This past summer, the American people let Congress know what they thought about expensive, irresponsible government-run health care reform as a resounding “NO!” echoed through town hall meetings across the country.  I held three such meetings and a combined 4,000 people showed up over three nights to tell me of their opposition.

Unfortunately, the wishes of the American people fell on the deaf ears of the House Majority as it passed HR 3962: disingenuously called the Affordable Health Care for America Act. 

I voted against a government takeover of our healthcare system.

It costs more than $1 trillion, cuts $500 billion in Medicare Advantage, and imposes over $700 billion in new taxes in the midst of a recession.  This one bill will, in effect, redirect one-sixth of the US economy, radically overhaul our healthcare system and yet, does not address the most basic of issues – the high cost of health insurance.

First, consider the taxes it will raise: The new 5.4% surtax on the so-called rich is actually a tax on small business owners who pay the taxes on their business through their individual IRS forms. Conservative estimates are that one-third of IRS collections from this tax will come from small businesses.  How can we expect small businesses to create jobs, when we strangle them with a new 5.4% tax!?  “Pay or play” employer mandates will punish businesses that can’t afford group coverage – the same small businesses that have a hard time figuring out how to afford health coverage for their employees. 

Unemployment is at a 26-year high.  When I talk with constituents, their primary concern is jobs. Yet it is estimated that the Majority party’s health bill will cost up to 5.5 million jobs. Passing this bill and taxing small businesses and their employees, simply defies logic and ignores the concerns that Americans have been raising for months.

In the meantime, the government will collect $33 billion in fees from Americans who are – for the first time – forced to buy health insurance, regardless of the cost.  These fees and others will feed a massive new government-run healthcare entitlement, and create more than a hundred new federal bureaucracies.

The President said earlier this year that if you like your current health coverage, you can keep it – how can he say that with any certainty?  

What if your employer doesn’t offer it anymore due to the new mandates and regulations?  It’s estimated that upwards of 114 million people will actually be dropped from current plans and forced into the government program. Americans need affordable health care choices—not a bill that forces employers to drop coverage because of new high taxes.     

Let’s be clear. There is a problem with healthcare. Americans are paying too much in health insurance premiums. Small businesses are stifled by rapidly rising health costs. Medical debt is hurting the financial state of American families. Too many go without health insurance because it’s too expensive.

But the Majority’s bill wasn’t the only solution. There was a viable alternative. The Republican plan would enact medical liability reform; fully fund state high-risk and re-insurance pools to ensure affordable rates so people could be covered; create small business health pools to lower costs; prevent insurers from capping your lifetime benefits or cancelling policies; and encourage actual, price-lowering competition by empowering consumers to buy coverage over state lines.  The alternative bill would reduce the national deficit, contains no new taxes, wouldn’t ration care, and wouldn’t cut Medicare.  It would have actually lowered healthcare costs. Compared to the Majority’s bill, the average American family would save $5,000 in annual health insurance premiums. With this alternative, we could begin to address our broken healthcare system with rational, common sense solutions.

Before the vote on Saturday, the Majority’s bill was given four hours of debate time, while the Republican alternative was given just one hour. If the debate was truly about what was best for the American people, both bills should have had the same amount of time and consideration so that the American people could know that a government takeover of healthcare wasn’t the only solution. Unfortunately, the Majority took it upon itself to decide what’s best for our citizens instead of listening to their overwhelming opposition to a government run healthcare system.