Rep. Petri has made the following comments in response to President Obama's speech last night:
"I think it was a great speech, but it was about a proposal - and in the past, when Presidents have spoken about proposals that they are asking Congress to adopt, they have accompanied them with legislation. We all know the devil's in the details, and when we get the legislation, we can look at the details and see if they add up.
"There have been several proposals and bills before the House of Representatives. There was one massive bill that has been online and has been talked about around the country. And what the President talked about coincided in some respects and differed significantly, at least in description, in other respects. And so, my concern is that we are going to just, as we continue this discussion of health care, see more confusion if we don't have a specific Administration proposal.
"Some of my Republican colleagues were criticized for waving pieces of paper on the floor of the House, but what they were doing was indicating that while it has not received a great deal of attention, there has been a bill introduced by the Minority that has the support of a good many of them. And a number of Democrats have introduced bills.
"The Administration has outlined concepts and expressed different ideas and an urgency in doing something, but if we are serious about moving forward we really do need to get what the Administration wants us to actually do. We can't pass a speech, we've got to pass specific legislation under our Constitution."
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