< Boehner: Slow Down Health Overhaul Negotiations

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Heard on Morning Edition

September 25, 2009 - LINDA WERTHEIMER, host:

President Obama and his team are also looking for common ground with Congress on how to revamp health care and how to proceed in Afghanistan. We spoke to one of the people the president wants to reach out to, House Minority Leader Republican John Boehner of Ohio. Mr. Boehner says he is concerned that the White House may switch priorities in Afghanistan, from defeating the Taliban to focusing more on al-Qaida.

Representative JOHN BOEHNER (Republican, Ohio): Well, in March the president laid out a clear strategy to prevent al-Qaida and the Taliban from reestablishing safe havens in Afghanistan in order to plan and execute attacks on Americans. And now it appears the president is reconsidering that strategy, and I have real concerns about that. He sent General McChrystal to Afghanistan to implement this new strategy and General McChrystal believes that without timely reinforcements our efforts may end in failure, then we must act quickly to give him the resources he needs to achieve our goals.

WERTHEIMER: The president has said that he wants to wait until parliamentary elections. Does that make sense to you?

Rep. BOEHNER: My concern is that the longer we wait, the more jeopardy exists for the troops that we have there. Even if there is a decision to send more troops, it's going to take a substantial amount of time for those troops to be trained and to deploy into that theater. And we have to remember that in Afghanistan we typically have to deal with a spring offensive.

And I just believe that we need to make sure that we have the reinforcements there so that the troops that we have there are not in greater danger as a result of not having enough troops to protect each other.

WERTHEIMER: Mr. Leader, let's move on to health care. I know that you have been concerned about legislation coming out of the committees in the House and Senate. Do you see anything on the horizon that Republicans might be able to support?

Rep. BOEHNER: Well, I think Americans have spoken. They want reforms that lower costs, expand access and improve quality. None of the Democrat bills that we've seen thus far do that. You know, they claim that their bill will lower costs by spending a trillion dollars more, and Americans really aren't buying it.

And so there are a number of things that Republicans believe are essential. We believe that making sure that people who have preexisting conditions have access to affordable health insurance. We believe that if you lose your job you shouldn't have to be worried about losing your health insurance, and you could - should be able to take your insurance from job to job.

Republicans believe that we ought to get rid of junk lawsuits and get doctors back to practicing real medicine instead of all the defensive medicine that they practice today. Estimates are that we'd save over $100 billion a year just in that area.

And so there are common sense reforms that we can put in place to make our current health care system work better for more people.

WERTHEIMER: The president said in his address to Congress that he wants Republican participation, but he also said that he doesn't see any reason to sit down at the table with people who just want to kill health care reform.

Rep. BOEHNER: Well, there's no debate here in Washington about the need to fix our current health care system. The American people know that it costs too much, and they also know that there's not equal access to high quality, affordable health insurance.

And so as we move ahead, I think that there is common ground, we can do it. But let's be honest, the president hasn't had the Republican leadership down to the White House since late April or early May. I sent the president a letter back in May outlining some of the things we'd like to do in health care and asking for a meeting.

Now, I got a nice polite letter back that said basically thank you but we'll see you at the end of the process.

WERTHEIMER: Thanks very much.

Rep. BOEHNER: Linda, thank you.

WERTHEIMER: Representative John Boehner, the House minority leader, speaking not us from his office in the Capitol.

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