In the past year, citizens across America have made their opinions clear regarding ObamaCare. The President’s health care proposal is a deeply flawed plan that should be scrapped entirely in favor of a truly bipartisan approach that pursues step-by-step reforms. It’s absolutely alarming Charlie Crist disagrees and has said he would not scrap this bill and process.
Again and again, Governor Crist has clearly demonstrated he can’t be trusted to go to Washington and stand up to the agenda of President Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. At this critical moment in the health care debate, Charlie Crist has said he would be doing exactly what he did with the stimulus – undercutting Republicans and looking to cut a deal. If I were in the Senate today, I would be a voice for scrapping this process altogether and starting anew. The differences between me and Charlie Crist can’t be clearer.
In terms of both policy and process, this health care bill has been fundamentally flawed since the start. Now, desperate to ram through a health care bill at any cost, President Obama and his allies are preparing to use reconciliation, which would prove once and for all their inability and unwillingness to fix Washington and responsibly manage the people’s business. Going down this road will also make clear that the poetry and promises of 2008’s campaign have completely evaporated and given way to the dark side of Washington’s politics as usual.
By using reconciliation as their final “Hail Mary” attempt, President Obama and Congressional liberals will show it doesn’t matter to them what the American people have said at ballot boxes in Massachusetts, Virginia and New Jersey as well as town halls, tea parties and other forums during the past year. In Florida, my own travels have confirmed my thoughts and feelings that this health care bill and the process behind it has been misguided and would threaten high quality health care delivery and the long-term future of America’s free market system.
Free market principles have underpinned America’s success since our founding, which is why Washington’s assault on them is dangerous and must end. At this time of record unemployment, the first needed step towards creating jobs and lasting economic growth is for Washington policymakers to cease their assault on the free market, starting with a scrapping of the current health care proposal on the table.
