U.S. Rep. Donald Beyer Jr. who represents the 8th District of Virginia that includes the City of Falls Church, issued a strongly worded rebuke of the recently unveiled House Republican health care bill, saying in a statement Tuesday that the proposal “strips health coverage from millions of Americans, and weakens coverage for millions more.”

“In his address to Congress last week, the President promised a healthcare program that would ‘expand choice, increase access, lower costs, and at the same time, provide better health care,'” Beyer said. “The bill which House Republicans unveiled last night does none of these things.

“It instead represents a huge tax cut for the wealthy, paid for in large part by gutting Medicaid. It shifts costs to working families and seniors, who will be forced to pay more for less coverage, and threatens Medicare’s solvency.

“House Republicans know that these provisions fail to deliver on their promises,” Beyer continued, “and that this bill will be wildly unpopular. That is why they are rushing the bill through without allowing time for people to learn about it, without explaining how they will pay for it, and without allowing the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office it to score its effects on the deficit and on the numbers of people left uninsured.

“Anyone concerned about the health of Americans or the financial well-being of the country will oppose this bill.”