Wednesday
Jul082009
GOP Senators Say Dems Ignoring Republican Health Care Ideas
Wednesday, July 8, 2009 at 3:55PM
By Courtney Ann Jackson-Talk Radio News Service
Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) said Wednesday that Republicans want the nation's healthcare system revamped this year, and they’re proposing several ideas as to how to achieve this goal. The proposals all address what Alexander called the two biggest problems with the Democrats' plan; Too much debt, and a “Washington take-over.”
“The Republican caucus has a whole handful of lollipops [ideas about healthcare reform] and we keep offering them to the Democrats saying, you know, here’s the red one, here’s the blue one, here’s the green one,” said Alexander. “Why don’t you [the Democrats] take one and let’s go to work on it?”
Alexander noted that there are many alternative bills that have much in common but Democrats must take more Republican proposals into consideration in order to create a bipartisan bill. The Senators mentioned that despite the absence of formal agreements, they are in agreement with the President and the Democrats on many points within the debate. Specifically, the Republicans said they support preventing the loss of healthcare insurance for American people, not allowing for massive amounts of debt to run up and allowing Americans to keep their existing healthcare coverage if they are satisfied with it.
Gregg said he does not think the healthcare bill will be passed in the Senate before the August recess. When asked for his reasoning, he said Finance won’t complete its mark-up in time. He also said the health bill is being rewritten on a weekly basis, but the one consistency is that it is “extremely expensive and it’s not paid for.”
In terms of Medicaid expansion, Alexander said, “the debt is running up in Washington. So to lower that debt a little bit, they’re shifting it onto other people and the new version shifts it on first to employers across the country who are struggling to create new jobs, and second it shifts it in a big way to states through the Medicaid program.”
He highlighted the idea of “dumping low-income people into the Medicaid program” and pointed out that it is going to cost the states “huge amounts of money” in new tax increases.
The Senators said that above all else, Republicans want healthcare plans that average Americans can afford.
Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) said Wednesday that Republicans want the nation's healthcare system revamped this year, and they’re proposing several ideas as to how to achieve this goal. The proposals all address what Alexander called the two biggest problems with the Democrats' plan; Too much debt, and a “Washington take-over.”
“The Republican caucus has a whole handful of lollipops [ideas about healthcare reform] and we keep offering them to the Democrats saying, you know, here’s the red one, here’s the blue one, here’s the green one,” said Alexander. “Why don’t you [the Democrats] take one and let’s go to work on it?”
Alexander noted that there are many alternative bills that have much in common but Democrats must take more Republican proposals into consideration in order to create a bipartisan bill. The Senators mentioned that despite the absence of formal agreements, they are in agreement with the President and the Democrats on many points within the debate. Specifically, the Republicans said they support preventing the loss of healthcare insurance for American people, not allowing for massive amounts of debt to run up and allowing Americans to keep their existing healthcare coverage if they are satisfied with it.
Gregg said he does not think the healthcare bill will be passed in the Senate before the August recess. When asked for his reasoning, he said Finance won’t complete its mark-up in time. He also said the health bill is being rewritten on a weekly basis, but the one consistency is that it is “extremely expensive and it’s not paid for.”
In terms of Medicaid expansion, Alexander said, “the debt is running up in Washington. So to lower that debt a little bit, they’re shifting it onto other people and the new version shifts it on first to employers across the country who are struggling to create new jobs, and second it shifts it in a big way to states through the Medicaid program.”
He highlighted the idea of “dumping low-income people into the Medicaid program” and pointed out that it is going to cost the states “huge amounts of money” in new tax increases.
The Senators said that above all else, Republicans want healthcare plans that average Americans can afford.
GOP Congressmen Warn That Health Care Reform Could Provide Public Funding For Abortion
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.)