“The most fiscally irresponsible budget in American history"?

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va,), Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), and Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) presented the broad outline of the Republican budget counter-proposal, stating that details would be forthcoming next week.
Boehner said the President’s proposal “spends, taxes, and borrows too much,” adding “I think it’s completely irresponsible. Our plan curbs spending, creates jobs, and cuts taxes, while controlling the debt.”

Pence called it “the most fiscally irresponsible budget in American history,” saying it calls for “more spending, more government, more bailouts.”

He said the “national energy tax” (Cap-and-Trade) would cost every American household more than $3,000 per year. The increase on marginal tax rates would fall most heavily on small business owners, he said. “We believe it is our obligation to offer a better solution if we are in disagreement,” he finished.

Cantor said the Republicans had presented an alternative stimulus plan and housing plan and were preparing an alternative energy plan as well. He accused the President of turning from a centrist campaign to “ambushing” and “strong-arming” Congress toward a “more ideological” agenda.

Ryan promised the details of the plan next Wednesday on the House floor, calling the president’s version “reckless and irresponsible. It’s a budget that doubles the national debt in 5 and 1/2 years, and triples it in ten and 1/2 years. It’s a budget that increases our national debt and our borrowing more than in all prior presidencies.”


The pamphlet accompanying the announcement was 18 pages long and contained no specifics, but outlined broad policies, such as promoting nuclear power, encouraging enrollment in private insurance plans, reducing spending, reducing taxes, liberalizing exploration for oil in areas currently protected for environmental reasons, and ending “bailouts.”

"Spending money I haven't made yet for things I don't want."

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News

Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said, “The president is proposing to increase our national debt more than all prior 43 presidents combined,” adding $2.3 trillion more “to the national debt in higher deficits” than his own budget office stated.

Ryan said the budget increases taxes and spending. “But what’s so galling about this – we read today the Chinese are talking about a new currency, the Russians are talking about a new currency. We are debasing the value of the American dollar by borrowing way beyond our means,” he said.

“We are consigning our next generation to an inferior standard of living,” Ryan said.

He estimates the national debt will double in six years and triple in ten.

Dan Mitchell, senior fellow at the CATO Institute, a libertarian think tank, said, “That’s just the tip of the iceberg, because … we have trillions and trillions of unfunded liability for entitlement programs, … tens of trillions of dollars of unfunded liabilities in the future. We are in effect on a path to become the next Argentina.”

That other countries would consider a reserve currency other than the dollar is, he says, “a referendum that we are on the wrong track.”

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Chairman of the Fiscal Responsibility Task Force of the Republican Study Committee, said that one of the elements of greatness is the willingness of one generation to sacrifice for the next. The next generation, he said, will never be able to repay this debt.

He quoted Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) as saying this budget would bankrupt the country.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said “One of my constituents said it best, ‘I am tired of Congress spending money I haven’t made yet for things I don’t want.’ When you look at the push for nationalizing healthcare, when you look at the cap-and-tax scheme (Cap-and-Trade), this is what people are afraid is going to pile on more and more debt.”

“I look at this as being economic abuse of (her grandchildren’s) future,” she said.

Rep. Gregg Harper (R-Miss.) said, ”When you find out you’ve dug yourself a hole, you should quit digging, but we’ve brought in heavy machinery, and we’re making the hole so deep that we’re not going to be able to get out of it.”

“We tell our children we can’t afford to get everything,” he said, and now the children, the public, are telling the parents, the legislators, “We don’t really have to have that.”

Three Keys to Recovery

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News

“The annual budget process is really the truest test of priorities that the President and Congress engage in,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), as she, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.), and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) met to define what those priorities are for the Senate Democrats. “We want to put the middle class first by cutting taxes and making key investments to bring this country out of this recession,” she said. The three then defined what those key investments are.

Murray spoke for education, “To revive the American economy and compete in this global economy, we have to expand educational opportunities for all Americans. Investing in education is one of the most certain ways to prepare a skilled and ready workforce.”


She introduced Jaim Foster, a second grade teacher from Alexandria, Va., who described teachers facing cutbacks and uncertain employment, as well as increased responsibilities as school nurses also were cut.

Sanders said, “For decades, politicians have been giving speeches about the need for energy independence.” We send hundreds of billions of dollars a year” out of the U.S., often to more or less unfriendly countries. “Finally the American people have said ‘enough is enough, we have got to do something real,’” he said. “The time is now to break our dependence on fossil fuel, and that is what we are going to do.”

He said the expert consensus is that we must address climate change, and that we are already seeing its effects. The budget will create “millions of good paying American jobs as we move to new kinds of energy,” he said, citing geothermal, wind, solar, and biomass.

He introduced James Walker, President, American Wind Energy Association, who said the industry went from $700 million in 2004 to $17 Billion in 2008, creating over 85,000 jobs. When it reaches its projected potential of 20 percent of our total energy needs, it will be the equivalent of removing 140 million cars, and will have created over 500,000 jobs, he said.

Merkley took healthcare. “I think everyone understands how broken healthcare is,” he said, citing 50 million uninsured, many more who are under-insured, and families whose top concern is "whether or not
they can maintain health insurance". “The stress is continuous,” he said.

Merkley said that “every single year, double digit increases” in premiums cause more small businesses to stop offering health insurance. He said even larger businesses are now advocating for change.


Sanders finished with, “Ask Sen. (Judd Gregg (R-N.H.)) if he still supports the repeal of the estate tax, which would give one trillion dollars to the wealthiest three tenths of one percent. That’s OK, but when you fund energy, when you fund healthcare, when you fund education, when you put Americans to work to improve the quality of life for our families, somehow that’s a terrible idea.”

What Young Women Don’t Know Can Hurt Them

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) announced the EARLY Act, designed to educate younger women regarding the risks of breast cancer and the value of regular self-examination.

Wasserman Schultz spoke frankly, and at times emotionally, of her very recent fight with the disease. She learned through screening that she carried a significant risk factor. "I would never have known that. I thought I thought I knew all my risks," she said.

She also learned that 10,000 women under 50 are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, that they tend to have more advanced disease, and that the tumors tend to be more aggressive. The net effect is higher mortality in younger women, who are often still raising a family, Wasserman Schultz said.

The bill, named for "Education and Awareness Requires Learning Young Act" promotes public awareness, preventive research, and support for those with the diagnosis, as well as health care provider awareness of the realities of breast cancer in younger women.

21st Century House Calls

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News


In a statement echoed by several subsequent speakers at the “The Wireless Future of Health IT” panel discussion, Craig Barrett, Ph.D, Chairman, Intel Corp., said, “Most of the focus on Health Information Technology (HIT) has been on the Electronic Medical Record (EMR), but it can be much more than that.”

The President’s budget includes $36 Billion over ten years, “but how will it be spent?” Barrett asked.

He said that HIT can expand access to medical care, allow for more home monitoring, and allow greater computing power.

Access can be expanded by “e-visits,” which allow the physician and patient to visit over the web. It can allow a local physician to consult with a regional expert, or an expert on some exotic disease, or permit consultation with a specialist who cannot immediately come in person.

Home monitoring can allow medicine to be more pro-active, and thus prevent much more expensive hospitalizations. Devices like blood pressure cuffs, glucose meters, and blood oxygen monitors, among many others, can communicate with medical computers, generating automated patient advice, a provider call-back, or other responses. The equipment needed to make this available would typically cost less than a single hospital admission.

Computing power is increased in a number of ways. As HIT becomes more integrated databases can be shared. Off-site computing could, for example, allow a more powerful remote computer to process cat scan images, or a more specialized program to help analyze an EKG.

Hit can coordinate ambulances with road closures, emergency department diverts, and other resource changes.

These were among many examples Barrett and other experts used to show that the point of HIT is not a bigger, better, faster form of a paper medical record, but a whole new approach to medicine.

“However,” Barrett said, “These things all require policy changes.” Right now, Medicare and Medicaid tend not to cover any of the computer adjuncts, or wellness care in general. Patients would like to remain at home as much as possible. “Over 90 percent of diabetic care is already self-care,” he said.

Truly integrated electronic healthcare, from the ubiquitous cell-phone to international expertise, to automated prompts and triggered responses, to coaching for best self-care and adherence to complex regimens, could keep more patients better cared for in the comfort of their own homes, he finished.