Murkowski Says Public Concerned about a ‘Tsunami of Government Intrusion’
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said today that Americans are not only concerned about the Democrats’ health care proposals, but the “cumulative effect” of federal spending that is increasing the national debt by trillions of dollars.
“I think one of the things that we cannot lose sight of here in Congress is what our constituents have clearly not lost sight of, and that is the cumulative effect of what is happening here in Washington, D.C. – the ever-growing debt,” Murkowski told reporters at a Republican leadership news conference.
Murkowski, vice chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, said Alaskans expressed concerns to her at a series of town hall meetings in the state last month that the “government is into everything right now.”
“They’re (the government) running the credit cards. They’re manufacturing automobiles. They are setting pay compensation for executives. At what point do we pull government back?” Murkowski asked.
Murkowski said public concern extended from “rallies in places as far away as Fairbanks, Alaska” to the tens of thousands of people who gathered on the Washington Mall this past weekend to protest President Obama’s initiatives and government spending.
“When we’re talking about health care reform, we need to keep in mind that the Americans’ concern is not necessarily just this 800- or 1,000-page bill that we have in front of us, but what is coming at them in what they feel to be a tsunami of government intrusion,” Murkowski said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
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