Update from U.S. Senator John Cornyn

Statement

The health care reform debate continues on Capitol Hill. My colleagues and I picked up an unlikely ally in our quest to stop the Reid health care bill. Gov. Howard Dean pleaded for his fellow Democrats to "kill this bill" in a Washington Post op-ed on Thursday morning, saying that it "will do more harm than good to the future of America." Despite the vocal protests from Liberals, Conservatives, and Independents, Democrats remain determined to force the bill through by Christmas. I assure you that my fellow Republicans and I remain resolute in stopping the Reid bill dead in its tracks.

I appeared on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace last week. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-IL, and I debated several important topics including the President's decision to surge troops into Afghanistan, Cap and Trade climate change legislation, jobs and the economy, and finally Health Care Reform. You can watch the full interview here.

Americans this week received news that the Obama Administration is taking concrete steps to transfer dozens of terrorists from Guantanamo Bay to a state-run prison in Illinois. Bringing alleged terrorists onto U.S. soil will needlessly put Americans in harm's way, a move that is both unjustifiable and unacceptable in my eyes. We are beginning to see an emerging pattern from this Administration, one where critical decisions are made more for the sake of political posturing rather than in the interests of our national security. As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I will continue to closely monitor the decisions made by this Administration to ensure that the safety of Texans, and all Americans, is not jeopardized by disingenuous policy choices in Washington.

As Texans are well aware by now, the Senate is coming to the end of its third straight week in the debate over health care reform. I think many of you have seen that as this debate progresses, we've learned two important things. First, with each passing day we have more questions than answers about the Reid bill, and secondly, the more the American public learns about it, the more they don't like it. The most recent Washington Post / ABC News Poll says that a solid majority of Americans are opposed to the Reid bill, with a CNN estimate pegging opposition as high as 61% among Americans. I met recently with a group of San Antonio firefighters in my Washington office who echoed this sentiment to me, telling me they could not afford the new taxes they would be saddled with should the bill pass. The President's own chief cost analyst recently became the latest expert to sound alarms over the Reid bill. The Chief Actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Rick Foster, issued a report last week concluding that the Reid bill would increase health care costs, threaten access to care for seniors, and force people off of their current coverage. In other words, the Administration's own expert conclusively demonstrated that the Democrats' rhetoric does not match the reality of their bill and that passing the legislation would be worse than doing nothing. You can read the CMS report for yourself here.

One potential impact of the proposal that continues to be overlooked by the Democratic leadership is the bill's devastating consequences for our state's small businesses and the chilling effect on job creation it would have. I recently joined my Republican colleagues in the Senate to meet with a coalition of job creators, from small business owners to CEOs, from around the country. Though they represented a diverse set of business models and industries, they all communicated virtually the same underlying belief: the risks and increased costs on businesses from new Washington mandates will continue to stifle their investment in new workers.

In an effort to keep Texans informed and engaged as this important debate continues here in Washington, I invite you to share your ideas for how best to reform our health care system by joining the dialogue live now on my Facebook or Twitter pages: www.facebook.com/Sen.JohnCornyn and http://twitter.com/JohnCornyn. In addition, if you would like to receive my Health Care Alerts updating you on the latest developments in the Health Care debate, you can sign up to receive those here.

Finally, as 2010 fast approaches, I would like to pass on my best wishes for a safe and happy holiday, from my family to yours. May God bless you in the upcoming New Year.

For more information on these and other topics, go directly to my Web site. I also welcome the opportunity to connect through Facebook, where I share updates, articles and videos related to my work in the Senate on a regular basis.To view floor speeches, interviews and other video messages from me, please visit my YouTube Channel. To receive additional updates, please select the issues that interest you listed on the right. It's an honor to serve you in the United States Senate.

Sincerely,

U.S. Senator John Cornyn

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