Rep Tom Price (R-GA)

Congressman Tom Price Statement (R-GA)

on the

President’s Address to a Joint Session of Congress

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Congressman Tom Price (R-GA) issued the following statement in response to President Obama’s announcement that he will address a joint session of Congress next week on health care reform.

“The President’s announcement, coming now, is very revealing,” said Congressman Price. “For starters, it validates that this administration’s plan has always been ad hoc in nature and relied on his ideologues and partisans in Congress to do the dirty work. Further, this address is clearly a direct response to the outpouring of opposition this past month from the American people. While the other side wanted to dismiss these folks as an un-American fringe or political terrorists, the truth is that citizens across this nation do not want Washington taking over our health care system.

“It’s not too late for a solution which focuses on access to affordable, quality health care for all Americans. But to do so will require the President in his address to demonstrate actual leadership, rein in Speaker Pelosi and the Democrat leadership, and begin to correct the gross amount of misinformation that has spewed from both himself and his allies. It would also help if Democrats started listening to the American people instead of having contempt for them. Doing so will begin to produce a bipartisan solution which maintains the best medical care in the world and enable us to correct those areas of ailing in our system while focusing on empowering patients - not government or insurers.”