WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 /Standard Newswire/ -- House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) issued the following statement in response to news reports that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will hammer out a final government takeover of health care bill behind closed doors with President Obama:
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"The American people don't want the future of their health care being decided behind closed doors by three liberal Washington Democrats.
"Instead of keeping his campaign promises of transparency, President Obama has allowed Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid to operate in secret and play 'let's make a deal' with one-sixth of our economy. It's just wrong to shut taxpayers out and then spend their hard-earned money on payoffs, kickbacks, and sweetheart deals to jam through this monstrosity.
"Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) has introduced a resolution (H.Res. 847) demanding that any health care negotiations be opened up to the public, and Democrats should join Republicans in supporting it. Given all that's at stake, including whether taxpayer dollars will be used to fund abortions, the American people are right to demand an open and honest discussion of the consequences of this government takeover of health care. That's what Republicans are fighting for."
AS CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT, SEN. OBAMA REPEATEDLY PROMISED OPEN, TELEVISED HEALTH CARE NEGOTIATIONS:
- November 2007: "We are going to have a big table, and everybody is going to be invited, labor, employers, doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, patient advocate groups. The drug and insurance companies, they'll all get a seat at the table. ... And we will work on this process publicly. It'll be on C-SPAN. It will be streaming over the Net." (Town hall meeting with Google employees, Mountain View, CA, 11/14/07)
- January 2008: "That's what I will do in bringing all parties together, not negotiating behind closed doors, but bringing all parties together, and broadcasting those negotiations on C-SPAN so that the American people can see what the choices are." (Democratic presidential debate, 1/31/08)
- March 2008: "But here's the difference: I'm going to do it all on C-SPAN so that the American people will know what's going on." (Town hall meeting, Lancaster, PA, 3/31/08)
- August 2008: "When I come together around this health care system, I'm going to do it all in the open. I'm going to do it on C-SPAN." (Town hall meeting, Albuquerque, NM, 8/18/08)
- August 2008: "I'm going to have all the negotiations around a big table. ... We'll have the negotiations televised on C-SPAN." (Town hall meeting, Chester, VA, 8/21/08)