WASHINGTON – House Republican Conference Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) issued the following statement today regarding the House vote on two bills to repeal parts of the government takeover of health care law.  H.R. 1213 repeals a provision that appropriates seemingly unlimited funds to states for various activities related to health insurance exchanges, while H.R. 1214 repeals the portion that unnecessarily spends $200 million in taxpayer money on the construction of “school-based health centers” for which funds for staffing or health care services have never been approved.

“Our country is facing a spending-driven debt crisis that is costing America jobs and pushing us closer to bankruptcy.  In order to create jobs today and avert national bankruptcy tomorrow, the federal government must stop spending money it doesn’t have.  Cutting these wasteful government slush funds is another step in putting America on a new fiscal trajectory that encourages job creation and rescues future generations from national bankruptcy.

“It is unthinkable to grant the federal bureaucracy a blank check - to be spent without any Congressional oversight or approval – as is called for in the job-destroying government takeover of health care. These bills would repeal two dangerous provisions in the law that waste taxpayer money and heighten economic uncertainty for job creators. 

“Families and taxpayers have a right to determine how their tax dollars should be spent through elected representation. Yet with the Democrats’ government takeover of health care, unprecedented health care authority and fiscal power has been concentrated into the hands of unelected Washington bureaucrats. It’s an expensive and inefficient way to run any operation, and House Republicans refuse to allow America's children and grandchildren to pay for it.”