GOP Women Promote Republican Health Plan, Rail Against Obamacare

By Mariko Lamb - Talk Radio News Service

GOP Congresswomen and small business owners joined together Friday to voice alarm about the dire consequences of Congress passing the current health care reform bill.

“The Democrat way is not reforming healthcare, it’s destroying it,” said Rep. Michelle Bachman (R-Minn.).

“We are very concerned about the way it jeopardizes the doctor-patient relationship, we’re concerned about the additional debt, the trillions in spending that will add to the children and grandchildren that come after us, but worst of all, it’s going to further hurt our small business owners at a time when our economy is in trouble,” said Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers (R-Wash.).

“President Obama’s prescription for healthcare reform for our nation is the wrong prescription for American families. We do not believe that we should put a federal bureaucrat between the patient and the doctor,” said Rep. Mary Fallin (R-Okla.).

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said Republicans have a plan that addresses costs, access, and insurance company accountability, but her Democratic counterparts will not listen. “We have been pushing forward our ideas, pushing forward our plans. It is unfortunate that the Democrat-led House is not wanting to make this a bipartisan goal of doing healthcare right,” she said.

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) disputed President Obama’s claim that 47 million Americans lack healthcare. “There are no Americans who don’t have healthcare. Everybody in this country has access to healthcare,” she said. “We do have about 7.5 million Americans who want to purchase health insurance who can not afford it,” she said, urging Congress to adopt a new plan for health care reform that won’t “destroy what is good about healthcare in this country” and “give the government control of our lives.”

Boehner Accuses White House Of Lying About Stimulus

By Celia Canon- Talk Radio News Service

During a press conference Wednesday, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio.) said President Obama and Vice President Biden have been telling lies about why the Stimulus package hasn't reversed the nation's spiraling unemployment rate.

“I found it interesting in the last couple of days, the Vice President and the President mentioned the fact they didn't realize how difficult an economic circumstance we were in. Now this is the biggest fabrication I’ve seen since I’ve been in Congress. I’ve sat through those meetings at the White House with the President, the Vice President, trust me there’s not one person that sat in those rooms that didn't know how serious our economic crisis was,” Boehner said.

Reps. John Boehner (R-Ohio.), Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and Cathy McMorris-Rodgers (R-Wa) cautioned that the recent legislation put forth by the Democrats will do nothing but increase taxes which, in the long term, will hinder consumer spending.

“Republicans know and the American people know that what we need is fiscal discipline in Washington D.C and we need to give the American people a tax relief, working families, small businesses and family
farms need more of their hard earned money to put this economy back on its feet,” said Pence.

As for health care, McMorris-Rodgers explained that “We cannot forget that doctors are the experts, we must guard that relationship between the doctor and his patient; it is one of the most valued relationships
that we have,” adding that “We can reform health care, and we can give options to the uninsured without the federal government setting up shop as a big health insurance company or the health care gate keeper.”

Declaration Of War On The Mid-West

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News

Republican Representatives emerged from a GOP conference with continuing criticism of the Democratic budget.

This Sunday will be National Debt Day, the day on which federal spending surpasses revenue, and it occurs three and a half months earlier this year than last, said John Boehner (R-Ohio). “I attended a taxpayer tea party in Bakersfield, California; people are angry and they’re scared,” he said, “because the kind of spending and borrowing that are going on here are imprisoning their children’s future.”

Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said, “As we come to the end of the first hundred days of this administration, the era of bipartisanship we’d hoped for could be improved. We do want to work together. Washington should be more thoughtful.”

Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) said that constituents are concerned about debt and the future of America and “The fact that we are facing $9 trillion worth of debt, and that’s going to be on the shoulders of our children and our grand-children.” She said that the Democratic budget lacks transparency and oversight. Constituents, she said, have to tighten their belts, while the federal government is “spending like crazy.”

Mary Fallin (R-Okla.) said the oil and gas producers in her fossil-fuel-rich state are very concerned about Obama’s policy of discouraging carbon-emitting energy. She said that jobs and production are already declining in anticipation of policy changes.
Fallin estimated the Cap-and-Trade taxes would hit $30 billion, working out to about $3,000 per year in increased energy costs for an average household, would fall most heavily on the poor and elderly and would cost seven million jobs.

Mike Pence (R-Ind.) said that hearings on Cap-and-Trade begin this week. He said the Democrats are not providing sufficient information about the costs, though Obama has acknowledged in the past that electricity prices would rise. “The reality is the Cap-and-Trade legislation offered by the Democrats amounts to an economic declaration of war on the Mid-West by liberals on Capitol Hill,” he said.

Pence said the $3,000 per household figure came from an M.I.T. study that estimated the total carbon fees and divided them by the total number of households in America. He acknowledged that the administration had promised ways of mitigating the economic impact for those hardest hit, but said that such promises are vague and “illusory.”

Boehner agreed that we must “get serious” about reducing carbon emissions and reducing the need to import oil, but he urged increased nuclear power as the only realistic way to do that.