act. The fact that the House is moving forward with a vote to defund ObamaCare can only be seen as a victory for grassroots Americans who fear that the President's health care overhaul will devastate our economy, the workforce and quality of care in the U.S.

Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens responded to the announcement by Speaker Boehner that a continuing resolution that defunds the health care law.
This is a good first step. The second step is to hold firm. We support passage of a continuing resolution that defunds the health care law in full, and urge members to remain resolved to see this through even in the face of Senate opposition.

Even if Senate Democrats do not respond to labor union demands to fix or repeal the law, the House has no choice but to stick with this approach. If the plan is to just send this continuing resolution to the Senate to die, then that is unacceptable. When the Senate responds with a so-called 'clean' continuing resolution, the House needs to respond with another bill that funds the government except for Obamacare. If Obama and Reid want to shut down the government, that's their choice.Speaking on the Senate floor this morning, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said, “Earlier this week, we passed the five-year mark since the financial crisis hit our country. Incredibly, President Obama tried to use that opportunity to take credit for the fact that things aren’t as bad as they were back then. He’s back at it again today. Basically, his message is this: America isn’t in a free fall, so everyone should give him a big pat on the back. Well, as far as deflections go, it’s pretty creative. But it’s also pretty misleading. Because in an effort to justify his own failed policies, and preserve them, the President is papering over some pretty troubling realities. The truth is, for most Americans, the past few years have felt like anything but a recovery. It’s been a story of lost jobs and underemployment, and the loss of dignity that comes with both. It’s been a period of stagnant wages, and an increasing disparity between rich and poor. And then there are all the young people who’ve been stunned to realize, after graduating from college, that there just aren’t any jobs out there. So now is not the time for victory laps. Because if this is his idea of success, I’d hate to see what failure looks like.”

Indeed, The AP reported on Monday, “The gap in employment rates between America's highest- and lowest-income families has stretched to its widest levels since officials began tracking the data a decade ago, according to an analysis of government data conducted for The Associated Press. Rates of unemployment for the lowest-income families — those earning less than $20,000 — have topped 21 percent, nearly matching the rate for all workers during the 1930s Great Depression. . . . At the same time, middle-income workers are increasingly pushed into lower-wage jobs. Many of them in turn are displacing lower-skilled, low-income workers, who become unemployed or are forced to work fewer hours, the analysis shows. . . . The findings follow the government's tepid jobs report this month that showed a steep decline in the share of Americans working or looking for work.”

And the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote, “If this economic recovery feels part-time and temporary, it could be because so many of the jobs it is creating are part-time and temporary. Part-time employment has surged in recent months, highlighting both the tentative nature of this long, slow economic recovery and the changing dynamics of work. . . . Several reasons account for this trend, economists say, from technological change to shifting demographics, from economic unease to the onset of the Affordable Care Act. Some Americans are happily part-timing it, for a little extra money in semi-retirement or in school. Others work part-time because the only alternative is no work at all. In August, the Labor Department says, there were 7.9 million Americans working part time involuntarily, almost twice as many as were in 2006. Four-plus years since the Great Recession technically ended, those numbers haven’t changed much, and people who watch the labor market say they have no idea when they will. ‘This is a really peculiar incident,’ said David Wiczer, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. ‘(The share of part-time workers) always comes up in the aftermath of a recession, but it usually starts to fall again. This time it hasn’t fallen.’”

Following the release of the August employment numbers earlier this month, CNNMoney reported, “The official U.S. unemployment rate is falling, but that's not necessarily a good thing. That's because the slice of Americans involved in the labor force has shrunk to a level not seen in 35 years. The labor force participation rate -- the percentage of people over 16 who either have a job or are actively searching for one -- fell to 63.2% in August. The last time it was that low was in August of 1978.”

Yesterday the ARRA News Service detailed several articles detailing that "The Obama Economy Still Sucks."

As Leader McConnell said, “The President likes to claim credit for jobs that have been created since the so-called recovery began. But what he fails to mention is that there are still fewer jobs today than before the crisis hit, while real median wages haven’t gone up at all over the past five years. And even though candidate Obama promised to ‘spread the wealth around,’ we find that 95% of recent income gains have actually gone to the richest among us. In other words, we’re again faced with the tragic irony that those on the Left who claim most loudly to be standing up for fairness and equality often end up getting the worst results for those who need help most. To paraphrase President Reagan’s old line about the apostles of quote-unquote ‘fairness’, maybe they are fair in one way: their policies don’t discriminate; they bring misery to everybody — unless of course you’re among the elite of the elite. And we all know why that is: because when government policies hurt economic growth by stifling opportunities and drying up investment, it’s the American worker who loses. It’s those at the bottom of the economic ladder who suffer the most. So the best thing we can do to help the poor and working classes is to get the private sector growing again. And we know how it’s done: by implementing things like a more competitive tax code, regulatory relief, approval of the Keystone pipeline, and repealing Obamacare, which is killing jobs.”

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