WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell appeared on the CNBC program ‘Street Signs’ Wednesday afternoon regarding the importance of getting it right on health care reform. The following are excerpts from the interview:

On the need for the right health care reform:

“The Health Care package, the larger health care package is half a trillion dollars in Medicare cuts, $400 billion in tax increases on individuals and companies, and higher insurance premiums for everybody who has health insurance now. That isn’t reform, reform should be about cutting costs and increasing access.”

On the bipartisan rejection of the Democrat Leadership’s plan to add a quarter- trillion dollars to the deficit:

“We just had the first vote, by the way, down on the Senate floor in the health care debate. The Majority here was trying to fix a physician reimbursement issue, a permanent fix and send the bill to our grandchildren for a quarter of a trillion to 300 billion dollars. It was defeated on a bipartisan basis very significantly. A number of Democrats joined us in saying adding $300 billion to the deficit is a very bad idea.”

On American opposition to a government-run program:

“I don’t think there is a single Republican, and I know there are a whole lot of Democrats who oppose having a government-run insurance company.

“But if you ask people do you think it’s a good idea for the government to be in the insurance business my guess is it would be no better than 50/50, in other words, not exactly something that was widely accepted. But I think it’s important not to get diverted off on whether the government’s going to go into the insurance business or not. What we already know is what the core of the bill is. A half a trillion dollars in Medicare cuts, $400 billion in tax increases and higher insurance premiums for the 85 percent of Americans who have health insurance now.”