Nomination of Robert S. Adler to be a Commissioner of the Consumer Product Safety Commission

Floor Speech

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Mr. THUNE. Very good.

Madam President, I wish to speak today about some of what is happening here with the agenda and where we might be headed. I think it is important to point out that the Democrats here, after this election, seem to be in disarray. We have fractures emerging on the left and the right.

Senate Democrats and the President are blaming each other for the Democrats' devastating election loss. The President is threatening a veto on a bipartisan tax extenders package that was negotiated by the House Ways and Means Committee chairman and the Senate Democratic leader.

The senior Senator from New York told an audience last week that passing ObamaCare was a mistake. To quote the Senator:

But unfortunately, Democrats blew the opportunity the American people gave them.

We took their mandate and put all of our focus on the wrong problem--health-care reform.

..... it wasn't the change we were hired to make.

I could not agree more, but it is quite an admission from the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate.

Back in 2009, Republicans tried to tell Democrats we should focus on the economy and that any health care reform should be targeted at helping those struggling to afford health care rather than upsetting our entire system, but Democrats refused to listen. Now it appears at least some of them are wishing they had.

The President tried to sell the health care law as a benefit for the middle class. At a 2010 tele-town hall, he told his listeners that ``once this reform is fully in effect, middle-class families are going to pay less for their health care.''

Unfortunately, as far too many Americans have found, the President's health care law has actually forced them to pay more. I have lost count of the number of letters I have gotten from constituents in South Dakota telling me how much their health insurance has gone up since the so-called Affordable Care Act passed.

One constituent emailed me in November to tell me:

Please do something about the Affordable Care Act. Health insurance is no longer affordable. In March our family health insurance policy went up $150.00/month. Now [we've] received notice [of] another $112.00 increase effective January 1, 2015, for a total monthly premium of $857.00. This is more than our mortgage and we cannot afford it!!

Let me just repeat part of that last line. "This is more than our mortgage.'' How are middle-class families supposed to afford what amounts to a second mortgage payment each month? The answer of course is they can't.

The President can talk all he wants about the supposed benefits of his health care law, but the fact is ObamaCare has made life worse for this South Dakota family and it has made things worse for millions of families across the United States.

Since ObamaCare was signed into law, family health insurance premiums have risen by about $3,000. That is a strain on any family budget just by itself, but it is even worse when we realize that the average family's income has dropped by nearly $3,000 over the course of the Obama Presidency.

On top of this, ObamaCare has forced millions of Americans off health insurance plans they had and they liked. Frequently, they have been forced to pay more for their new plans while getting less.

Thanks to ObamaCare, Americans have lost access to doctors they liked and trusted, they have lost access to convenient hospitals and they have lost access to medications and that is just the damage ObamaCare is doing to Americans' health care. That is not to mention the damage it is doing to the economy at large.

As the Senator from New York made clear in his comments, he thinks the Democratic Party erred in passing ObamaCare because what Americans wanted was not health care legislation but jobs legislation, and he is right. But Democrats went ahead with ObamaCare anyway, and not only has it not helped the economy, as the President said it would, it is actually hurting the economy.

Take one small part of ObamaCare, the tax on lifesaving medical devices such as pacemakers and insulin pumps. This tax has already been responsible for putting thousands of Americans out of work, and it is on track to eliminate thousands more jobs if it isn't repealed.

Then there is the ObamaCare 30-hour workweek rule, which is eliminating hours and reducing wages for thousands of American workers, and the numerous ObamaCare regulations that are making it difficult for small businesses to hire new workers.

As Democrats are now realizing, ObamaCare was a big mistake. What Democrats should have done, as the senior Senator from New York admits, was focus on creating jobs and opportunities for middle-class families.

The recent Gallup poll listing the overall health of the economy as Americans' top economic concern was just the latest poll in which Americans have listed jobs and the economy among their main worries. Yet Democrats have spent years ignoring the need for jobs and focusing on their own political priorities.

As the senior Senator from New York said:

When Democrats focused on health care, the average middle class person thought, ``the Democrats aren't paying enough attention to me.''

That average middle-class person is right.

In a few short weeks Republicans will take over the Senate, and we will be running things very differently.

Our first priority will be passing legislation to create jobs and opportunities for American workers. A significant part of that will be working to undo the damage ObamaCare has done to the economy. We will work to repeal the medical device tax and restore the 40-hour workweek. I hope Democrats will join us. I have a feeling many of them will.

As we have seen, opposition to these damaging ObamaCare provisions is not limited to Republicans. Democrats have joined us before to attempt to address these issues, and I look forward to working with these same Democrats and others in the new Congress.

As for the President, I hope he will finally admit his law is hurting Americans and join us in undoing the damage. Unfortunately, his actions so far have not demonstrated much openness to cooperation or any sign that he understands the American people are calling for a new era in Washington.

Democrats have spent the past several years focusing on the priorities of the far leftwing of their party instead of the American people's priorities--the economy and jobs. That is what the American people have been saying over and over they want their elected leaders to be focused on.

I hope the new Congress will mark the start of a new era in which Democrats join Republicans to help create jobs and opportunities for Americans and remove obstacles to success. The American people have waited a long time for relief. It is time for Congress to give it to them.

I yield the floor.

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