Area Republican lawmakers blast Obama health care plan at rally

A few days after President Barack Obama pushed his health care reform plan to the nation, a group of DuPage County Republicans pushed back.

Three U.S. Representatives - Judy Biggert, Mark Kirk and Peter Roskam - spoke against the plan at a special health care rally held Saturday in Villa Park by the DuPage County Republican Party. Party chairman and state Sen. Dan Cronin said the event was a chance for suburban Republicans to make their voices heard as federal lawmakers debate the health-care bill.

"We cannot allow the Democrats to take away one of our most precious freedoms, the freedom to choose our own health care," Cronin, a candidate for DuPage County Board Chair, told the sign- and flag-waving crowd at the Odeum Sports and Expo Center.

Biggert, Kirk and Roskam characterized the speech Obama gave on health care Wednesday as a missed opportunity.

"The president had an opportunity to start anew, but he didn't," said Biggert, a Hinsdale Republican. "Instead, he delivered an eloquent speech full of myths."

Biggert said that contrary to what Obama said, the reform plan would add more than $200 billion to the national deficit, endanger citizens' freedom to choose their own doctors and make it easy for illegal immigrants to receive taxpayer-subsidized health insurance.

Kirk, a Highland Park Republican who is running for Obama's vacated Senate seat, criticized the bill for creating more than 50 new government agencies. "That's exactly the wrong way to go with our government," Kirk said.

Roskam, a Wheaton Republican, said the reform proposal was nothing more than an attempt by the government to take over the health care system.

"We have to fight this big-government attempt to control our lives," he said

The three lawmakers said they believe the health-care system does need some change, and they called for medical malpractice reform and new insurance laws that would allow people to buy insurance across state lines.