Once again the liberal leadership in Washington has proved how out of touch they are with the American people and how out of touch they are with common sense ideas in general. They just don’t get it. The Congressional Budget office has put the price tag of this bill at $1.8 trillion, and others have put it as high as $2.6 trillion. The American people cannot afford the cost of this bill. We, as a nation, cannot afford the 13 new taxes that are now law. Neither can we afford the insurance mandate that our Democratic congress has now placed upon us. Lastly, it is completely unacceptable for our government to be looking over our shoulders and dictating the terms of our medical care.

Prior to passing this bill, during the debate on the House floor, Speaker Pelosi said that the 3,000 town halls attended by members of Congress this past summer helped to make this a better bill. Excuse me? At the time of the town halls, the bill being proposed by Speaker Pelosi was 1,100 pages. The bill passed tonight was 2,000 pages. Madam Speaker, you and your liberal colleagues were obviously not listening this summer. The American people were calling for less government, not more. They were calling for true reform, not a government takeover of the health care system.

The alternative proposed by the Republicans in the House is true health care reform, brought about by cost saving ideas. Allowing the purchase of health care insurance across state lines in order to create more competition within the market, permitting individual Americans to create Health Savings Accounts, and bringing about tort reform in order to lower medical costs is what should have been voted into law tonight. However, what should we expect from a Congress that remains completely out of touch with the people they are supposed to represent?

When I am elected to Congress I promise to put a stop to out of control spending and government intervention in our lives, while working towards solving the mess that Nancy Pelosi has thrown us into tonight.