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Congressman Bob Latta (R-Bowling Green) made the following statement after President Obama’s announcement today on the current health care reform debate.  

“President Obama has once again defied the will of the American public who continue to reject the House and Senate passed health care reform bills, in addition to the framework the President laid out in his health care reform proposal last week.  

Whether it is the $1 trillion price tag, $500 billion in Medicare cuts, rationing of health care, or an unprecedented expansion of the federal government that will put Washington bureaucrats directly between doctors and patients as they make health care decisions, a majority of Americans continue to oppose these proposals.   The legislative process that has been announced that will be used to move this legislation through Congress is nothing more than a procedural end-around on traditional congressional procedures.  Reconciliation, in President Obama’s own words, is ‘the wrong place for policy changes’ and does nothing but highlight the missing bipartisanship that the President has pledged on numerous occasions since taking office.  Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND), Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said today that reconciliation ‘…won't work. It won't work because it was never designed for that kind of significant legislation.’  

No one will argue that we do not need meaningful health care reform for our nation, but without heeding the loud call for bipartisanship and new proposals, President Obama is causing more harm than good with his announcement.”