Kyl: Healthcare proposals would cost $2T

WASHINGTON, July 18 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama's healthcare reform proposals will increase government spending by $2 trillion, a Republican Party leader says.

Sen. John Kyl, R-Ariz., delivering the GOP's weekly radio address Saturday, also said Obama's healthcare program would "empower Washington, not doctors and patients, to make health care decisions."

"(The Democrats') plan would increase spending by more than $2 trillion when fully implemented, and would, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, add additional costs onto an already unsustainable system," Kyl said in the address, saying the plan would "impose a new tax on working families during a recession."

Kyl claimed one study contends the Democratic proposals "would also move millions of people who are happy with their current insurance to a new government plan."

The Republican warned Obama is bent on paying "for this new Washington-run health care system by dramatically raising taxes on small business owners," which, he said, "would cripple job creation, especially jobs for low wage-earners."

In his own address Saturday, Obama urged Congress to pass his healthcare reform program, which he said would improve care and lower costs without increasing the deficit.