Priorities Named For The Health And Human Services Budget

By Mariko Lamb, Talk Radio News Service

On Tuesday, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Department Health and Human Services spoke to the Senate Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Eduacation, and Related Agencies about issues concerning her department’s FY 2010 Budget.

According to Sebelius, the Health and Human Services Budget priorities include: health reform, improving oversight over Medicare and Medicaid fraud, improving the quality of healthcare, combating healthcare disparities among U.S. populations, providing funds for the Health Resources and Services Administration and preparing for future outbreaks and pandemics.

Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) expressed his concern about PAYGO, a pay-as-you-go program, applying to the Healthcare Reform Bill. According to Alexander, a full analysis of the costs and details of PAYGO must be evaluated before supporting the proposition.

Sebelius and Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) agreed to re-evaluate additional concerns of the committee such as the the effective management of overlapping Health and Human Services and Department of Agriculture responsibilities, the use of a previously-tested Senior Care Program, and a strategy to ensure healthcare in rural communities.

GOP Wants U.S. to Be a Leader in the “Nuclear Renaissance”

Members of the Senate Republican Conference have adopted the challenge of creating 100 new nuclear plants in the United States in the next 20 years. The main objective of the proposal is to produce more American energy while using less.

“If climate change is the inconvenient problem of the day, then nuclear power is the inconvenient answer,” said U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Senate Republican Conference Chairman.

Alexander said it is “hard to imagine” why the most urgent solution would not be how to produce more nuclear energy in the next 20 years. He said without nuclear power, the U.S. would not have a chance of a clean air economy.

David Blee, executive director of the U.S. Transport Council, discussed the building process of the 100 new nuclear plants. There is currently only one nuclear energy plant under construction in the United States, TVA’s Watts Bar unit 2.

Blee said that nuclear energy is the “most potent clean energy baseload power option, the most powerful stimulator of jobs per megawatt and enjoys record performance reliability, safety, economics and strong public support.”

However, nuclear energy was removed from the stimulus package and there is not a nuclear title in the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s recently passed clean energy bill.

“To me this is almost a P.R. situation. I don’t think Americans are aware of the potential associated with nuclear power.” said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Republicans Propose Putting GM Into The Hands Of Public

By Annie Berman -- Talk Radio News Service

Republican Senators Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Jon Kyl (Ariz.), and Robert Bennett (Utah) held a press conference today to introduce the “Auto Stock for Every Taxpayer Act”. The legislation will require the Treasury Department to distribute stock in the newly restructured companies to individual taxpayers within one year of the GM bankruptcy proceedings.

“This is the best way to get the auto companies out of the hands of Washington bureaucrats and politicians, and into the hands of the American people and the marketplace where it belongs,” Alexander said in his opening statements.

Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah) added two amendments to Alexander’s bill. The first amendment will give the Secretary of the Treasury the same fiduciary responsibilities that any director of a company would have. The second, being that no additional money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) would be distributed to bankrupt companies.

TARP is a program that was enacted in 2008, originally, to address the credit crisis. Recently, funds from this program have been used to help banks like Bank of America.

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said, “I am proud to be a co-sponsor of the Alexander-Bennett amendment because they joined two excellent ideas together in something that I think is critical.”

Alhough Kyl didn’t add any additional terms to the bill, he spoke for the American people, saying, “They are fed up with the government taking over those businesses and running those businesses.”

Kyl explained that if the government were to hold the 60% of stock that it needs to own the company, it would result in a loss. He claimed that there would be an opposite result if the taxpaying public were to own the stock instead.

When asked about tomorrow’s announcement of the Unemployment Rate, Sen. Bennett said, “I can’t forecast what we are going to see tomorrow... One of the things we have learned, is that artificial attempts to maintain employment that go against market forces prolong recessions and sometimes turn them into depressions.”

GOP: Let the Patients Choose their Health Care Plan

By Courtney Ann Jackson-Talk Radio News Service

More Americans should have the opportunity for affordable health care and the choice of doctors according to GOP Leaders from the House and Senate who introduced new legislation Wednesday. The Patients’ Choice Act of 2009 would allow for universal health care managed outside of government entities.

U.S. Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) said, “We propose to equalize the taxed treatment of health care, giving every American regardless of employment status the ability to purchase health insurance. And if you like what you’ve got, you can keep it.”

Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) was present at the press conference to show his support of the legislation and explained that the legislation lets “the patient makes the decision, not Washington D.C.”

The Patients’ Choice Act as laid out in a summary statement released at the press conference, would transform health care by: preventing disease and promoting healthier lifestyles, creating affordable and accessible health insurance options, and equalizing the tax treatment of health care.

The proposed plan will “empower the American people” to have access to their own doctor and their own health care coverage, according to U.S. Representative Devin Nunes (R-CA).

Senator Richard Burr also explained they are hopeful that the Act will “push Congress to enact a more sensible health care reform bill this year.”

The GOP leaders said the American’s need a health care system centered on their individual needs and that is what the Patients’ Choice Act of 2009 could do.

Republicans Challenge Obama Budget

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News


Speaking on behalf of both House and Senate Republicans, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) presented a joint Republican rebuttal to the president’s budget. Calling it, as Pence said, ”In a very real sense, a blueprint for the future,” they didn’t like it.
Spence said that Republicans would “collaborate…to both challenge the assumptions and the content of the president’s budget, as well as offer positive, substantive alternatives for responsible growth.” He said the budget spends “unprecedented amounts in new ways.”
“According to independent estimates, the government may have to hire 250,000 new federal bureaucrats just to pass out all the money,” he said, and, “This is the largest tax increase in history.” Adding that it would mainly affect small business owners filing as individuals.
Pence went on to say that the new energy tax would cost every American up to $3,125 per year.
He also said that this would be the highest level of borrowing ever.
Alexander stated that, “The question before the American people is whether the American family can afford the Democrats’ spending, the Democrats’ taxing, and the Democrats’ borrowing. And we’ve got four weeks to make that case, starting with this week.”
“This budget doubles the debt in five years, and it triples it in ten years,” he said, adding, “and there’s talk of a second stimulus package.”
Both men agreed that across-the-board tax cuts would be preferable to spending for stimulus.