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.”

Small business was big business in Geithner hearing

by Christina Lovato, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service


“This is a very good budget, because it’s an honest budget...Now just because this is an honest budget does not mean that this is an easy budget. The budget presents some difficult realities, and it presents some hard choices.” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman, Max Baucus (D-Mont).

Today in the Senate Finance Committee meeting, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner testified and expressed why President Obama’s budget plan will work. "We are absolutely committed to working with you on how to produce a package of reforms that meets the President's broad principles in a way that is fiscally responsible for the country...We wanted to put on the table, to improve the credibility of our commitment to do this, concrete proposals that would achieve that.” Geithner stated. 

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said that in 2007 small business created 74% of new jobs. “I don’t understand why you would charge small business operators more than you would charge corporations...I want to emphasize for the Secretary over half are between 20 and 500 employees. Those larger small businesses are also businesses most likely to expand or contract depending on business conditions.” he stated.

In addition to discussions about small business, taxes, and health care reform, Geithner expressed two critical functions that the government must accomplish to get the economy back on track. “We need to make sure that banks have the resources needed to provide credit to the economy...The basic machinery necessary for credit to work in our country is broken in some respects, the pipes are clogged...So a critical second part of our program is to act directly to get credit flowing again to get those markets to start opening up. The entire small business lending market, the auto finance market, the student loan market, the consumer credit markets depend on that machinery.” Geithner concluded. 

More BlackBerries for U.S. veterans

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is opening its eyes and ears to small businesses and new technology. Frederick Downs, Jr., chief prosthetics and clinical logistics officer in the VA Office of Prosthetics and Clinical Logistics, discussed the new VA developments at a House Small Business Committee hearing.

According to Downs, in 2007, VA provided prosthetic services to more than 1,606,000 veteran patients. 97 percent of prosthetic and orthotic devices for veterans are provided by independent contractors, Downs said. In 2007, together with the VA laboratories, the contract prosthetic labs provided limbs or repairs to 11,023 veterans with amputations at a cost of more than $61,470,000. The VA is not like Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where patients sometimes end up using their own money for co-payments; the VA pays covers all patient costs, Downs said.

To maintain standards, each contractor lab must be certified by the American Board for Certification of Orthotics, Prosthetics, and Pedorthics (ABC), or the Board for Orthotist/Prosthetist Certification (BOC). Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) said that there should be a single set of criteria for these companies to meet, not two different accrediting bodies like the ABC and BOC.

Accordings to Downs, the VA is building a closer relationship with the private sector. It holds an annual conference where small businesses can market their scientific presentations and products. Also, the VA, along with the Department of Defense (DoD), is giving new technology to veterans, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), which allow VA prosthetics staff to assist veterans with repairs even if the veterans have been moved across the country. This is particularly helpful because the DoD and VA records do not transfer electronically, Downs said. Also, the VA’s website now has 300,000 hits.

McCain revs the "job engine"

Presumptive presidential nominee John McCain spoke at the 79th annual League of United Latin American Citizens. He said that over 400,000 jobs have been lost since September and gas has climbed to over $4.00 a gallon almost everywhere in America. He said that small businesses are the “job engine” of America and that there are over 2 million Latino owned small businesses. He said that this year small businesses have already created over 233,000 jobs.

He said, “If you believe you should pay more taxes, I’m the wrong candidate for you” McCain said that if elected he would reduce the estate tax to 15 percent and the business tax rate from 35 to 25 percent. He said that these tax cuts will help companies grow, which will be good for the job market and the country.

McCain said that if he were elected he would build 45 more nuclear power plants, which would create almost 1 million jobs by the year 2030. He said that America must end its dependence on foreign oil, and move towards more self-sustaining types of energy. He said that America has more coal that Saudi Arabia has oil and that if he were elected he would begin a clean coal energy project.

The enterprise strikes back!

Small business owners gathered at the 2008 National Small Business Summit held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. Guest speaker William D. Novelli, Chief Executive Officer of American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) doled out alarming statistics saying that only a fifth of American workers have a defined pension plan and only half of all Americans have money in their retirement fund. Kathleen Casey-Kirschling, the woman who is recognized as the first of 78 million baby boomers, just received her Social Security retirement benefit.

The opening general session broke out into four concurrent sessions, namely ‘Coping with Immigration Crackdowns’, ‘10 Ways a Small Business Owner Can Avoid Legal Trouble’, ‘Planning for Future Tax Increases’ and ‘Elements of eBay Selling Success’.

Among the speakers at the tax legislation session was Mary Baker from the Internal Revenue. She discussed the Tax Extenders Bill which is meant to extend tax relief to businesses. At the moment, there is a debate as to whether the bill should be paid for or not. Forty-one Republican members from the Senate do not support paying for the Extenders Bill.

Beth Milito, Senior Executive Council of Nation Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Small Business Legal Center spoke on how small businesses can avoid legal trouble. She emphasized that far too many small business owners get sued because of ignorance of the law. Employees should be trained on anti-discrimination laws. Milito said small business owners spend 1.7 billion hours on tax compliance.