Rubio: Right To Refuse Amendment “Would Actually Take The Heart Right Out Of ObamaCare”
Jun 6, 2013 | Press Releases
Excerpt of Interview on FOX News’ “On The Record with Greta Van Susteren”
Senator Marco Rubio
June 5, 2013
Senator Marco Rubio: “They are adding between 1,600 and 2,000 additional [IRS] employees to enforce this law. I mean, we have this agency that already has no credibility with the American public, and we are putting them on the frontline of a program that quite frankly cannot be administered.”
Greta Van Susteren: “Well, the Obama Administration thinks it can and they are doing the next scramble of at least trying to figure out how to do it. But in the meantime, you’ve got this proposal for a constitutional amendment. Do you realistically think that you can get a constitutional amendment? I don’t.”
Rubio: “Well, I don’t think I can get it today; but here’s the point: we need to start developing this idea because when this thing starts to fall apart, when ObamaCare in the full, front and impact on our economy starts to be felt, people are going to start looking for answers. ‘What can we do about it? How can we get out of this?’ And we want this to be an option that is on the table for people. In fact, I think after the 2014 election, given the disaster that ObamaCare is going to be, we could very well have votes in both chambers, to do significant repeals and not all of ObamaCare and the key portions of it. This would actually take the heart right out of ObamaCare, which is the individual mandate.”
Van Susteren: “Well it seems more likely to me that if you’re going to get anything imposed if you’re going to get any sort of relief from it, it would be repelling it, but to get a constitutional amendment to do that, you’ve got to get two-thirds of the Senate, two-thirds of the House of Representative, you might get that in the House but you are not going to get that in the Senate, and three-fourths of the state legislatures.”
Rubio: “Well, let me just say that, well here’s the point: I think that once ObamaCare has the impact, the negative impact that it is going to have on our economy, people including democrats, are going to be looking for a way to distance themselves from it. I think this can be that level of disaster for the economy. You have outlined some of the reasons why, but it is worse than that. Look, we are going to see it next year when businesses realize that well maybe it is better that we only have 49 employees instead of 50; or maybe it is better that we move 10 or 15 people into part-time staffers. That is going to be felt throughout the economy.”
Van Susteren: “You make that statement based on the assumption that this is going to be implemented. I really don’t know how it is going to be implemented if we don’t have these exchanges, if they don’t have the money. You’ve got HHS Secretary Sebelius trying to go out and sort of raise money privately because she’s not getting it from Congress. I don’t even know how we get to the point where you’re talking about.”
Rubio: “Yeah, the point is that small businesses and mid-size businesses, and even large businesses, by some point this year as they sit down with their tax professionals or their lawyers, they have to plan for the fact that this could and is supposed to be implemented. They have to start planning for that. They can’t wait until January to do something about it; they got to start doing something about it this year. That means that they’ll start making hiring decisions this year. They’ll start making decisions to lay people off this year. They’ll start planning for next year based on all of this information and all of these assumptions. This is going to start having an impact on our economy this year. In fact, I think over the next few months we’re going to start to see the negative impact ObamaCare is going to have.”
Van Susteren: “I guess you and I are, maybe, talking about two different groups. In some ways you are talking about people who are employed and have some health insurance or possibility. There are the 25-30 million people that have no health insurance that we’re supposed to paying for this. That’s even more catastrophic, because most of them are saying they’re not going to buy it. Sixty-four percent are saying that..”
Rubio: “Saying that they’re just going to pay the fine.”
Van Susteren: “Which is a huge problem in terms of trying to bring down the cost overall.”
Rubio: “Right. Because then they’re not covered but they are also going to be hit by the fine. But in addition to that, I’m talking about small and mid-sized businesses who at some point this year are going to meet with their tax professional or somebody else and they’re going to basically tell them, ‘Look this is what you’re going to have to do next year’. And then the business is going to say, ‘Well that’s going to cost me a lot of money, I’m just going to lay some people off so I don’t have to comply with it; or I’m not going to expand my business next year, or I’m going to close down a division of my business next year because I need the savings in order to comply with this.’ Those decisions start to get made now in the next few months as people get ready for next year.”
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