On the recordMarch 16, 2010
The American people don't want a government takeover of health care. I heard it at town hall meetings, across eastern Indiana this weekend, and at a rally at the Statehouse in Indianapolis yesterday where over a thousand gathered on short notice. Now, I know many in the Democratic leadership and the administration don't like us to call it a ``government takeover of health care,'' but when you mandate that every American purchase health insurance--whether they want it or need it or not--you mandate what's in that insurance. If you set up a government-run insurance exchange to control what kind of insurance people can buy and set up a massive bureaucracy, even a new health care czar to govern all of it, that sure looks like to me a government takeover of health care. And the American people know it. Now, clear majorities of this country have rejected this approach. But nevertheless, as we read in the papers, Congress is intent this week on bringing this legislation--seemingly by any means--to the floor of the House of Representatives. And I want to speak about those means today. The choice that the leadership of the Congress has before them is whether or not to bring the wildly discredited Senate bill to the floor of the House of Representatives. But the truth is, the bill, with its Cornhusker Kickback, with the public funding of abortion, simply couldn't pass the House floor. There's just not the votes for it.





