Rep. Johnson Responds to President's Health Care Speech

Representative Timothy V. Johnson released the following statement in response to President Obama's healthcare speech to a joint session of Congress:

"I appreciate the President taking this opportunity to address the Congress and the people of the United States regarding his vision for healthcare reform. Unfortunately it is much of the same; lofty words with few specifics."

"The American people have made it clear that they are not comfortable with the path of this debate, do not support the current proposals in the House and Senate, and want us to slow down and get this right. The time for rhetoric has long passed; the time for the President to lead has arrived. He campaigned on the promise to change the way Washington works and what better opportunity than this healthcare debate."

"This morning Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leaders Reid were invited down to the White House for a meeting on the healthcare debate. Where were the Republican leaders? There are many areas in the healthcare arena that we agree should be addressed. We should allow small businesses to band together to buy their insurance through association health plans. When someone loses their job they should not lose their health insurance. No one should be denied healthcare coverage because they have pre-existing conditions or become sick. And citizens should be allowed to shop for insurance across state lines, to name just a few."

"However, the President and Democrats in the House and Senate seem intent on establishing a government-run health plan that has been shown in numerous other countries does not contain costs without rationing care to seniors and other vulnerable people and diminishes the health outcome of its citizens. And to top it all off they plan to tax small businesses who can't afford to supply insurance to their employees, tax individuals who do not obtain insurance, and place caps on the amount people can donate to organizations whose goal is to help the same people who do not currently have health insurance."

"Mr. President, the American people are hurting. Unemployment is at its highest rate in decades, the federal deficit is expected to rise $9 trillion dollars over the next decade, the national debt continues to explode, and the national housing market has collapsed. Now is not the time to rush through an over $1 trillion piece of legislation that has been shown will not contain the long term costs of healthcare, will further expand the ballooning deficit, and will place more control of healthcare in the hands of government. We all agree we cannot sit idly by and do nothing, so now is the time for you to follow through on past promises and sit down with both sides of Congress and craft a bill that will actually reform healthcare, contain costs, and keep the government out of our medical decisions."

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