Kentucky’s Senator McConnell responds to Pelosi health care bill

November 6, 4:08 PMLouisville City Hall ExaminerThomas McAdam

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U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky gave a short speech on the Senate floor Monday, blasting H.R. 3962—The Affordable Health Care for America Act—also known as the “Pelosi bill.” Observing that there appears to be a disconnect between the American people and Democrat leaders in Congress, McConnell said: “And nowhere is that disconnect more apparent than in the 2,000-page bureaucratic monstrosity of a bill that House Democrats dropped on the American people last week.”

McConnell said that the American people have been sending a clear message to congress about what they want to see in health care reform: “They want practical, common-sense reforms that drive down the cost of care, improve access, and create more choices. What they’re getting instead from Congress are higher premiums, higher taxes, Medicare cuts, and more government control over their health care decisions.”

Complaining that the proposed bill would cost “more than two million dollars per word,” Senator McConnell said: “At a time of unprecedented government spending and a staggering $12 trillion dollar debt, the Democrat health care bill asks taxpayers to pony up at least another trillion dollars. Once fully implemented, the bill will spend 2.3 trillion dollars. And this doesn’t even account for the $250 billion that’s needed to prevent a cut in reimbursements to doctors who treat Medicare patients.”

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The senator also predicted that H.R. 3962 would inevitably lead to health care rationing: “Notably, this bill no longer includes language from earlier draft legislation stating that essential benefits coverage should not lead to the rationing of health care. We can only conclude from the exclusion of this language that the bill writers have opened the door to rationing care at some point down the road — just like every other country that’s gone in the direction of government-run health care for all.”

In concluding, McConnell remarked: “Americans want real reforms that will lower costs and increase access – reforms like getting rid of junk lawsuits, leveling the playing field on health care taxes, and incentivizing healthy choices. Yet instead of adopting these common sense ideas, the authors of this bill seem intent on forcing the American people to accept more spending, more debt, more taxes, and more government in their daily lives. You can call that a lot of things. But you can’t call it reform. The passage of time has not been good to Democrat efforts at health care reform. Earlier versions were deeply flawed to begin with. But when Americans look closely at this latest version, they’ll wonder who exactly Congressional leaders have been listening to over the past several months — clearly not the American people.”

Watch the video: “A 2,000-page, Trillion-dollar Disconnect”

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