GOP: Health reforms should be 'bottom up'

WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama should work with Republicans on a "bottom up solution" to healthcare reform, a GOP leader said Saturday.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, delivering the Republican's rebuttal to Obama's weekly radio and Internet address, said the GOP has an alternative to "a top down plan that will bust the budget" and urged the Democratic president "to work with Republicans on a bottom up solution that the American people can support."

"Republicans want to save Medicare and Medicaid from bankruptcy by offering more choices to beneficiaries and by making providers compete for their business," Cornyn said. "Republicans want to expand access and lower the costs of private insurance by expanding competition at the state level. Republicans also want common-sense medical liability reform that eliminates junk lawsuits against doctors and hospitals."

Obama, he said, has "paid lip service to bipartisanship while rejecting the ideas that would build bipartisan support. As a result, the president has alienated not only independents and divided his own party, but Republicans as well. And, he's ignored the clear wishes of the American people."