Democratic Health Bills Don't Offer Americans Enough Freedom To Choose, Say GOP'ers

By Chingyu Wang - Talk Radio News Service

Members of the GOP Solutions Group blasted the White House's health reform proposal during a conference call with reporters on Thursday.

"The new plan looks a lot like the old plan, and every time when they are talking about the old plan I think Democrats lost this debate," said Group Chairman Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.). "We'd like to see a plan that reduces costs, increases access and doesn't cripple the states."

Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), a physician himself, slammed a provision within both Democratic health bills that would require Americans to purchase health insurance. Price said the question of who should decide what kind of medical care individuals receive is one of the main factors dividing Republicans and Democrats on the issue of healthcare reform.

A proposal by the Republicans would allow Americans "To truly shop across state lines to purchase the insurance that you want for yourself or your family," said Price, adding that the Democrats' bills would allow the "government to dictate [your insurance policy] for you."

"Democrat solutions come down on the side of larger government [and] integrated bureaucracy." he argued.

House Republicans Say New Health Care Proposal Threatens Medicare Recipients

John DuBois, University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

A number of House Republicans argued Wednesday that cutting medicare funding will put both the program and its recipients in danger.

Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said that the belief that the U.S. will be able to cut medicare funding without negative consequences is "the biggest fallacy in this new plan as we move forward."

Blunt said he was also concerned that the cuts would take money away from senior citizens who already have pre-paid into Medicare, a move Blunt says “will damage the system."

“It’s inappropriate to reduce the foundation of medicare in order to pay for a new government health plan,” Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) added.

House GOP'ers Say Gov't Health Care Not The Cure

By Laura Woodhead - Talk Radio News Service

A government run health care plan will increase cancer mortality rates, said a group of GOP congressmen on Tuesday.

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), who survived bladder cancer after being diagnosed at age 19, said that the higher cancer mortality rates in the UK and Canada have shown him that a government run health care system will decrease cancer survival rates.

"We have a unique advantage as cancer survivors, that we can go through the bill and debate the bill knowing the personal consequences of what they are proposing would do to somebody just like us," he said. "We know for a fact that our survivability rates are going down."

Rogers warned Americans who have had cancer or are currently undergoing treatment to be wary of the current health care bill.

"85% of Americans have health insurance of some sort. What they are talking about doing is taking that away from you in order to fix 15% of the problem, and in order to do it we will have to ration health care for individuals," Rogers said. "There is no compassion in that, there is to extra treatment in that."

The congressmen spoke alongside a chart which depicted cancer survival rates in countries with government run health care plans versus the United States. Rep. Todd Atkin (R-Mo.) said that the statistics on prostate cancer speak for themselves.

"Among men between the UK and the US, we are talking about an 18% difference in survival rates. When its your life, 18% means an awful lot to you" Atkin said. "When the government takes over the health care system that's the kind of results you get."

Atkin added that he fully expects cancer patients to oppose the legislation.

Said Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), a survivor of renal and prostate cancer, "If you want a system where your chances of surviving renal cancer are less that even....a government system, all throughout Europe, produces those lower survivor rates for cancer"

Rep. Sue Myrick (R-N.C.) said that better survival rates in the U.S. can be attributed to the speed at which diagnostic tests can be performed within the current system.

"Under a government health care plan like in the UK and Canada, I would not have had the advantage to get [diagnostic tests] done in such quick time. And it might have been too late."

"We need to focus on those good constructive policies that we all know are going to work, and continue to deliver the best health system in the world," Myrick said. "We don't need to create one that will limit people's choices and ability to go see their doctor."

Republicans and tourists: A History Lesson

As the talkathon on the House floor continues, Republicans addressed an unusual crowd compared to their Democratic opponents: Tourists in t-shirts and shorts coming from as far away as Texas.

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) explained the historical parallel between the Republicans and the famous lawmakers portrayed on the walls above the House floor. Lawmakers like Napoleon made the right decisions when the time came, Barton said.

Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said Republicans are sending a letter to House Democrats interested in debating the offshore drilling ban. Democrats need to interrupt House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's book tour and begin debating, said Blunt.

"Our speaker is not showing tolerance," said Barton (R-Tx.). Barton said he has a "real problem" with Pelosi not letting the Democratic bill on offshore drilling come to the floor when other Democrats like Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) are willing to work with Republicans. Drilling on a 3 square mile area of Alaska would give us 11 billion barrels of oil, said Barton.

Barton pointed to the Daniel Webster quote etched on the wall above the House press gallery and read the words "let us develop our resources" out loud. He called for the United States to acknowledge that quote and drill on American soil.

Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) said the energy crisis is only an annoyance for wealthy Americans, but it is a severe problem for the poor. 68 percent of oil drillers are small companies, and they need to continue to drill to survive, Bishop said.

"Madam Speaker, let our people go!"

"Let out people go," entreated Rep Joe Barton (R-Tex.) former chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) Barton was speaking at a press conference on the fifth day of Republican grandstanding in the House of Representative. Barton and Republican Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who returned from his district for the event, called on the Democratic leadership to call the House back into session for debate on the American Energy Act, a bill which the Republicans call their "all of the above" energy solution. Minority leader John Boeher (R-Ohio) has called for this "revolt" to last up until the tart of the Democratic National Convention.

The members which included, Representatives Dean Heller (R-Nev.) and Steve Scalise (R-La.) pointed out statements made by Democratic members of the House calling for a vote on energy legislation, particularly to for votes on expanded drilling measures. Blunt said that the group will be sending letters to every member of the Democratic caucus asking that they return from August recess to debate and vote on energy legislation.

The Republicans will get a vote on off shore drilling sooner or later, as the Congressional ban on offshore drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf expires Sept. 30 of 2008. Blunt said that if the ban where to expire on that date "fuel prices will head back down October 1st." Blunt also said that threats of a government shutdown by opposing a continuing resolution were dependent on whether legislation to renew bans on off shore and oil shale drilling are included.

Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-Texas) called the Democratic leadership the "very best friend OPEC has in the entire world," accusing House Democrats of funding "both sides" of the war on terror by standing in the way of opening up more U.S. territory for oil exploration.