United States Representative Howard Coble spoke to a group of Elon Law students on April 7, at an event sponsored by the Elon Law Republicans student organization. Among other issues, Coble addressed the health care bill recently passed through Congress and signed into law by President Obama.
Coble said the health care legislation was too long and complex to merit consideration.
“I’d be surprised if fifteen members of Congress have read the bill,” Coble said. “If it’s going to take you 2500 pages to say it, by golly, scrap it and start over.”
Coble also stated that opponents of the bill should be just as concerned about the way the bill was passed as they are about its contents.
“It was, in my opinion, a very arrogant process,” he said, remarking that proposals and amendments suggested by Republicans were “summarily dismissed.”
Coble declined to label the healthcare bill as socialism, but said, “Obviously, [it is] widely enlarging the scope of the federal government, and I think enlarging it too widely and too broadly.”
During a question and answer session following his presentation, Coble said he believes government works better when neither party has total control over the government.
“I think when you have Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals, breathing down each others’ necks, sometimes maybe uncivilly…the constituents are better served,” Coble said.
Coble visited Elon Law’s Clinical Law Center in November, 2009, to discuss the law school’s Juvenile Justice Intervention and Mediation Clinic, a program for which Coble was instrumental in obtaining federal funds. Click here for more details.
By Melissa Westmoreland, L’12
