March 31, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 63 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session

[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E338-E339]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          MIDDLE CLASS HEALTH BENEFITS TAX REPEAL ACT OF 2019

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                             HON. KEN BUCK

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, March 27, 2020

  Mr. BUCK. Mr. Speaker, America is facing a very serious public health 
crisis that also has the potential to affect the long-term health of 
our economy.
  The people on the front lines fighting the spread of COVID-19--our 
doctors, nurses, first responders, and other health professionals--need 
help. Congress should be stepping up to ensure America's health care 
system has access to needed personal protective equipment--like masks 
and face shields--and testing supplies to identify those infected and 
to help stop the spread of the virus. Businesses and employees affected 
by this virus also need help. Congress should be providing short-term 
financial assistance such as loans and in the form of a tax holiday. I 
recognize these needs and fully support action to provide resources to 
stem the damage being caused in the present crisis.
  There is no question that this crisis is a direct result of the 
Chinese government's cover up of the dangers posed by COVID-19. The 
Chinese government failed to heed the early warnings of medical 
professionals, going so far as to persecute individuals like Dr. Li 
Wenliang, who was among the first to raise concerns, forcing him to 
sign a confession that his concerns were false. China ordered 
destruction of early research samples of the virus. The Chinese 
government also denied World Health Organization (WHO) investigators 
access inside the country's borders and they withheld critical 
information. The Chinese Communist Party falsely denied the evidence of 
human-to-human transmission. Contrary to WHO guidelines, Chinese 
officials manipulated statistics by failing to report infected 
individuals who tested positive for the virus if they exhibited mild to 
no symptoms. China's authoritarian government also allowed up to 
5,000,000 people, including potentially tens of thousands of infected 
individuals, to leave Wuhan and travel across the globe, spreading the 
virus. The reality is that China was more interested in saving face 
than stopping the problem before it became a global pandemic. China was 
more interested in waging an international public relations campaign 
than getting the necessary help from the world community.
  The United States and countries across the globe are now dealing with 
the fallout of China's deceit and misdeeds. We are wrestling with how 
to address a public health crisis, contain this deadly virus, and 
respond to unprecedented economic fallout. To address the current 
situation, Congress must act responsibly and thoughtfully but also with 
urgency. We must work together to support doctors, nurses and other 
health professionals. We need to also help suffering families, assist 
businesses and non-profits that have been ordered to close, and to set 
the stage for yet another American comeback.
  Nearly every American has been affected by this virus. All levels of 
government have asked our citizens to stay home. Government has asked 
businesses to shutter their doors, and for America's health care 
professionals to courageously work longer hours, sometimes without the 
necessary supplies to protect themselves. Americans are tired, fearful, 
and distancing themselves from friends and neighbors when what they 
truly desire is community. The American people have been told this was 
necessary and that if they made these sacrifices we could ``bend the 
curve'' and stop the spread of the virus.
  While President Trump and Republicans have been trying to lead, and 
the American people have been doing their part, Democrats have engaged 
in political games. The House Democratic Whip told his colleagues that 
this crisis was a ``tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit 
our vision.'' In the Senate, all but one Democrat voted to hold up 
debate on this bill for several days, simply to extract as many 
political concessions as possible. In response to the tremendous and 
patriotic sacrifices by the American people, Democrats have played 
politics. They saw a crisis that they did not want to let go to waste 
and chose to exploit the American peoples' fear and misery for 
political gain. That is unconscionable.
  Today, we finally reached the point where we could debate the merits 
of this bill in the

[[Page E339]]

House and fulfill our Constitutional responsibility. Every Member's 
duty was to read the bill, evaluate its merits, and then vote his or 
her conscience. I concluded that, if I were given the chance, I would 
vote against this bill. History and experience tell us that the 
provisions in this bill will do long-lasting damage to the economic 
well-being of millions of American families and small businesses, 
delaying a future economic recovery and harming the people most in need 
of help.
  This bill repeats the mistakes of the past. It contains the same kind 
of flawed provisions that the Democrat-controlled Congress enacted in 
2008 to deal with the mortgage crisis. America cannot afford another 
slow growth decade like we had under President Obama. Yet that is 
exactly the kind of future this bill is poised to give us. I want to 
put a stop to the damage that COVID-19 is doing, including to our 
economy, but this bill will only prolong the economic recovery.
  Many provisions of this bill recognize that economic stability 
depends on employment stability. This bill, however, contains 
provisions unrelated to fighting the disease, and worse, incentives 
that will lead to more, not fewer, layoffs. The people most likely to 
be affected will be primarily middle-class families and lower wage 
earners.
  The bill incentivizes layoffs by providing for ``unemployment 
insurance (UI) on steroids,'' or regular unemployment benefits together 
with $600 per week above the traditional benefit level. One of the 
perverse incentives of this bill is that it would leave many employees 
financially better off if they were laid-off than if they continued 
working. On the one hand, Congress is incentivizing small businesses to 
borrow billions of dollars from the Small Business Administration to 
keep people employed while simultaneously creating counterincentives 
that will encourage unemployment. That makes no sense.
  I support policies that will encourage job stability. Our economic 
recovery will be hastened if people have a job ready and waiting for 
them once we get past the current health crisis; it will help people 
maintain their health insurance; it will give people hope; and a ready 
workforce will help avoid supply chain disruptions and shortages of 
critical supplies needed to fight this virus.
  This bill also contains provisions that will unnecessarily extend the 
recovery of America's capital markets. Currently, the markets are down 
about 30-percent from their all-time highs from just a few weeks ago. 
In this next economic recovery, we must focus on bringing stability to 
capital markets as we rebuild the job market. This bill, however, 
contains provisions that will deny this needed stability. Section 4003 
prohibits businesses that utilize the lending and loan guarantee 
programs from engaging in stock buybacks and issuing dividends--not 
only during the term of the loan but even after the loan has been 
repaid. Allowing stock redemptions and dividends could help calm 
volatility in the capital markets. Congress should not discourage these 
kinds of actions. We need to help bring stability back to the stock 
market.
  Other provisions give a green light to union organizers while 
preventing a business from speaking out against union activities. 
Businesses that access government loans in the short term, including so 
that they can pay their employees, are being given a long-term ``stand-
down'' order by Congress when it comes to this issue. Businesses that 
will be affected by this are currently in crisis and Congress' response 
is to put its thumb on the scale in favor of labor, a Democrat 
constituency that funnels millions into Democrat campaign coffers.
  These provisions also lose sight of the fact that many businesses 
that utilize these programs will do so not because of their own 
mismanagement or malfeasance but because government told these 
businesses to shut their doors. Or, in some cases, because patriotic 
business owners took out a loan to retool or ramp up production to 
manufacture critical medical supplies like ventilators, hospital masks 
and testing kits even when that is not their normal business.
  It makes no sense to punish these companies with these kinds of 
restrictions but especially after the loan has been repaid. If we tie 
the hands of business for years to come, we should not expect a full 
and robust economic recovery. These restrictions are unreasonable. They 
may discourage companies from taking out loans. This, in turn, will put 
people out of work, harming American families and small businesses.
  Dating back to Greek times, physicians swore the Hippocratic Corpus. 
It was an oath, a code of medical ethics, in which a physician pledged 
to ``help the sick and abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and 
harm. . . .'' That obligation is sometimes summarized as, ``First, do 
no harm.'' As Congress considers this legislation, we would do well to 
follow the Hippocratic Oath ourselves. We should not pass a law that 
includes extraneous spending or that would further impose economic harm 
on struggling American families and small businesses.
  Finally, I want to make this point. It is often said that ``crisis 
reveals character.'' The response of the American people to this crisis 
says a lot about their character. Over and over again, Americans have 
demonstrated that they are strong, independent, entrepreneurial, 
resilient, patriotic, and compassionate and that they are willing to 
sacrifice to get our nation through. I am encouraged by their spirit.
  What the present crisis reveals about Congress, however, is tragic. 
The simple truth is that Congress has failed to plan and budget for an 
emergency such as an economic recession, a natural disaster, a national 
security threat, or a public health crisis. Every member of Congress 
knows that, once every few years, we will be called on to respond to a 
disaster. Yet, Congress fails to plan properly. Our budget does not 
include any reserves to deal with these emergencies.
  Accordingly, when faced with a crisis, Congress rushes to pass an 
emergency spending bill--like this one--that adds billions and billions 
or trillions more to the deficit. Today's bill spends nearly $6 
trillion when we factor in the anticipated response of the Federal 
Reserve. This spending is on top of the already projected annual 
deficit of $1.083 trillion and a national debt of $23.6 trillion. 
Congress cannot keep doing this. Congress needs to cut spending, 
balance the budget, and establish an emergency fund so that we can deal 
with these crises responsibly.
  I also want to note an additional way in which Congress has failed in 
its Constitutional responsibilities. The House of Representatives is a 
co-equal to the Senate. While the Senate was working this past week, 
the Democratic House leadership had members sitting at home. Speaker 
Pelosi should have convened the House on Monday. This would have made 
it possible for the House to engage in a full debate, to deliberate, 
and even propose better ideas. That did not happen. Instead, this bill, 
which is the single largest supplemental spending bill in U.S. history, 
will pass without a vote of the full House--with every member voting.

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