‘Top Line’ — Is Sticker Shock Snagging Health Care Reform?
EmailABC News’ Rick Klein reports: Democrats’ bid to remake the nation’s health care system is hitting major snags in the Senate, where the first day of mark-ups in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee has Republicans accusing Democrats of supporting runaway government spending.
At the same time, the Senate Finance Committee is delaying consideration of its own health care bill until after the Fourth of July congressional recess, amid growing concerns among members of both parties about the plan’s cost.
On ABCNews.com’s “Top Line” today, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., a senior member of the HELP committee, said that while it’s impossible to know the full impact of a bill that’s only partially written, he’s estimating that Sen. Ted Kennedy’s bill would cost between $2 trillion and $4 trillion over 10 years.
“See, we don’t even have the whole bill,” Alexander told us. “We don’t have the part about the employer mandate. We don’t have the part about expansion of Medicaid — that’s several hundred billion dollars. We don’t have the part about a government insurance program. And if you take the Congressional Budget Office letter that they sent to us, and you go out three or four years until the part that we do have is actually in place, it’s more like a $2 trillion addition to the debt. So, the Kennedy bill is probably $2-to-$4 trillion on top of the debt we already have, which is absolutely impossible for us to do as a country.”
The Congressional Budget Office this week estimated that Kennedy’s bill would cost $ 1 trillion over 10 years. That estimate prompted the White House to point out that President Obama is not endorsing any specific measure.
On “Top Line,” Alexander ruled out support for a public option, which he said “would lead us to a Washington takeover of healthcare.”
He also dismissed a proposal from former Senate majority leaders Bob Dole, Tom Daschle, and Howard Baker, that would include a new fee on larger businesses that don’t offer health coverage to their employees, in an effort to pay for health reform.
“I don’t like the idea of a tax on businesses,” Alexander said. “I mean, Tennessee’s a big auto state. We have a lot of auto suppliers. They do in Michigan and the Midwest as well, and every one of them is trying to think about, ‘How can I keep my costs down to keep my jobs from moving to Mexico?’ So if we put a big cost on the top of employers, we’re going to lose jobs in this country. We already saw what happened to the auto industry in the Midwest.”
Watch our full interview with Sen. Alexander, where we also get his take on Judge Sonia Sotoyayor and the scandal involving Sen. John Ensign, HERE.
Also today, we talked with liberal blogger Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake.com about her efforts — working alongside prominent conservative bloggers — to block additional funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Could President Obama’s plan to remake financial regulations offer another opportunity for this kind of unlikely teamwork?
Watch the interview with Jane Hamsher HERE.
Mitt Romney's Full Speech at CPAC 2012 
Romney Makes His Case to Conservatives at CPAC
Some lies are nearly bottomless pits of truthtwisting and prevaricatioin, and the Republicans are currently digging several of these pits with no end in sight. Hysteria and hyperbole have gripped the GOP, suddenly worried about government spending after nearly a decade of ignoring the profligate excesses of the Bush Administration.
With passage of Obama’s stimulus package, Republicans are newly concerned with the burden of debts on future generations. Breathless proclamations of “fiscal child abuse” and hand-wringing about “robbing our children’s piggy bank” are filling the conservative airways. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Al) said, “Every penny of the plan will be borrowed, and every penny will have to be repaid, with interest, by future generations.” Did this obvious concern arise when funding the Iraq war or the Wall Street bailout? Richard Shelby, the other senator from Alabama, was suddenly curious about the source of funds, saying, “I don’t know where the money comes from…” Did he ever ask that question of Bush?
NOW THAT OBAMA IS PRESIDENT, Republicans conclude that debts actually have to be repaid. Wow. Reading from some common script of talking points, Republican congressmen are going before any available TV camera to conclude that “the fiscal stimulus has to be paid for eventually in the form of higher taxes, which will have a negative economic effect in the future.”
WHERE HAVE THESE PEOPLE BEEN FOR THE LAST EIGHT YEARS? Let us remember that Bush created a bigger burden on future generations than any president before him. The Republicans under Bush borrowed more from our children and grandchildren than all previous Democratic presidents combined.
Where was Jeff Sessions when our government was borrowing from our children to pay Halliburton? Where was Kit Bond? Where was John Boehner? Where was Patrick McHenry? Where was Richard Shelby? Did these people, now so worried about Obama’s spending, sleep through Bush’s massive borrowing? Have they already forgotten that THEY ALL APPROVED THE BORROWING WHEN A REPUBLICAN WAS DOING THE SPENDING?
Won’t every penny borrowed to prosecute and pay for the nearly $2 trillion war in Iraq have to also be repaid by future generations? Will not that $2 trillion have a negative economic effect in the future? Won’t every penny of Bush’s $700 billion give-away to Wall Street have to be repaid by future generations? Won’t every penny of the record deficits and debts created by Bush and his Republican Congress have to be repaid with interest by future generations?
What is now clear is that Republicans value U.S. currency differently according to and depending on who is spending the money. Every dollar SPENT BY A DEMOCRAT IS A BURDEN ON FUTURE GENERATIONS, and an example of wasteful government, a slide toward socialism, a horrendous debt to be repaid by our children.
In contrast,EVERY DOLLAR SPENT BY A REPUBLICAN IS AN ACT OF PATRIOTISM, A FIGHT AGAINST TERROR, AND A DEBT THAT MIRACULOUSLY
WON’T HAVE TO BE REPAID BY FUTURE GENERATIONS. Only Democratic debt is an outrageous burden that will destroy our future and must be repaid. That absurd CONCLUSION IS THE ONLY ONE POSSIBLE IF WE LISTEN TO REPUBLICANS CONSUMED WITH FEAR about Obama government spending, when THEY OFFERED NO SUCH OPPOSITION AND EXPRESSED NO SUCH FEAR UNDER BUSH. According to Republican thought, U.S. currency is no longer simply the Greenback; we now have to divide spending between the Blueback and the Redback, imbued with different powers to either corrupt or defend our country, respectively.
Reflecting the state of our economy, the GOP is now officially intellectually and morally bankrupt, creating a platform built on hypocrisy so blatant that only they can be blind to the inherent contradictions of their opposition to anything Democratic. Republicans have devolved into nothing more than shrill nay saying opponents who neglect to account for their long record of fiscal irresponsibility and massive borrowing. As the party of borrow and spend. Republicans have zero credibility in offering solutions to the problems they created. The GOP has no credibility in opposing health care spending and/or a stimulus package that effectively repudiates and tries to REPAIR their failures of the past eight years.
Posted by: JL | June 17, 2009, 3:29 pm 3:29 pm
Real health care reform designed to care for citizens, instead of extorting our money to enrich well connected companies, is simple and straight forward to achieve.
Hundreds of billions of dollars of annual savings could be realized for Americans and an incredible stimulus would be pumped into our economy now and forever with this fix.
1. Set up a civilian, VA style, public health care system for delivering all government funded health care and medications through government owned and operated hospitals, free to everyone choosing to use it, no restrictions period.
2. Pay for it with a national sales tax.
3. Private insurers and care providers could compete for everyone preferring to purchase private care through existing systems without government intervention.
4. Businesses that choose public care for their employees will have no financial obligations or any other responsibilities concerning health care.
5. Dispensing health care efficiently, and collecting the money to pay for it cheaply, that’s the purpose of the exercise, and no one can compete with the government at these two tasks.
6. Ask OMB; how much is saved? What will this do for individuals and businesses?
Posted by: Bill Watson | June 17, 2009, 4:49 pm 4:49 pm
Look at S. Korea’s system. It’s brilliant. Give us a public plan, and we can buy private policies to fill the gaps. Everybody wins!
Posted by: jq | June 17, 2009, 6:45 pm 6:45 pm
ABC and the rest of the main stream media are a propaganda tool for President Obama and the Democrats. The free press has died in America. Obama is a socialist. He has taken powers not granted to him in the Constitution. Hail King Obama
Posted by: Jill Brian | June 17, 2009, 11:32 pm 11:32 pm
“Some lies are nearly bottomless pits of truthtwisting and prevaricatioin, and the Republicans are currently digging several of these pits with no end in sight. Hysteria and hyperbole have gripped the GOP, suddenly worried about government spending after nearly a decade of ignoring the profligate excesses of the Bush Administration.”
Cute, ….stupid and wrong, but cute!
I dont recall anyone being thrilled over the kinds of spending that Bush ended up doing, BUT that is now the excuse, yes EXCUSE used by the liberals to defend doing what Bush did and bringing it to an unheard of level of spending in less than 6 months!
Then after all that, to sit back and demand the healthcare bill before the August break! Now that the CBO has basically trashed the so-called “Kennedy” bill, I for one am hoping that this administration will slow down enough to have a true, transparent & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC debate about the pros & cons of whatever plan eventually makes it to the congressional floor.
Let try to NOT have a repeat of the great “Stimulator” bill. No one having to go in front of the microphones to say “We dont know how the final language got changed!” Whatever reforms or new system comes up for a vote, this one is too critical for it to be executed like the “Stimulator”. The American people will be the ones stuck with whatever comes out of all this. WE deserve to know exactly what it is and what the real ramifications are before the vote!
Posted by: Mike_C | June 18, 2009, 8:21 am 8:21 am
Why will ABC not allow a voice from the other side on the healthcare debate. Not even adds :-(
This is very disappointing
Posted by: Ron A | June 18, 2009, 9:03 am 9:03 am
Where is the money coming from to set up the great public health care system???? OH yeah, TAXES. I think it’s crazy the way we continue to be taxed. Once again its democrats saying lets tax the achievers and give it to the lazy.
Posted by: Matt | July 22, 2009, 8:11 pm 8:11 pm