25-Feb-10 8:00 AM CST

President Obama, Listen

President Obama should listen to the millions of Americans who have said no to a government takeover of health care.

The president’s latest plan for health care reform includes more spending, more taxes, and more government control – ideas the American people have repeatedly rejected. Unfortunately it seems that President Obama has not been listening. The president said he wants to sit down with Republicans and Democrats at today’s health care summit to discuss their ideas. First, President Obama should listen to the millions of Americans who have said no to a government takeover of health care.

The president and House Democrats should also listen to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) whose Director on Monday indicated he does not have the information necessary to provide adequate or timely estimates of the potentially enormous costs of the president’s plan. How can we have an honest discussion about a health care plan when no one knows how much it will cost? I would urge the House and Senate to postpone any floor action on a health care reform bill at least until CBO can provide a complete cost estimate for the legislation.

Sadly, the president isn’t even listening to himself. In 2005, when asked about the use of reconciliation to jam a bill through the Senate Barak Obama said, “[W]hat I worry about would be you essentially still have two chambers – the House and the Senate – but you have simply majoritarian, absolute power on either side. And that’s just not what the Founders intended.” Given that the American people have repeatedly said “no” to a government takeover of health care and the costs of this plan are unknown, I hope the president will commit today to not jamming the bill through the Senate under reconciliation. As the president previously noted, using reconciliation is a tacit acknowledgement that the bill lacks bipartisan support and not what our Founders intended.

I look forward to hearing from the president and my colleagues today. I am confident that we can lower health care costs without adding to our already unsustainable debt burden and raising taxes on Americans who are struggling from the recession.

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