Pence Discusses Health Care, Financial Regulatory Reform on MSNBC

Interview

U.S. Congressman Mike Pence discussed health care and regulatory reform with host Thomas Roberts on MSNBC today:

Roberts: You mentioned some very big things there, so if the GOP takes control will the party begin an effort to repeal health care and financial regulation, even if the intention is to replace it with something else?

Congressman Pence: Let me tell you, I believe the House Republicans are committed to repealing ObamaCare lock, stock and barrel, and replacing it with health care reform that will focus on lowering the cost of health insurance without growing the size of government. The Republican alternative, I know we get talked about a lot as a party of "no'; we actually had substantive alternatives on all these bills. On health care, our alternative allowed Americans to purchase across state lines, it brought about medical malpractice reform, used those savings to cover people with pre-existing conditions. Those are the kind of ideas we're going to continue to bring forward to the American people and I look forward to that debate and hopefully look forward to being able to implement those policies if we're awarded the Republican majority in this fall's election.

Roberts: Is it just too much federal regulation?

Congressman Pence: Look, House Republicans support reasonable regulatory reform. The bill that goes to the president's desk this week, we believe is wrong on a number of counts. We think that it will restrict credit, it will kill jobs, raise taxes and ultimately it will institutionalize the rejected ideas of the Wall Street bailout. To put into the law the notion of "too big to fail', and to make that a permanent part of federal law, and leave the federal government in a position of picking winners and losers, in perpetuity, is not what the American people want. They want us to reject bailouts and they want us to pursue policies that will make credit more available and frankly, Wall Street firms more accountable. Our proposal, our alternative, we believe would do that. We also believe you cannot pass real world financial services reform that ignores Fannie and Freddie completely as the bill that goes to the president's desk this week will do.

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