“Nearly half a trillion dollars in cuts: this is what some have audaciously started referring to as ‘Saving Medicare’. Well, I don’t know what’s more preposterous: saying that this plan ‘Saves Medicare,’ or thinking that people will actually believe you”

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor Monday regarding the importance of getting it right on health care reform:

“First, I want to welcome everybody back, senators and staff, after what was hopefully a restful and happy Thanksgiving. I had a chance to spend a good amount of time back home in Kentucky, and nobody was shy about telling me what they thought of the health care bill that Democrats voted to bring to the floor just before the holiday.

“A lot of the people I met with had a similar observation, which I suspect is pretty common across the country. Kentuckians want to know how spending trillions of dollars we don’t have on a plan that raises health insurance premiums and taxes on families and small businesses is good for health care or for jobs and the economy.

“The fact is, Americans feel like they’ve been taken for a ride in this debate. And they’re beginning to realize what administration officials meant when they said that a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. The notion that we would even consider spending trillions of dollars we don’t have in a way that the majority of Americans don’t even want is proof that this health care bill is out of touch.

“It’s now perfectly clear what happened: the administration and its allies in Congress have wanted to push government-run health care for years, and they viewed the economic crisis that we’re in as their moment to do it. So they sold their plan as an antidote to the recession, even though their plan would only make things worse.

“But now Americans are beginning to see the truth behind the rhetoric. No one believes that trillions in spending, taxes, and debt will do anything but kill jobs and darken the economic prospects of struggling Americans and their children. The administration’s health care plan won’t alleviate the situation we’re in. Instead, it would punish struggling Americans at a moment when all they want is a little help.

“Proponents of this bill couch their efforts with the refrain that history is calling. I think they’ve got it half right. Someone’s calling alright. But it’s not history. It’s the American worker. He’s wondering where the jobs are. It’s the middle-class family wondering how Congress could try to pass a scheme that won’t do anything to control costs. It’s one of the roughly 40 million seniors wondering when Medicare became a piggy bank to fund more government and higher premiums.

“I’ve enumerated the specifics about the Medicare cuts in this bill before: nearly $135 billion in cuts to hospitals, $120 billion in cuts to Medicare Advantage, nearly $15 billion in cuts to nursing homes, more than $40 billion from home health agencies, nearly $8 billion from hospices — hospices. Nearly half a trillion dollars in cuts: this is what some have audaciously started referring to as ‘Saving Medicare’. Well, I don’t know what’s more preposterous: saying that this plan ‘Saves Medicare,’ or thinking that people will actually believe you.

“Arthur Diersing gets it. He’s a constituent of mine from Versailles, Kentucky. Here’s what he had to say about this plan. He wrote: ‘I … agree that there are some things in the health care system that need to be fixed or improved. But let’s work on the most important 5-6 issues rather than turn the whole system upside down, and run up the cost for all of us and take away from us seniors.’

“Mr. Diersing knows what he’s talking about. He knows this bill doesn’t reflect the views of the American people. Americans have been asking us to cut costs, not raise them. They want the kinds of step-by-step reforms that would actually make a difference, without bankrupting the country and without further expanding the role of the government in their lives. Americans don’t want this bill to pass. Instead, they want us to earn their trust with the kind of commonsense reforms Republicans have been talking about all year and which our friends have brushed aside.

“Americans want us to end junk lawsuits against doctors and hospitals that drive up costs. And yet there’s not a serious word about doing so in the 2,074 pages of the Democrat bill. Americans want us to encourage healthy choices like prevention and wellness programs. And yet Democrat leaders couldn’t come up with a serious word about these kinds of reforms in 2,074 pages.

“Americans want us to lower costs by letting consumers buy coverage across state lines. They want us to let small businesses band together to negotiate lower insurance rates. And yet Democrats have ignored both of these ideas, despite having 2,074 pages to include them.

“Americans also want us to address the rampant waste, fraud, and abuse in the current system before we create an entirely new government program. And yet Democrats don’t seriously confront this problem in their 2,074 page monument to more government, more taxes, more spending, and more debt.

“Americans are fed up with big-government solutions that drive up taxes and debt and which only seem to create more problems, more abuse, and more fraud.

“In the face of this, our friends on the other side of the aisle appear determined to plow ahead with their plans. They don’t seem to care that Americans are telling them to stop and start over and fix the problem, which is health care costs.

“Democrat leaders may think they hear history calling. But the sounds they should be hearing are the voices and the concerns of ordinary Americans. The American people will be heard in this debate. In a democracy, public opinion should not be irrelevant.”

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