Congressman Adam Putnam tonight reacted to President Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress on health care reform:

“Substantively, his plan isn't very different from the bill Americans have debated throughout August,” said Putnam. “President Obama insists on a government run health care public option. He still claims nobody would be forced into the plan --something he said before, yet supporters of the public option say it would indeed be the first step toward a government takeover of health insurance.

“Despite the president’s very rosy view of cost savings, I think most Americans have learned through hard experience to be skeptical of such claims.  I want to see an independent and thorough review by the Congressional Budget Office of what the real costs of this plan are going to be..

“We can still have a truly bipartisan approach to health care reform, one that addresses specific problems with specific solutions.  But that’s not the plan the President outlined tonight.”

Since 2001, Putnam has represented Florida’s 12^th Congressional District, which includes most of Polk County and portions of Hillsborough and Osceola counties.