Todd Rokita: “I thank Chairman Price, as well as the entire Committee on the Budget, for getting us to this point, the first time in…”

“I thank Chairman Price, as well as the entire Committee on the Budget, for getting us to this point, the first time in over a decade that we have been able to use the reconciliation process. Just like the other gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Woodall) stated, what a difference the way we are using it now in this bipartisan fashion, in a transparent lie today, a long process, not the day before Christmas Eve and not in a partisan way. That was used the last time regarding a major healthcare change of policy in this country. I think all of us deserve to not only pat ourselves, quite honestly, a little bit on the back, but also take advantage of this moment to end the lie, the lie being, ``If you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it.'' That lie continues today, and it has become a full-blown nightmare. Getting this reconciliation package to the President's desk is real and a real positive step in ending government-controlled health care in this country so that patients of whatever condition in a consumer- based, consumer-centered fashion can use their own judgment, their own resources, along with the help of all of us, to get the health care that they need. {time} 0945 I doubt that 15 million people are actually covered better today than they were or could have been before. That should be our goal: to cover every American in the fashion that they deserve, in the fashion that they choose, with the doctor that they choose. Mr.…”