Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

By Mariko Lamb - Talk Radio News Service

The Congressional Black Caucus on Thursday urged Congress to overcome the notion that healthcare reform would cost too much and push forward with quality healthcare reform bills immediately.

“The economy is in the Intensive Care Unit, the disease is the burgeoning cost of healthcare, and the medicine is healthcare reform,” said Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.).

“As far as I’m concerned, no cost is too great,” chimed Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.). He added that it is Congress’s responsibility to ensure that “each and every individual in our country has access to the highest quality of healthcare that we can provide.”

Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) said that in order to move forward with healthcare reform, “we must reject the spurious claims that the cost of reforming healthcare in America is something we can’t afford,” and added that “if we fail to act, and we fail to act now, we do so at the peril of the American people.”

Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) reminded fellow Congressmen that “whatever we pass in the House, whatever they pass in the Senate, will not be the final product.” He urged both the House and Senate to get a bill passed before the Congressional recess in August and to then use August and September for the two Congressional bodies to establish a final package.

Clyburn insisted that the goal of Congress should be to have “something for the President to sign before the end of this calendar year.”