Newsroom:

e-News November 6, 2009

The Week Just Passed
Pelosi Health Care Bill Will Cover Illegal Immigrants
The Pelosi Health Care Bill – by the numbers
They Put What in the Pelosi health care bill?
Bad Idea of the Week: Minimal Debate on Pelosi Health Care Bill
Where Are the Jobs?
Time to move on Afghanistan
Remembering our Veterans

The Week Just Past

“There is no doubt about it: this week is coming to a difficult end.

“The nation is mourning the loss of 13 American soldiers at Fort Hood in Texas, where 31 other soldiers and civilians were shot by a lone gunman.   Of course, we will keep all the victims and their families in our thoughts and prayers. Our nation asks much of the men and women of our military, as well as their families, but we never expect such senseless violence to materialize at their home base.

“This morning, the Labor Department reported that the nation’s unemployment rate surged to 10.2 percent – the highest level in 26 years. And in reality, the figure may be significantly higher. Many part-time employees want to work full-time and cannot. Others have simply given up looking for work. These individuals are not accounted for in the unemployment figures.

“All across New Jersey, families and small businessmen and women are wondering where their next paycheck will come from, how they will make ends meet and how can they rebuild their lost investments and pension funds.

“On top of that bad news, the weekend the House will probably vote on Speaker Pelosi’s government takeover of health care that could cost millions of Americans their jobs.

“As I write this eNews, the House of Representatives is preparing for an extremely abbreviated weekend debate on the future of health care.

“Beginning tomorrow, the House will probably spend about five hours – five hours! – discussing a 1,990 page bill that will dictate the future of roughly 17 percent of our entire U.S. economy!

“In recent months, I have written to more than 13,000 constituents listened to thousands of residents at town hall meetings, retirement communities, nursing homes, senior clubs and visited area hospitals. I have met with various medical societies and health providers – doctors, nurses, anesthesiologists, chiropractors, pediatricians, surgeons, home health aides, etc. All have expressed varying degrees of concern about the Majority’s so-called ‘reform’ bills that have been proposed in Washington.

“They are worried about how the Pelosi health care bill will affect the all important doctor-patient relationship, the quality of their personal care and their future ability to afford their health insurance.

“We can all agree that we need to work together so that every American has more choices of greater quality at a lower cost.   That is why I have cosponsored a number of bills which aim to lower the cost of health care, expand coverage, encourage personal responsibility, address pre-existing conditions, allow ‘portability’ of coverage and the sale of policies across state lines, ensure quality, and protect the doctor-patient relationship. Further, these bills will curtail lawsuit abuse, promote prevention and wellness programs, and reform insurance markets to help millions of Americans without breaking the bank or transferring Americans’ medical rights to the government!

“Health care reform should not be a political football, passed to satisfy goals at the expense of the American people. Health care is too important and the stakes are too high. With an honest, open and truly bipartisan process, the right priorities, and the right solutions, we can do much better than the Pelosi health care bill!

“In the final analysis, my goal will remain to provide people with more access to more treatments and more doctors with less interference from insurance companies and Washington politicians and bureaucrats.

“I regret that the Speaker has failed to engage an incremental, bipartisan approach to drafting this important legislation. I further regret that she is using her House majority to sharply limit debate and deny all Members the opportunity to debate the bill.”

Recommended Reading: Sunday’s editorial in the Wall Street Journal, “The Worst Bill Ever”:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703399204574505423751140690.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Pelosi Health Care Bill Will Cover Illegal Immigrants

Despite high-profile assurances by the President in September, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has concluded that the number of illegal immigrants covered under Speaker Pelosi’s health care takeover (H.R. 3962) has increased by 2.5 million from their original bill (H.R. 3200).

As it is written today, her current bill does nothing to prevent, and arguably encourages, illegal immigrants to take part in the bill's “insurance exchanges.” Despite “officially” barring illegal immigrants from receiving a health-insurance subsidy, an amendment to require that applicants be screened for eligibility — as are all welfare recipients — was rejected on a party-line vote when it was offered in committee. If bill supporters truly cared about ensuring that benefits be provided only to legal residents, why vote against the amendment?

The Pelosi Health Care Bill – by the numbers

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 White House Economic Advisor 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 study 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

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

111—Additional offices, bureaus, commissions, programs, and bureaucracies the bill creates over and above the entitlement expansions;

3,425—Uses of the word “shall,” representing new duties for bureaucrats and mandates on individuals, businesses, and States;

$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

They put what in the Pelosi health care bill??

Page 183—Section 305(a) gives the Commissioner the power to enlist “appropriate entities” like ACORN to engage in “outreach to specific vulnerable populations” about the bill’s new programs

Page 872—Section 1433 requires the director of food services at nursing facilities participating in Medicare and Medicaid to hold “military, academic, or other qualifications” as determined by federal bureaucrats

Page 1067—Section 1729 requires States to cover incarcerated juveniles previously enrolled in Medicaid after their release “unless and until there is a determination that the individual is no longer eligible”

Page 1183—Section 1904 provides $750 million in federal funding for a new entitlement program to offer “knowledge of realistic expectations of age-appropriate child behaviors” and “skills [for parents] to interact with their child”

Page 1255—Sections 2231-2235 make veterinary students eligible for up to $283 million in federal scholarship and student loan forgiveness funding

Page 1432—Section 2531 provides incentive payments to States that enact new medical liability laws—but only if such laws do “not limit attorneys’ fees or impose caps on damages”

Page 1515—Section 2572(b) imposes labeling requirements on all vending machines nationwide, in addition to new mandates by the federal government on all restaurants with more than 20 locations

Bad Idea of the Week: Minimal Debate on Pelosi Health Care Bill

It is outrageous that this weekend’s debate on the Pelosi Health Care bill will total ONLY five hours! Five hours to debate legislation that will fundamentally restructure health care in America forever and 17 percent of the entire U.S. economy!

Where Are The Jobs?

Today, the unemployment rate jumped to 10.2 percent, the highest level in 26 years. Rather than working with Republicans to fix the economy and create more private sector jobs, the Majority has focused on a partisan agenda: massive spending increases, more government control, job-destroying taxes, and a government takeover of health care.

The so-called “Stimulus”: In February, at the behest of President Obama, the Majority passed the $1 trillion “stimulus” legislation, which the Majority promised would produce 3 to 4 million jobs — 90 percent of which would be new private sector jobs — and keep unemployment below 8 percent. Since then, the country has lost nearly three million jobs and more than half of the “saved and created” jobs reported by the White House were government jobs that already existed.

Recommended Reading II: From Thursday’s New York Times: “Reports Show Conflicting Number of Jobs Attributed to Stimulus Money”

ttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/05/us/05stimulus.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=stimulus%20lawn%20mowers&st=cse

Majority’s Budget: The Majority’s budget contained over $1.5 trillion in crushing tax increases over the next 10 years. These huge tax hikes on families, small businesses, and workers will slow economic growth and cost jobs.

National Energy Tax: The House Majority passed a national energy tax as part of the “cap and tax” legislation, which would drive up the cost of energy and impose thousands of dollars in new taxes on every individual, family, and business in the country. According to one study, 2.3 to 2.7 million jobs would be lost per year for the next twenty years as a result of the energy tax.

Pelosi Health Care Bill: Speaker Pelosi’s government takeover of health care would kill jobs by imposing $729.5 billion in higher taxes on a struggling economy, including $135 billion in taxes on businesses who cannot afford to finance their workers' health coverage and taxes on individuals without insurance. A model developed by the chief White House economic advisor indicates that as many as 5.5 million jobs could be lost from the bill's new taxes.

House Republicans have better ideas. They proposed an alternative “stimulus” bill that would have created 6.2 million jobs over the next two years, an energy measure that creates jobs, increases energy independence, and leads to a cleaner environment and an alternative for our nation and an alternative health care reform proposal that would lower the cost of health care for struggling families by up to 10 percent over the next ten years, without imposing crushing taxes on individuals or job creators.

Time to Move on Afghanistan

With the Afghan presidency decided, now is the time for President Obama to actually help President Hamid Karzai lead his country.

"The Taliban and al-Qaeda are the enemy,” Rodney said. “They are working overtime to destabilize the political and security situation in Afghanistan and cast doubt within the Afghan people and the international community about the effectiveness and legitimacy of its government.

Rodney said President Karzai and his government have an opportunity to regain the momentum by committing to stamp out corruption, establishing the rule of law across Afghanistan, working to eradicate the drug trade and create alternative livelihoods, and providing basic services to the Afghan people.

"Of course, security must be stabilized in order to create breathing room for the Karzai government to operate and for his people to survive. President Obama, by recommitting to his March counterinsurgency promise and providing his commander the resources and the troops he requested to help President Karzai and the Afghan people achieve safety and security.”

Now that the Afghan presidency is apparently resolved, it is important the President Obama make a decision. After all, additional troops, if deployed, will not actually reach Afghanistan for many months. It is critically important that they are in place as the Afghan winter ends and the spring Taliban offensive begins.

Recommended Reading III: Friday Washington Post editorial: “Tehran gains time. How much longer should the Obama administration tolerate the regime's intransigence?”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/05/AR2009110504523.html

Remembering our Veterans

America is preparing to mark Veterans Day 2009 on Wednesday November 11. It is the day we pause to remember those men and women who have made real sacrifices in the service of our nation. We must never forget that we remain a nation at war and the ongoing military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq make this day particularly important.

“For many veterans who have survived engagement with the enemy, their war is not over,” said Rodney, a veteran of Vietnam. “Their silent battle against pain and injury speaks of the heavy burden that is borne by those who wear this nation’s uniform and those who stand ready to sacrifice in defense of liberty. That is why, on this Veterans Day and every day, I remain committed to making sure that our Veterans have the benefits and the funding they need and justly deserve!”

Take time to thank a veteran Wednesday and everyday!