Late Sunday night, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Senate version of the Democrats' health care bill, H.R. 3590. Subsequent to the 219-212 vote, Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) made the following statement:
"Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats made history in ignoring the will of the American people and by approving a nearly trillion dollar government health care bill that the majority of Americans rejected. All week and weekend, Tea Party advocates and other concerned Americans have been rallying against this legislation, making calls, and personally visiting Democrat offices to share their views. While Democrats may have ignored Americans with this vote, Americans will not forget what happened in Washington, D.C. this weekend.
"Thirty-four Democrats joined every single Republican to fight passage of this massive government takeover bill of health care, yet the backroom deals and tactics paid off and the bill passed anyway. This bill creates government mandates, $569 billion in job-killing tax hikes, and $1.2 trillion in new government spending.
"Additionally, the Democrats' government health care takeover does not protect our service men and women and their families from being forced into other health care coverage or from paying penalties when protections of TRICARE were eliminated.
"It's unfortunate that Democrats forced this legislation through Congress, rather than craft a bipartisan piece of legislation alongside Republicans and the American people. My Republican colleagues and I had better solutions that would ensure reforms for medical malpractice and allow insurance competition across state lines. I can assure the good people in California and across the country that Republicans will be working to repeal corrupt legislative processes as we saw this week, repeal cuts to Medicare, and repeal taxpayer funded abortions among other things. I urge Americans to keep working with us in the coming days and months."
Additional notes on costs and spending:
* Despite what Democrats have said, a new analysis from the Congressional Budget Office shows the Democrat health care plan will actually increase federal deficits by $59 billion over the next ten years when the cost of the "doc fix" legislation is added back into the bill.
* The CBO estimates that the House Republican plan will reduce deficits by $68 billion over ten years and reduce private insurance premiums by up to 10 percent.