Trent Franks: Democrats Arrogantly Defied Americans' Wishes on Health Care

Franks Says H.R. 3962 Infringes on American Freedom

November 7, 2009 - Following tonight's House vote in favor of H.R. 3962, Congressman Trent Franks (AZ-02) released the following statement:

"Simply put, today's vote was a result of House Democrats deciding that they would shove their bill down Americans' throats.
Indeed, passage of H.R. 3962 represents the height of arrogance -- a belief on the part of Democrats that their ideas for this country WILL be enacted, even if it's against the wishes and best interests of the American people, and that they WILL move America down the road toward socialism, even if they have to drag her kicking and screaming. "Over the last nine months, Democrats have done
nothing to earn the kind of trust from the American people necessary to so boldly proceed with this kind of legislation. We just learned that the unemployment rate hit 10.2% AFTER Democrats wasted $1 trillion on a 'stimulus' that they insisted would keep the unemployment rate below 8%. At this point, Democrats seem to be flying by the seat of their pants, and forced passage of today's abomination of a health care bill only furthers that impression.

"This bill represents more than just very bad policy -- it is yet another Democrat infringement of American freedom. In just nine months, Americans have witnessed takeovers in the auto industry, takeovers of private banks, and now House Democrats have yet again taken a wrecking ball to the American ideal of independence from excessive government intervention, wresting from the private sector control of our health care system.

"I would remind my Democrat colleagues that their children, and every generation thereafter, will bear the burden caused by this bill. They will be the ones asked to pay off the incredible debt, and they will face the specter of a federal government with an alarming amount of control over American citizens' lives. I fear those future generations might look back at today's vote as a landmark moment when they lost a large amount of the freedom that this Congress should have been working fervently to defend."

H.R. 3962 passed by a vote of 220-215, with only one Republican voting in favor of the bill.

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Congressman Franks is serving his fourth term in the U.S. House of Representatives, and is a member of the Committee on Armed Services, Strategic Forces Subcommittee, Oversight & Investigations Subcommittee, Military Readiness Subcommittee, Committee on the Judiciary, Constitution Subcommittee, and is Ranking Member on the Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law.