Monday, March 22, 2010

Rep. Franks on Health Vote: "This Bill Will Fundamentally Diminish the Greatest Health Care System in the World"

March 21, 2010 - Congressman Trent Franks (AZ-02) today released the following statement following the passage of Democrats' government-takeover health care plan:


"Today I voted against H.R. 3590 and H.R. 4872, this Democrat majority’s imposition of government-run health care on the American people. It is my conviction that this bill will fundamentally diminish the greatest health care system in the world, and that many of those who support it today will be its victims tomorrow.


"However, President Barack Obama and Democrats in this majority have now shoved this bill down the throats of the American people without even a single Republican vote. Never before has such sweeping legislation been done with a purely partisan vote.


"Therefore, whatever ill comes from this bill, history should record that Democrats and Democrats alone chose the path of socialism over the highway of freedom. Let this and future generations hold them accountable.


"My first reason for voting against this bill was the conviction in my heart that I was voting to protect my children, their contemporaries, and generations to come from being forced to live under the socialist ideal that would dim the light of freedom and suppress many of the hopes they might have otherwise had.


"I also voted against this bill because it was my deepest conviction that its cost will grow to threaten the entire economy of the United States in the years to come. In every corner of the planet, in every corridor of history, socialized medicine has always cost more, not less. Every government health care program the United States has ever implemented has cost many times the amount that was first predicted.


"I am fundamentally convinced that the costs of this bill will so overwhelmingly outpace present predictions that Congress will have no choice but to drastically alter its provisions in the future.


"I also voted against this bill because of the provisions in it that will increase the killing of innocent unborn children in the name of health care. Nothing has so completely destroyed Democrat claims that this bill is about compassion than their arrogant and cruel disenfranchisement of those helpless unborn children who had no voice in this twisted and corrupt process.


"Ultimately, this bill was about robbing America of one of its greatest distinctives: freedom of the individual. It was about robbing the American citizen of power, and putting it in the hands of left-wing bureaucrats and elitists who think they know more about running people’s lives than the people themselves know.


"Finally, I voted against this bill because I believe one day America will look back and see what a tragic mistake that it really was. When that time comes, it is my hope that my children and my children’s children will know that it was my deepest desire to protect their freedom as faithfully as my father protected mine."


Contact: Bethany Haley or Ben Carnes at 202-225-4576

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