The Alexander-Murray bipartisan healthcare reform measure continues to prop up payments to insurance companies, and there are several red flags showing with the plan, Rep. Mark Walker said Wednesday.
"I don't know if I would say [I am] patently against it, but strongly against it at this point," the North Carolina Republican told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program. "We have major concerns of what Obamacare continues to do, not just people in North Carolina, but across the country. "
Further, Walker said, he does not know if the legislation, written by Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. and Patty Murray, D-Wash., will make it through the House.
"Certainly it's a concern of ours," Walker said. "We want to see more of it. It is something that I believe, to use Sen. Alexander's quote, that we have an emerging, encouraging consensus. If that's not Washington speech, I don't know what is."
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, also has said he's pleased with the agreement, Walker said, and "those are some caution flags."
Walker said the House has worked on a compromise that does offer more opportunity and choice for Americans, but meanwhile, "at what point do we understand or ask the question, how many different organizations or companies or markets does Congress play in?"
Meanwhile, the government can't continue to fund healthcare, Walker said, as "we're running at a $700 billion deficit per year."
He denied that Republicans are showing they aren't compassionate over their call to end Obamacare.
"I was a former pastor for 18 years," he said. "I've been hearing some of the heartache even earlier in your show, some of the things we were talking about. We need to be sure we're being good stewards with the taxpayer's dollar."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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