U.S. Rep. Guthrie talks about healthcare bill

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September 3, 2009

By LISA SIMPSON STRANGE The Glasgow Daily Times Thu Sep 03, 2009, 12:53 PM CDT

GLASGOW — Many legislators who participated in townhall meetings with their constituents during the August congressional break met with very vocal opinions about the proposed national health care reform bill.

U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Bowling Green) said Tuesday after touring Trojan Academy in Barren County he was finding that the majority of people he was talking to while being back in the Second District were of similar opinions to his when it comes to health care, even though his constituents are both Republicans and Democrats.

“I've been going to a lot of meetings and not everybody agrees with me, and that’s good actually,” Guthrie said. “We have debate, but the overwhelming majority does agree.”

There’s a big philosophical divide on the bill between individuals in Congress, Guthrie told students in Todd Steenbergen’s AP U.S. History class Tuesday morning.

In Europe, health care is provided by the government, he told them.

“We’ve always been more self-reliant than them. So we believe if you work hard and save (you won’t need the government to take care of you),” he said.

Guthrie believes individuals should be more responsible for themselves versus government having more control over their lives.

“So the question is, what kind of system do we have? Do we have a system based on individuals or do we have a system based on the government providing everything,” Guthrie asked the students.

As legislators return to Capitol Hill to resume arguments on the bill, Guthrie said he hasn’t heard many favorable comments from his constituents on the Democrat-backed plan.

Most of the legislators Guthrie has been speaking to about the bill are the ones he knows from his freshman class of congressmen. He said the majority of them are from districts similar to his own.

“I would have to think that people who are members of the majority party from districts similar to mine – they’re Tennessee, they’re Arkansas, they’re Kentucky – that they’re hearing the same thing I'm hearing,” he said.

Guthrie said he didn’t think the bill gained any support during the August recess.

“They (Democrats) didn’t have the votes before we adjourned or they would have voted the bill. They were trying to put the votes together at the last minute and didn’t have them,” Guthrie said. “So did anybody go home in a district similar to mine and get convinced that they need to go back and vote for the bill. I just don't see that.”

Guthrie is in a unique position because he is a Republican who was elected in a district with a Democratic majority.

“If you look at the registration, I got elected to Washington by Democrats as well as Republicans. I’m from a majority Democrat district where there aren’t enough Republicans to send me there, but it’s people with the same values we share,” he said.

Whether the bill passes or not will come down to how legislators choose to vote – for their party or for their constituents.

“So the question (legislators) are going to have to ask themselves, are they going to vote for the Speaker of the House (Nancy Pelosi) because she’s the powerful committee – sets the committees – or are they going to vote with their districts,” Guthrie said. “And I don’t know what the answer is to that.”

“I would hope – I know what the answer would be for me – I would vote with my district. But I don’t know, I’ll have to see when I get back,” he said.

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