Jennifer Dunn: “according to a story in today's Washington Post, the President wants to speed up consideration of his health care…”

“according to a story in today's Washington Post, the President wants to speed up consideration of his health care proposal in the Congress. It seems that the longer people look at his plan, the less they like it. In fact, Mr. Clinton himself has said this was a ``bad week,'' not surprising, considering the rejection of his plan by both the National Business Roundtable and the National Chamber of Commerce. The President, frankly, appears to be fearful of the public scrutiny of his health care proposal. He would rather rush through this debate and jam this costly and bureaucracy laden proposal down the throats of the American people than allow the Congress to deliberate carefully on all the alternatives that exist at this time. The best alternative is, I believe, the Michel-Lott bill. It saves costs. It increases access. It maintains choices, and it solves the problems of portability and preexisting conditions without erecting a huge Government bureaucracy. Mr. Speaker, I urge the Congress to ignore the President's advice and to look fully at all the possible solutions. This is one area where we must not hurry to make a mistake.”