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‘We know what the heart of the bill is. Almost a half a trillion dollars in Medicare cuts, 400 billion dollars in new taxes and higher insurance premiums for the 85 percent of Americans who already have insurance. The core of the bill we know. If they put a government insurance company in on top of it, it makes it even more difficult to pass’
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell appeared on the Fox News program ‘The Live Desk’ Wednesday afternoon regarding the importance of getting it right on health care reform. The following are excerpts from the interview:
On voting for it, before voting against it:
“Look, he’s having a hard time even selling to his own members that they should vote to go to the bill.”
“It created a big problem for John Kerry back in the 2004 election. If you recall the most famous utterance of that campaign was I voted for it before I voted against it.”
“What Harry is trying to do is to convince his members to vote to get on the bill, even though a number of them have indicated they may vote against it later. Well I don’t think the public is going to buy an argument that you voted for it before you voted against it…he’s having a hard time getting the votes to even get on the bill on the Senate floor, and anybody who votes to get on the bill who later votes against it will have the John Kerry dilemma.”
On ‘the heart of the bill’:
“What he’s trying to do is to build a sense of inevitability that this is going to pass. Whether it has a government-run insurance company or not, we know, whether that’s in or whether that’s out, what the heart of the bill is. Almost a half a trillion dollars in Medicare cuts, 400 billion dollars in new taxes and higher insurance premiums for the 85 percent of Americans who already have insurance. The core of the bill we know. If they put a government insurance company in on top of it, it makes it even more difficult to pass.
On the 1,500 page bill:
“Nobody’s seen it other than the handful of Democrats who were in the conference room with the Majority Leader writing this thing in secret.”
“Not only have the Republicans not seen it, most of the Democrats haven’t seen it. It was written by a handful of folks in his conference room and a representative from the White House. Then it went over to the Congressional Budget Office, as you reported, so we can all find out how much they claim it’s going to cost.”
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