Senator Corker Reacts to Senate Health Care Vote

Tennessee Senator Bob Corker

CHATTANOOGA (WRCB) – Tennessee Senator Bob Corker released a statement Saturday on the health care reform vote in the Senate, which sends the bill to the floor for debate saying:

“Like most Americans, I want to see responsible health care reform, but paying for it by sending an unfunded mandate to states, taking money from Medicare – which is already insolvent – to fund a new federal entitlement, and passing off costs to future generations does not pass the common sense test,” said Corker. “This 2,074 page plan is taking the health care debate and our country in exactly the wrong direction. We’re literally spending our future away.

“The bill expands Medicaid and sends the $25 billion cost to states, a huge unfunded mandate that creates a very painful situation for Tennessee and other states.

“It takes $464 billion away from Medicare, which is predicted to be insolvent by 2017, and leverages it to create a new entitlement program rather than using it to make Medicare more solvent. I honestly don’t know how Congress has moved from broad, bipartisan concern over Medicare’s $38 trillion in unfunded liabilities — liabilities that threaten our country’s financial stability — to now embracing a proposal that uses Medicare cuts to leverage a new program.

“I think most Americans wanted to see health care reform that lowers costs, but this bill actually bends the federal cost-curve UP. The independent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says the coverage expansion would drive a net increase in government spending on health care by $160 billion over 10 years.

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