Scalise on HR 3200: “The American people deserve better!”

Washington, DC -- The House Energy and Commerce Committee, of which Congressman Steve Scalise is a member, today resumed debate on amendments to HR 3200, the health care legislation. Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, has indicated she would like a vote on this bill in the next couple of weeks.

Congressman Scalise made the following opening statement to the Committee today.

“Two weeks ago, President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress. The President has given nearly 40 different speeches on health care, and while the President claims to seek bi-partisanship and while he has twice invited Members of Congress to discuss this bill line by line, let it be noted for the record here that a number of us have taken him up on his offer, yet the President refuses to honor that pledge. The American people deserve better! The President has said his plan won't tax middle-class families, but I think he needs to read Page 167 of this bill. This page explains a tax on the uninsured, and even this bill explicitly labels it a tax.

“While President Obama keeps giving different speeches, he is ignoring the message sent by millions of Americans during town hall meetings in August that they do not want a different speech, they want a different bill. Mr. Chairman, many of us have common-sense solutions to make our health care system better without destroying the things that make our medical care the best in the world. More than 40 of us have co-sponsored HR 3400, a bill that fixes the parts of our health care system that are broken without destroying the parts that work.

“Pre-existing conditions are an issue, and our bill addresses that. We lower health care costs for families by allowing purchasing across state lines and allowing small businesses to pool together. And we confront frivolous lawsuits that cost American families an estimated $100 billion each year in defensive medicine alone.

“Mr. Chairman, the American people don't want the government running banks or car companies, and they certainly don't want the federal government taking over our health care system. Mr. Chairman, this bill fails the American people.”

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Contact: Luke Bolar
202-226-4309