03.03.10

Murkowski Comments on the President’s Latest Health Care Plan

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, today made the following comments after President Obama unveiled his latest version of a Democratic health care reform plan:

"I was pleased that the President has acknowledged some of the health care reform suggestions raised by Republicans at last week's summit. But the inclusion of these ideas into the President's latest version of health care reform doesn't make this a bipartisan proposal or process that I can support. The proposal under consideration will send the partisan Senate health care reform bill, passed in December, to the President for his signature, along with a reconciliation measure that assumedly incorporates some of the President's ‘tweaks.' But the guts of the bill remain the same plan the American people have already rejected. We should not utilize a parliamentary maneuver that would allow the Democratic leadership to circumvent the will of the American people. While reconciliation is a process that has been used by both parties over the years, it has not been used for such a sweeping piece of legislation that comprises 17 percent of the nation's economy."

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