North Dakota and Minnesota politicians and lobbying groups offered varying reactions Thursday to President Obama’s State of the Union mention of the controversial health care reform legislation being considered by Congress.
Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., advocated strongly for the passage of the Senate’s health care reform bill during a speech Thursday morning at the Families USA Health Action 2010 conference in Washington.
“I’m hopeful the American people recognize that ‘no’ doesn’t come close to cutting it as a solution to our health care challenges,” Franken said in prepared remarks.
He called the Senate bill “a very good foundation upon which to build” and said it would be better to pass that legislation and fix it later, than to pass nothing at all.
“Big pieces of legislation often need to be fixed and improved after passage. Health care would be no different,” Franken said. “But we have to stop letting the ‘perfect’ – and everyone has different definitions of ‘perfect’ – be the enemy of the ‘very good.’ ”
North Dakota Democrat Byron Dorgan took a more cautious approach, calling Obama’s shift in emphasis from health care reform to job creation “instructive.”
“The American people have said, ‘Wait a second, we’re concerned about what we’re hearing and reading about it,’ ” Dorgan said of health care legislation. “So at the moment, I think this is a period of pause and assessment of what might be saved from that (and) what kinds of things might garner support.”
