January 19th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today praised a bipartisan vote in the House of Representatives repealing ObamaCare, thanking members for “listening to the will of a majority of Americans opposed to the government takeover of health care.”
The vote passed 245 to 189. 3 House Democrats supported the bill.
“The House vote to repeal ObamaCare is critically important, without which it will be impossible to begin to bring the nation’s fiscal house into order,” Wilson said. “Once fully implemented, ObamaCare will expand federal spending by over $200 billion every year at a time when we need to figure out how to reduce the $1.3 trillion budget deficit and pay off the $14 trillion national debt.”
“The American people sent this Congress to Washington in November to cut spending. Repealing ObamaCare will save over $2 trillion. We commend the House for its foresight in lifting this unaffordable, unfunded liability off of taxpayers’ backs,” Wilson said.
Wilson said the House vote “reflected the will of millions of Americans.” A recent poll by Rasmussen Reports shows that 55 percent of voters want ObamaCare repealed, with only 40 percent opposed. Wilson called it a “mandate to save the nation from insolvency.”
“Even if ObamaCare is repealed, this decade the federal government will still spend $11 trillion on health care subsidies. It will be over $20 trillion the decade after that. Nobody thinks that’s sustainable, and yet here we are debating whether it’s a good idea to add anywhere from 32 to 90 million new people to receive taxpayer-funded health care come 2014,” Wilson explained.
“We’re going to go broke paying for this,” Wilson warned.
Wilson replied to critics, like Senator Sherrod Brown, who called the bill a “colossal waste of time.”
“Actually, the nation is running out of time to get its fiscal house into order. The repeal vote is not symbolic. In fact, it is the first substantive step to rein in the unsustainable expansion of the federal government in years. It’s the first step of entitlement reform,” Wilson declared.
The legislation now proceeds to the Senate, where Wilson said it could receive an up-or-down vote. “If Senate Republicans attach the legislation to an appropriations bill, it would only take 51 votes to pass, not 60,” he said.
“With 47 members of the Senate Republican conference, Republicans would need to pick up 4 Senate Democrats to achieve a majority. That is hardly insurmountable,” Wilson noted.
Wilson thanked the 3 House Democrats who voted for the repeal. “Clearly, there are some House Democrats who got the message from the American people. Hopefully, they will encourage their colleagues in the Senate to follow suit,” he said, concluding, “The only bipartisan consensus in Washington at the moment is against ObamaCare. It is against national insolvency.”
Attachments:
“ObamaCare’s Lies,” Bill Wilson, President, Americans for Limited Government, January 19th, 2011.
“Repealing ObamaCare a Good Start to Entitlement Reform,” Robert Romano, Senior Editor, Americans for Limited Government, January 5th, 2011.
“ObamaCare Repeal Could Save $2.6 Trillion,” Robert Romano, Senior Editor, Americans for Limited Government, January 10th, 2011.
Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.
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