GOP says Dems health overhaul would break the bank

WASHINGTON — Sensing a political opening, the Senate’s GOP leader said Saturday that Democratic efforts to overhaul health care will bury the nation in debt.

Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky accused the Obama administration and congressional Democrats of rushing expensive and flawed plans that would result in rationing of care. McConnell’s criticism, in the weekly GOP radio and Internet address, came after a rocky start for legislation to revamp the system, with eye-popping cost estimates, partisan anger and divisions within the Democratic ranks.

“Throughout this debate, the administration’s central argument has been that America needs health care reform for the sake of the economy,” McConnell said. “Yet according to independent estimates, every health care proposal Democrats on Capitol Hill have offered would only hurt the economy.”

Polls show that Obama remains personally popular even as public skepticism grows over his agenda, and McConnell never mentioned the president by name.

But he did refer to recent setbacks dealt to Obama’s goal of overhauling the nation’s health care system to bring down costs and extend coverage to 50 million uninsured Americans.

Two estimates from the Congressional Budget Office this past week — both pricing Democratic health plans at $1 trillion-plus over 10 years — sent Senate Democrats scrambling to pare costs. Committee work in the Senate got off to a slow start, with plenty of partisan bickering but scant progress to show for it.

“They say a new government health plan will keep costs low. Well, expecting a government-run system to help the economy is like praying for rain in the middle of a flood,” McConnell said. “The thing you’re asking for is the last thing you need.”

House Democrats stepped into the breach Friday with a sweeping plan that would require all Americans to have health insurance and create a new public plan to compete with private insurance. But they didn’t say how much it would cost or how it would be paid for, sparking more GOP backlash.

Even with trillion-dollar price tags, McConnell argued, “The total cost would be much higher, burying us in deeper and deeper debt.”

McConnell compared Democrats’ approach on health care to passage of the $787 billion economic stimulus bill earlier this year, which Republicans contend was rammed through Congress before anyone got a good look at it. The GOP also claims the stimulus bill isn’t producing the results the administration advertised.

“Against Republican advice, they rushed the stimulus. We shouldn’t rush again on something as important, and costly, as health care,” McConnell said.

On the Net:

Video of McConnell’s address: www.youtube.com/gopweeklyaddress