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.”

No Taxpayer Funding For Abortions, Says Bipartisan Group

By Sam Wechsler - Talk Radio News Service

America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 (H.R. 3200) must not include provisions for taxpayer-funded abortions, a bipartisan group of Congressmen led by Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Penn.) said Wednesday morning.

Right now, it's unclear whether or not such provisions are included in the proposed health care plan. “Failure to explicitly exclude abortions under this health plan will mean that they will be included. That, of course, is a de facto mandate to have them,” said Rep. John Fleming (R-La.).

Rep. Mary Fallin (R-Okla.) said she asked President Obama to clarify his position on whether taxpayer money would be used to provide abortion care, but said she has yet to hear from him. On Wednesday, she called upon him once more at the news conference to come forward and specify his intentions.

Fleming stated that 51 percent of Americans are against abortions, and 69 percent are against taxpayer-funded abortions. Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) complained that the proposed health care plan would do more to facilitate abortion than any government action since the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case, despite the fact that the majority of Americans are against it.

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) said that he expects at least 39 House Democrats to vote against the bill if it does not explicitly exclude abortion from being funded by taxpayer dollars.“We cannot support any health care reform proposal unless it explicitly excludes abortion from the scope of any government defined or subsidized health care plan,” said Stupak.

GOP Congressmen Warn That Health Care Reform Could Provide Public Funding For Abortion

By Celia Canon- Talk Radio News Service

House Republicans gathered on Tuesday to denounce the inclusion of publicly funded abortions in the proposed health care reform.

“If the President is serious about passing true health care reform... [he] needs to step up, clarify his position about whether he wants abortion to be included in his health care reform,” said Rep. Mary Fallin (R-Ok.)

The proposed health care reform legislation requires every American to have the right to benefit from a minimum health care coverage, which may include abortion unless Congress makes abortion a statutory exception.

Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Penn.) warned that “The issue here is clear - abortion is not explicitly excluded, it is implicitly included. The stakes are high and the implications incredibly far reaching.”

GOP leaders claim that allowing abortion to be funded by taxpayers may legitimize the procedure, which in turn could lead to an increase in abortion rates.

Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) noted the disrespect shown to pro-life Americans who, through this legislation, would indirectly fund abortion through taxation.

“Millions and millions of American women have profound moral qualms about the killing of unborn children by abortion, putting these American women in a position that violates their deeply held beliefs on abortion... [The legislation] will trespass their rights to refrain from funding an industry that they find to be destructive to our nation's social and moral fabric,” Foxx said.

"Abortion, except in rare circumstances, is not heath care,” noted Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.)

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.