Pence Disputes President’s Claim of Health Care Consensus

Pence Disputes President’s Claim of Health Care Consensus

“There is an unprecedented consensus: the American people are fed up with runaway federal spending and government takeovers.”

OCTOBER 14, 2009

Washington, DC - U.S. Congressman Mike Pence, Chairman of the House Republican Conference, delivered the following remarks today on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in response to President Obama's assertion in his weekly radio address last week that there is an "unprecedented consensus" behind a government takeover of health care:

"Mr. Speaker, I respect the president of the United States of America.  I pray for this president often in my private devotions.  But after months of extraordinary public opposition to a government takeover of health care, opposition that spontaneously drew more than a million people to the West Front of this Capitol just one month ago, President Obama spoke words this weekend that were frankly hard to take.

"He said in his radio address, ‘What's remarkable is not that we've had a spirited debate about health insurance reform, but the unprecedented consensus that has come together behind it.' ‘Unprecedented consensus' that has come together behind a government takeover of health care?  Maybe here in Washington D.C., but not across America.  There is an unprecedented consensus: the American people are fed up with runaway federal spending and government takeovers. 

"And now that the committee work is done, and both chambers in the House and Senate are headed to the backrooms to write up health care reform, let's hope and let's pray that the unprecedented consensus that will shape this bill will be based on the consensus of the American people for more freedom and lower health care costs, and not the consensus in Washington for more government and higher taxes."

NOTE:  To view the remarks, click here.

 

 

 

 

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For additional information, contact:

The House Republican Conference Press Office at (202) 226-9000 or
Matt Lloyd (matt.lloyd@mail.house.gov)
Mary Vought (mary.vought@mail.house.gov)