Authority for Mandate Delay Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GRIFFIN of Arkansas. Madam Speaker, the employer mandate provisions in the Affordable Care Act are already stifling job growth. We don't have to wait to see what's going to happen. In my district, I was approached by a 21-year-old Hispanic American. He contacted me.

He said, I'm a franchise owner. I'm the vice president of a small franchise that I inherited from my mother.

He said that his business has grown about 25 percent each year over the past 2 years and that he is one of the top franchisees in his group. He is a rising senior in college who is managing a small business. He said that he currently has 45 employees; and according to him, right now would be the perfect time to add another 10 or 20 full-time, good-paying jobs--but this is a small business owner. He said he can't do it because of the employer mandate. It makes him choose between increasingly expensive insurance premiums or punitive tax penalties for each employee. He contacted me for relief. If this mandate cannot be repealed, he said, could he please make the 50 threshold 250 so as not to strangle his business. The 21-year-old said it best:

The government should be my partner so I can help my employees prosper. I can help them more than the government, but I'm literally not able because of taxes, the Affordable Care Act and other regulations.

After 3 years of pain, the President has finally realized that the employer mandate is a bad idea. It is already costing jobs and lowering wages for millions of hardworking Americans. Americans who are forced to be part of ObamaCare deserve more than to be governed by blog posts from the Treasury Department. Only Congress can change the law. Personally, I want to repeal and replace the law; but today we can join with the President and vote for my bill.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source