At the White House summit, Congressman Boehner made an effective case against a government takeover of health care and for a betters solution focused on driving down costs – not expanding government. Watch the following excerpts from Boehner’s remarks:
BOEHNER: “THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WANT US TO SCRAP THIS BILL”
BOEHNER: “I think our job on behalf of our constituents and on behalf of the American people is to listen. I spend time in my district, I spend time in a lot of places, and I’ve heard an awful lot. And I can tell you the thing I’ve heard more than anything over the last six or seven months is that the American people want us to scrap this bill.”
BOEHNER: “THIS 2,700 PAGE BILL WILL BANKRUPT OUR COUNTRY”
BOEHNER: “The first thing is we just heard from the two budget directors about our fiscal condition. We have Medicare that’s going broke. We have Social Security that’s going broke. We have Medicaid that is bankrupting not only the federal government but all of the states. And yet here we are having a conversation about creating a new entitlement program that will bankrupt our country. And it will bankrupt our country. It’s not that we can’t do health insurance reform to help bring down costs to help save the system — this bill, this 2,700 page bill will bankrupt our country.”
BOEHNER: INDIVIDUAL MANDATE IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL
BOEHNER: “But it’s not just, Mr. President, the taxes or the Medicare cuts. You’ve got the individual mandate in here which I think is unwise and I do believe is unconstitutional. You’ve got an employer mandate in here that says that employers you’ve got to provide health insurance to the American people or you’re going to pay this tax. It’s going to drive up the cost of employment at a time when we have over 10 percent or near 10 percent unemployment in America.”
BOEHNER: THE LAST THING WE NEED TO DO IS RAISE TAXES ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
BOEHNER: “We have $500 billion in new taxes here over the next ten years. At a time when our economy is struggling, the last thing we need to be doing is raising taxes on the American people.”
BOEHNER: THIS DEMOCRATIC BILL “ALLOWS FOR THE TAXPAYER FUNDING OF ABORTION”
BOEHNER: “For thirty years we’ve had a federal law that says that we’re not going to have taxpayer funding of abortions. We’ve had this debate in the House; it was a very serious debate. But then the House spoke. And the House upheld the language we’ve had in law for thirty years that there would be no taxpayer funding of abortions. This bill that we have before us – and there is no reference to that issue in your outline, Mr. President – begins for the first time in thirty years, allows for the taxpayer funding of abortion. So Mr. President, what we’ve been saying for a long time is let’s scrap the bill. Let’s start with a clean sheet of paper on those things that we can agree on. Let’s take a step-by-step approach that’ll bring down the cost of health insurance in America because if we bring down the cost of health insurance we can expand access.”
BOEHNER: “LET’S START WITH A CLEAN SHEET OF PAPER”
BOEHNER: “Why can’t we agree on those insurance reforms that we’ve talked about? Why can’t we come to an agreement on purchasing across state lines? Why can’t we do something about the biggest cost driver which is medical malpractice and the defensive medicine that doctors practice? Let’s start with a clean sheet of paper and we can actually get somewhere, and we can get it into law here in the next several months.”
Boehner and Republicans have listened to voters and crafted a better plan that’s focused on driving down costs – without unconstitutional mandates and jobs-killing penalties, tax hikes, and more federal bureaucracy. You can read more about it here.
READ MORE:
- “Unconstitutional”: Boehner Blasts Individual Mandate in Democrats’ Health Care Takeover (2/25/10)
- Boehner Calls on Dems to “Scrap this Bill,” Calls Summit a “6 Hour Infomercial” (2/24/10)
- Boehner Calls Summit a “Charade” as White House Excludes State Legislators, Governors (2/24/10)
- Boehner on 55KRC Calls on President to “Scrap This Bill” (2/23/10)
- With Millions Out of Work, President Pushes Another Health Care Takeover (2/22/10)
Tags: budget, health care, jobs, spending
