Congress is embroiled in a debate over how to improve the nation's health insurance system, and President Obama has been calling for swift action: passage of legislation before Congress recesses in August.

It is said that Congress does two things well: nothing and overreact.  I am concerned that if it acts rashly to meet an artificial deadline, Congress will pass legislation that could essentially result in a government takeover of one-seventh of the economy and the creation of an enormous new bureaucracy coming between you and your physician.  In addition, the cost of such an expanded bureaucracy could be stunning: The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office believes it could cost taxpayers more than a trillion dollars over the next 10 years.

I believe our health care system needs major improvements.  Too many people do not have access to adequate health care insurance.  Others have insurance, but are paying way too much for it.  And others are trapped in insurance plans and the jobs tied to those plans because they, their spouse or a dependent child has a pre-existing medical condition.

These and other problems in our current system need to be solved, and can be solved, with specific changes that give more power to individual patients rather than to a government bureaucracy.

These changes include giving workers the right to take an insurance plan they like with them if they change jobs; giving individuals and small businesses the right to pool together to increase their barganing power; giving patients more information about the care available to them -- including government programs they might already be eligible for --  so they can make better-informed choices.  There is more information about these  and other proposals I support, including short videos, at my Web site www.adamputnam.house.gov; just click on the "Current Issues" button.

Read it before voting

The rush for major health care legislation raises another issue: Before it votes on legislation that could profoundly affect every American, Congress must have time to consider what it is doing.  Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

For example, as the House was recently working on climate change legislation, a 300-page amendment to the bill was added late at night.  The text of that amendment was not available until 3 a.m. on the day the bill was voted on. I doubt any member of Congress was able to read all 300 pages, much less analyze them thoughtfully, before voting on this legislation.  

This is why I am supporting legislation to require that all bills be made available in their entirety at least 72-hours prior to a vote so that the people and their representatives can have a reasonable period of time in which to review the legislation under consideration. In addition, I have signed a pledge not to support any health bill that I have not been given an opportunity to read.

Protecting your 2nd Amendment rights

This legislative year has already seen several very imporant congressional debates with implications for the Constitutional right to keep and bear arms guaranteed by the Second Amendment. I am keeping an updated section of my Web site www.adamputnam.house.gov "Current Issues" page updated with the latest information on the legislative work I am doing to protect rights of law-abiding American citizens.