Press Releases

Congressman Morgan Griffith (R-VA) today released the following statement as the House of Representatives passed legislation to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare:

“However you feel about the philosophy of Obamacare, what has become increasingly clear is that it was not built carefully enough to work.  Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is infamous for having said that Congress had ‘to pass the bill so you can find out what's in it.’

“Well, they passed it.  We now know what’s in it, and the American people don’t like it.  So far, what the President promised hasn’t come true.

“President Obama promised in a speech before Congress that his health care proposal would not add to the national deficit, but the Government Accountability Office estimated that it will add to the long-term deficit by $6.2 trillion. 

“The Administration promised that premium rates would go down, but the Energy and Commerce Committee released a report just this week revealing that consumers’ premiums could spike as high as 400 percent.  In Virginia, the small group market is projected to increase by 31 percent.

“CLASS, the law’s long-term care program, was determined to be financially unsustainable and has been suspended. 

“Furthermore, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is now soliciting funds for the law’s implementation from the very same companies and groups that her agency is responsible for overseeing, because they underestimated the cost of implementation. 

“Even with a stack of regulations taller than I am, the Administration cannot tell the American people what will happen with their health insurance in January when Obamacare is fully implemented.  Why?  Because the Administration still has more decisions to make, and more regulations to promulgate.

“Senator Max Baucus, one of the law’s main architects, recently described Obamacare as ‘a huge train wreck coming down.’

“We have a chance to save Americans from being casualties of the train wreck.  We can yank them off the tracks.  Today, my vote shows that I am doing what I can to do just that. 

“I call on the United States Senate to join us in rescuing the American people from the tracks of health care destruction.”

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