Senator Tom Coburn Weekly Republican Address 02/27/10 VIDEO FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT

Senator Tom Coburn Weekly Republican Address 02/27/10 VIDEO FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT

Remarks by Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), as provided by the Republican National Committee:

Hello, I’m Dr. Tom Coburn, a practicing physician from Oklahoma and a member of the United States Senate.

This week I had the opportunity to join President Obama and my Democrat and Republican colleagues for a summit on health care. We had a respectful and constructive discussion.

While we listened to one another, I’m concerned that the majority in Congress is still not listening to the American people on the subject of health care reform. By an overwhelming margin, the American people are telling us to scrap the current bills, which will lead to a government takeover of health care, and we should start over.

Unfortunately, even before the summit took place the majority in Congress signaled its intent to reject our offers to work together. Instead they want to use procedural tricks and backroom deals to ram through a new bill that combines the worst aspects of the bills the Senate and House passed last year.

The American people have rejected the majority’s plan for good reason. Their plan includes half a trillion dollars in new tax increases, a half a trillion dollars in cuts to Medicare, job-killing penalties for employers, taxpayer funded abortion and new boards that will ration care to American citizens. At its core, their plan continues a government-centered approach that has...

...made health care more expensive. Federal and state governments already control 60 percent of health care. If more government spending and control was the answer we could have fixed health care long ago.

Republicans in Congress have a different vision for reform. We have put forward several proposals that lay out a common sense step-by-step path to reform. Our solutions are patient-centered, not government-centered. We believe in expanding options, not government; increasing access, not taxes; and reducing costs, not quality. Most importantly, we believe that no one has the right to step between you and your doctor.

I introduced a health care bill called the ‘Patients’ Choice Act’ last May along with Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina and Representatives Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Devin Nunes of California that includes several step-by-step ideas for reform. The ‘Patients’ Choice Act’ and other Republican plans accomplish all of the President’s goals, including expanding coverage, without raising taxes, bankrupting the country or rationing care.

Our ideas address the core problem in our health care system – skyrocketing costs – by using the only force that ever lowers cost – competition and consumer choice. Health care is so expensive today because third-parties – government and insurance company bureaucrats – have stepped between you and your doctor.

Our solutions restore the doctor-patient relationship and put you – not your insurance company, your boss or the government – in charge of your health care dollars and decisions. The ‘Patients’ Choice Act,’ for instance, provides generous tax credits that let you buy, and keep, the plan of your choice. We also limit lawsuit abuse which causes doctors to order costly tests that protect themselves rather than you, the patient.

Our proposals to rein in the massive amount of fraud, waste and duplication in our health care system drew widespread praise from Democrats at the summit, including the President. One in three dollars in our more than $2 trillion health care system does not do anything to help people get well or prevent them from getting sick. Democrats and Republicans agree that eliminating waste and inefficiency would lower costs and improve access tomorrow.

The majority now has a choice. We can continue to make progress like we did at the summit. Or, they can try to ram through a partisan bill that will divide and bankrupt America.

I wholeheartedly share President Obama’s desire for more civility and bipartisanship in Washington and I’m proud of the work that we did together when he was a member of the Senate. True civility, however, is measured by actions, not words.

I was disappointed the President rejected my suggestion that he host another summit. The President himself proposed that such meetings be televised more than a year ago. Last year, dozens of Democrat-only summits were held in secret behind closed doors and produced many unsavory deals. Had those meetings been open and bipartisan, I believe Congress could have passed a bipartisan health bill months ago.

If the President and the leaders in Congress are serious about finding common ground they should continue this debate, not cut it off by rushing through a partisan bill the American people have already rejected. If the majority agrees to work together they will find many Republicans ready to help them pursue our common goals of helping all Americans access quality and affordable health care for themselves and their families.

Thank you so much for listening.

John Boehner at Health Care Summit: “The American People Want Us to Scrap This Bill” VIDEO TEXT TRANSCRIPT

GOP Leader: “The thing I have heard more than anything over the last six or seven months is that the American people want us to scrap this bill. They have said it loud. They have said it clear."

Washington, Feb 25 - During today’s White House summit, House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) called on President Obama and Washington Democrats to scrap their costly, job-killing government takeover of health care and start over with a clean sheet of paper and a step-by-step approach focused on lowering costs. This isn’t the Republican view; it’s the view of the American people. Boehner also outlined how Democrats’ health care proposals contain job-killing tax hikes, deep cuts to Medicare, unconstitutional mandates on individuals, federal funding for abortion, and vast new powers for the federal bureaucracy.

“American families are struggling with health care. We all know it. The American people want us to address this in a responsible way. So I really do say thanks for having us all here.

“I think our job on behalf of our constituents, and on behalf of the American people, is to listen. And I spend time in my district. I spend time a lot of places. I have heard an awful lot. I can tell you the thing that I have heard more than anything over the last six or seven months is that the American people want us to scrap this bill. They have said it loud. They have said it clear. Let me help understand why.

“The first thing is we’ve heard from the two budget directors about our fiscal condition. We have Medicare that's going broke. We have Social Security going broke. We have Medicaid that's bankrupting not only the federal government but all the states and yet, here we are having a conversation about creating a new entitlement program that will bankrupt our country. And it will bankrupt our country. It's not that we can't do health insurance reform to help bring down costs to help save the system. This bill, this 2,700-page bill will bankrupt our country.

“Secondly, Mr. President, I'd point out that this right here is a dangerous experiment. We may have problems in our health care system, but we do have the best health care system in the world, by far. And having a government takeover of health care – and I believe that's what this is – is a dangerous experiment with the best health care system in the world that I don't think we should do.

“So why did I bring this bill today? I'll tell you why I brought it. We have $500 billion in new taxes here over the next ten years. At a time when our economy is struggling, the last thing we need to do is to be raising taxes on the American people. Secondly, we've got $500 billion worth of Medicare cuts here. I agree with Kent Conrad. We need to deal with the problem of Medicare, but if we are going to deal with a problem of Medicare and find savings in Medicare, why don't we use it to extend the life of the Medicare program as opposed spending that $500 billion creating a new entitlement program.

“But it's not just the taxes, Mr. President, or the Medicare cuts. You’ve got the individual mandate here, which I think is unwise and I do believe is unconstitutional. You’ve got an employer mandate here. It says that employers: you’ve got to provide health insurance to the American people or you're going to pay this tax. It's going to drive up the cost of employment at a time when we have over 10 percent or near 10 percent unemployment in America.

“And beyond that, a lot of employers are going to look at this and say, well, I'll pay the tax and they are going to dump their employees into the so-called exchange because in five years every American is going to have to go to the exchange to get their health care. And who's going to design health care bill offered under this exchange under this bill? The federal government's going to design every single health care bill in America within five years once this bill were to pass. I could go on and on and on.

“Let me just make one other point. For 30 years, we've had a federal law that says that we're not going to have taxpayer funding of abortions. We have had this debate in the House. It was a very serious debate. But in the House, the House spoke. The House upheld the language we have had in law for 30 years that there will be no taxpayer funding of abortions. This bill that we have before us, and there was no reference to the issue in your outline, Mr. President, begins – for the first time in 30 years – allows the taxpayer funding of abortion.

“So Mr. President, what we have been saying for a long time is, let's scrap the bill. Let's start with a clean sheet of paper on those things that we can agree on. If we bring down the cost of health insurance, we can expand access.

“Mr. President, I told you, the day after – maybe it was the day you were sworn in as president – that I would never say anything outside of the room that I wouldn’t say inside the room. I have been patient. I have listened to the debate that’s gone on here, but why can’t we agree on those insurance reforms that we have talked about? Why can’t we come to an agreement on purchasing across states lines? Why can’t we do something about the biggest cost driver, which is medical malpractice in the defensive medicine that doctors practice. Let’s start with a clean sheet of paper, and we can actually get somewhere, and we can get it into law in the next several months.”