Health Care

Floor Speech

Mr. LATTA. Mr. Speaker, I come from northwest Ohio. I know that many of my colleagues from around this House go home every weekend, and it wasn't very long ago I was home and I was speaking with one of our small business owners.

He came up to me and said, Bobby, I have a question to ask you. He said, Where are we on this health care?

I told him. I said, This is where it looks like we are going.

He said, Do you think it is going to pass?

I said, I am not really sure right now.

But he said, You know what? I am going to tell you something. I have been trying to read these bills to the best of my ability to find out what is in them. I am going to tell you right now, if this bill passes, there is no way I can survive. I am going to have to close up.

We are talking about people and their health care, and it is very important. There is not one person in this Chamber that would say we should not be doing something about health care in this country. But we also have people out there trying to put jobs out there so people can work. And when I looked around that business where he was, you start saying, Where are these people going to go after this? We have over 10 percent unemployment in Ohio, and it is getting tougher. The worst is yet to come.

Mr. Speaker, the American people want health care reform, but we have to do it responsibly.

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