Jack Kingston

Health care reform should address the rising costs of health care, preserve the fundamental tenet that medical decisions be made between doctors and their patients and help American families and small businesses gain access to affordable, high-quality health care.  H.R. 3962 will achieve none of these objectives.  Instead, this legislation is a brazen $1.3 trillion government takeover of health care that will raise premiums, ration care, suffocate economic growth and cost jobs, make damaging cuts to Medicare and pave the way for federally funded abortions.  House Republicans strongly oppose the bill for these reasons, and have offered a better, common-sense plan to improve our health care system in a way our nation can afford.

In a series of analyses, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has shown that the true intent of H.R. 3962 is a government takeover of our health care system, which comprises one-sixth of our nation’s economy.  Rather than reduce health care costs for families, small businesses, large employers and federal and state governments, the legislation actually increases premiums for millions of families by $5,000 per year compared to the Republican plan and increases federal and state spending on health care by more than $600 billion.  The enormous amount of additional spending is necessary to finance layers upon layers of bureaucracy and new healthcare entitlements, spending that will increase the nation’s already exploding deficit and bury our children and grandchildren further under a mountain of debt.

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Yesterday, the Department of Labor reported that unemployment reached a staggering 10.2 percent for the month of October, the highest level in 26 years.  While Americans suffer, Democrats are spending their time trying to force Pelosi’s health care takeover through Congress.  The shocking 10.2 percent unemployment only tells part of the story of the struggles of average Americans that Democrats ignore.  A deeper look at the numbers reveals the true cost of the Democrats’ economic policies, especially for the nation’s most vulnerable people.

15,700,000:  Americans unemployed and looking for work—the highest number ever.  Since the trillion dollar Democrat “stimulus” was passed, the number of unemployed Americans has increased by nearly three million.

190,000:  Individuals whose jobs were eliminated in October.

1,737,000:  People unemployed in October because they have been laid off.

2,804,000:  Jobs lost since Democrats’ “stimulus” was passed in February.

9,284,000: People who are working only part-time because they cannot find full time employment.

2,373,000:  People who want work, but who are not currently looking because of the state of the economy. 

5,594,000:  People unemployed and searching for work for more than 27 weeks—the highest level ever.

1,090,000:  Job seekers that are new entrants to the workforce and have yet to find a job.

26.9:  Average number of weeks job seekers are unemployed after losing their jobs—the highest number since the statistic was first recorded in 1948.

27.6%:  Unemployment rate among job seekers between the ages of 16 and 19—the highest level since the statistic was first measured in 1948.

15.7%:  Unemployment rate among African Americans—the highest level since 1985.

13.1%:  Unemployment rate among Hispanics and Latinos.

17.5%:  Rate of underemployment, accounting for the unemployed and those who are unable to find adequate work.

15.5%:  Unemployment rate among job seekers without a high school degree.

65.1%:  Rate of the U.S. population in the workforce.

Courtesy House Republican Conference

Congressman calls on Administration to repeal failed ‘stimulus’

In response to new unemployment figures showing that more than one in ten Americans are out of work, Congressman Jack Kingston (R-GA) called on the Administration to change economic course and abandon it’s failed stimulus program.

“If government spending were the answer, we’d be doing great by now,” Congressman Kingston said.  “It’s not, though, and it’s time to admit that fact.  It’s time for change we believe in.  If we want to truly jumpstart the economy, we’ve got to restore confidence and empower the real economic engine of America – small business and entrepreneurs – with the tools they need.”

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What do you get from a 1,990 page monstrosity crafted by Speaker Pelosi to nationalize medicine?  Jack answers that question on the House floor: premium increases, tax increases, and Medicare cuts to pay for a $1 trillion bill to insert a bureaucrat between you and your doctor. 

After President Obama and Speaker Pelosi got their $787 billion “stimulus,” what happened? Unemployment went up.  Why follow that model for health care?  Republicans have offered a targeted alternative.  To learn more visit http://kingston.house.gov/healthcare

As the health care debate continues in Washington, the Republican Whip’s office released the following videos featuring one of the House’s strongest features: House Republican Women. 

A Discussion on Health Care Reform: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc3nF8XIFlo

Medical Care and the National Debt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IWpnZIKj5s

The Doctor-Patient Relationship: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z87IyxeXlcQ

House Republican Leader John Boehner has introduced a commonsense alternative to the Pelosi Plan for nationalized medicine.  To read a summary, click here.

To read the full text, click below:

The House Republican Conference released a series of updated one-pagers outlining how Speaker Pelosi’s health care bill is bad for whole cross-sections of the American population.  Links to the specific documents are below:

• Bad for Businesses
• Bad for Low-Income Households
  
• Bad for Patients and Doctors
• Bad for Rural America
  
• Bad for Seniors
• Bad for States
• Bad for Women and Families
  
• Bad for Young Americans

1. Retiree Reserve Trust Fund (Section 111(d), p. 61)

2. Grant program for wellness programs to small employers (Section 112, p. 62)

3. Grant program for State health access programs (Section 114, p. 72)

4. Program of administrative simplification (Section 115, p. 76)

5. Health Benefits Advisory Committee (Section 223, p. 111)

6. Health Choices Administration (Section 241, p. 131)

7. Qualified Health Benefits Plan Ombudsman (Section 244, p. 138)

8. Health Insurance Exchange (Section 201, p. 155)

9. Program for technical assistance to employees of small businesses buying Exchange coverage (Section 305(h), p. 191)

10. Mechanism for insurance risk pooling to be established by Health Choices Commissioner (Section 306(b), p. 194)

11. Health Insurance Exchange Trust Fund (Section 307, p. 195)

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The Republican Conference has compiled a list of important numbers relevant to Speaker Pelosi’s 1,990-page health care bill:

5.5 million—Number of jobs that could be lost as a result of taxes on businesses that cannot afford to provide health insurance coverage, according to a model developed by Council of Economic Advisors Chair Christina Romer

$729.5 billion—Total new taxes on small businesses, individuals who cannot afford health coverage, and employers who cannot afford to provide coverage that meet federal bureaucrats’ standards

$1.055 trillion—New federal spending on expanded health insurance coverage over the next ten years, according to a Congressional Budget Office preliminary score of the bill

.7%—Percentage of all that new spending occurring in the bill’s first three years—representing a debt and tax “time bomb” in the program’s later years set to explode on future generations

$88,200—Definition of “low-income” family of four for purposes of health insurance subsidies

114 million—Number of individuals who could lose their current coverage under the bill’s government-run health plan, according to non-partisan actuaries at the Lewin Group

43—Entitlement programs the bill creates, expands, or extends—an increase from H.R. 3200

111—Additional offices, bureaus, commissions, programs, and bureaucracies the bill creates over and above the entitlement expansions—more than double the number in H.R. 3200

3,425—Uses of the word “shall,” representing new duties for bureaucrats and mandates on individuals, businesses, and States—also more than double the number in H.R. 3200

$10 billion—Minimum loss sustained by taxpayers every year due to Medicare fraud; the government-run health plan does not reform the ineffective anti-fraud statutes and procedures that have kept Medicare on the Government Accountability Office’s list of high-risk programs for two decades

Zero—Prohibitions on government programs like Medicare and Medicaid from using cost-effectiveness research to impose delays to or denials for access to life-saving treatments

$634 Billion—Amount that could be saved by denying individuals access to treatments that are not “cost-effective,” according to a report by the liberal Commonwealth Fund; Section 1160 of the bill gives bureaucrats in the Obama Administration virtual free rein to develop a new “high-value” reimbursement system for Medicare by May 2012

2017—Year Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will be exhausted—an entitlement crisis exacerbated by the bill, which according to the Congressional Budget Office will increase the federal budgetary commitment to health care by $598 billion in its first ten years alone

$2,500—Promised savings for each American family from health reform, according to then-Senator Obama’s campaign pledge—savings which the Administration’s own actuaries have confirmed will not materialize, as the Pelosi health care bill would increase the growth of health care costs

On October 29, 2009, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and congressional Democrats released their latest version of a government takeover of America’s health care system.  These are the cold hard facts that conservatives need to know about this proposal.

• The Democrats’ Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962) is the antithesis of patient-centered reform that empowers Americans to truly own and control their health coverage and provides more choices, more competition, more innovation, higher quality and lower costs.
• In deciphering the ins and outs of the new health care system, Americans will have to get familiar with a host of new czars and bureaucrats, including the Health Benefits Advisory Committee (Sec. 223), the Health Choices Administration and the Health Choices Commissioner (Sec. 241).
• Americans can say goodbye to personal, private insurance as individual health insurance coverage is grandfathered out of existence (Sec. 202) and more limitations are added to health savings accounts (Sec. 531 & Sec. 533).
• Fears of government-run health care are alive and well with experts saying the government health insurance plan (Sec. 321) will force tens of millions out of their existing coverage.
• The U.S. Constitution and the principle of limited government are tested as never before by forcing Americans to purchase “acceptable” health care coverage or face a tax of 2.5% of modified adjusted gross income (Sec. 501).
• Trial lawyers get off scot-free as Democrats pay lip service to real medical malpractice reform, opting to hand over money for lawyer-friendly “alternatives” (Sec. 2531) instead of limiting attorneys’ fees or capping damages.
• Washington goes after employers, by mandating they provide health care coverage or pay a tax equal to 8 percent of wages (Sec. 512), and S Corp filers, by instituting a 5.4 percent surtax on taxpayers (Sec. 551).
• More low-income individuals (now up to 150% of the federal poverty level) will be pushed onto the rolls of Medicaid (Sec. 1701) leaving already over-stretched State Governments to pick up the tab.
• Future costs will be borne by your children and grandchildren.  A preliminary analysis by the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the true cost of the bill is $1.055 trillion.
• It permits federal funds to be spent on abortion services (Sec. 222).
• Community organizations like ACORN may assist the Health Choices Commissioner in enrolling individuals in the Health Insurance Exchange (Sec. 305).
• Members of Congress are not subject to the same health care system Americans will have to live by under the public health insurance option (Sec. 330).

Courtesy Republican Study Committee

The Republican Conference points out that Speaker Pelosi’s Government Takeover of Health Care: Special Interest Groups Get Treats—While the American People Get Tricked.

Many may find the release of House Democrats’ health “reform” legislation the week of Halloween particularly apt, as the legislation includes several “monstrous” provisions likely to wreak havoc on the American people, their jobs, and their health care:

• Werewolf of Government-Run Insurance
• Count Taxula
• Weird Scientists
• Frankenstein
• A Ghoulish Czar

While Halloween may come and go, many may be concerned that the monsters created in the bill will stay—causing permanent fright for all Americans forced to live under Democrats’ government takeover of health care.

Read about these “monstrous” provisions click here.

In case you missed it, Jack appeared last night on Fox News’ Red Eye to discuss Speaker Pelosi’s inclusion of hate crimes legislation in a bill meant to provide for our troops, a massive program to pay off Taliban, and the possibility of passing Speaker Pelosi’s $1 trillion health care takeover.

As we noted earlier, Speaker Pelosi’s “public” unveiling ceremony on the steps of the Capitol wasn’t quite so public as one would think.

Republican Whip Eric Cantor aptly points out that conventional wisdom would  say that the “public” unveiling of the public option on the steps of public property would involve public access.  Not so in Washington.