Congressman Leonard Lance (NJ-07) issued the following statement hours before the House of Representatives scheduled vote on the Democratic health care reform proposal:
"My constituents are overwhelmingly opposed to this proposal. We all favor health care reform, but this is not real health care reform with more than a half a trillion dollars taken out of the Medicare, with more than a half a trillion dollars in new taxes. New Jersey residents already pay among the highest taxes in the Nation.
"I support reform. I support eminently sensible health care reform put forth by House Republicans which includes medical liability reform, small business insurance pooling, and letting New Jersey's families and small businesses buy insurance across state lines. These are the issues we should be addressing. Yet, none of these provisions are in the Democratic proposal.
"We have a terrible problem with the debt and annual deficits in this country and this ill-fated measure will make that situation much worse by increasing deficits by $59 billion via $1.2 trillion in federal spending.
"America simply cannot afford this fiscally irresponsible Democratic health care proposal. I believe this legislation fails the American people and future generations who will be saddled with higher taxes and an ever growing federal debt -- in large part because of the irresponsible actions in the current Congress."