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11/12/2009
Tell Sen. Feingold: Senate health bills do NOT control spending
Senator Reid is pushing his health care bill to the floor next week. Of course, it’s a completely different animal from the just-passed 2,307-page House bill. It’s not the 527-page Senate HELP Committee bill and it’s not the long-discussed 232-page outline that turned into the 1,504-page Baucus bill that came out of the Senate Finance Committee. Rather it’s still another new option Senator Reid has cobbled together behind closed doors and apparently received a satisfactory enough CBO score (most assuredly, using countless accounting gimmicks) that he feels he can introduce said bill on the floor next week. Wow. Is Senator Reid feeling the pressure?
And Senator Feingold? In late October, with much fanfare, our junior U.S. Senator introduced his “Control Spending Now” program.
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Russ Feingold … unveiled major legislation today to cut wasteful spending and institute reforms to control spending going forward. The Control Spending Now Act [would] reduce the deficit by more than one half trillion dollars over 10 years and institute reforms to the budgeting and earmarking process to prevent wasteful spending in the future.
…Feingold’s long record of deficit reduction began even before he came to the U.S. Senate. In his 1992 campaign, he unveiled an 82-point plan to slash the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars. Many of those reforms have been enacted, as have many other fiscally responsible initiatives Feingold has championed, such as reinstating pay-as-you-go (known as “PAYGO”) budget rules, and creating an inspector general to oversee U.S. taxpayer dollars in Iraq. These efforts are all part of Feingold’s record of working to prevent the abuse of taxpayer dollars and restore fiscal discipline in Congress.
In the original HR 3962, costs I heard today from CATO Senior Fellow Michael Tanner were $1.2 trillion, $1.7 trillion after the “manager’s amendments were added” (lots of pork, paying for votes - example here), and literally, without exaggeration - $3 trillion over 10 years when all the accounting gimmicks are accounted for.
Does that jive with a spankin’ new “Control Spending Now” program? I think not.
Write Senator Feingold. Have every neighbor write Senator Feingold. Every work associate, everyone you run into at the gym.
Dear Senator Feingold:
Health care “reform” bills being proposed in the Senate would bankrupt me and our country. They break all rules of fiscal discipline – and will cost my grandchildren and their grandchildren more than they will be able to afford.
Supporting the mammoth spending in this bill surely doesn’t match up with your recently introduced “Control Spending Now” Act. America simply cannot afford health care reform as the Senate has proposed it. Please be consistent, oppose wasteful and unwarranted spending and vote against any bill that does not effectively and amply control health care costs.
Email, mailing addresses and phone numbers
Jo Egelhoff, FoxPolitics.net
COMMENTS
Jo, what do you propose? Enough with the hysteria. How about giving us five or six glimpses into how you might solve the health care crisis and make health care available to each and every American.
billie (Thu Nov 12 08:12:05 2009)
Good question Billie. But also, why target only Feingold? Also call Kohl and ask them both to vote against whatever healthcare bill the senate develops. We must reset to zero, and better, have a non-biased group make recommendations (like MedPAC.gov). Not the insurance industry, as is currently the case in the senate.
The current effort is a gigantic giveaway to the insurance industry, though it does make them play fair (which they hate).
In my mind (not Jo's) we should extend Medicare to 100% of our citizens. Spend the current 31% of insurance industry waste on healthcare instead. And all for the same dollars we are spending today. NO increase, just a different way of paying for it.
See more at Medicare-for-all
Jack Lohman (Thu Nov 12 08:48:51 2009)
Thanks Jack, It would be great if we were able to communicate with clarity what our elected officials should say yes to. With the constant drumbeat of negativity we deserve to be cast as the party of NO!
billie (Thu Nov 12 09:10:10 2009)
Well first, we'll never cover all Americans. It's estimated that a full 30% of the Census Bureau's official number (46 million) of uninsured Americans are eligible for a government program (Medicaid, SCHIP, etc.) but have not signed up. Do we really need a giant government program that people can sign up for - when they haven't signed up for existing programs in the first place? And almost half of those official 46 million uninsured have incomes 250% of the poverty level and above and continue to make the choice not to budget for health care.
Here's one solution that relies on personal responsibility - and transparent markets, which Dr. Kagen continues to lobby for but is not included in any of the bills under consideration. It addresses our health care challenge in a manner similar to the way America handles food stamps and the successful WIC program. Read it - it's good stuff.
Now, I've repeatedly suggested solutions. Here's just a sampling:
I dare you - just ask "How much will it cost?"
The trouble with health care is paying for it
Key to health care reform is controlling costs and increasing access
Bill Welch on reform that will produce positive outcomes
And many many more. My pieces propose solutions Billie; perhaps you aren't tuning in every day and are missing the occasional post. It's not correct, just because you may disagree with the proposed solutions, to repeat (again and again) that no solutions have been proposed on these pages.
Jo (Thu Nov 12 09:39:15)
Unfortunately, Billie, the R's are only today's party of no. When the D's are in the minority it is they who block progress. Progress increases the chances of staying in power and neither party wants that when the other guy is to gain.
The key is moving that power to the people, but the people do not fund the elections. Until that changes we must live with what we have.
Jack Lohman (Thu Nov 12 09:51:08 2009)
Billie, Look to Rep. Paul Ryan of WI-1! People outside of WI are more tuned into Ryan than citizens of WI are! He has been working long and hard to spread his ideas of health reforms. They are far superior to those currently set forth in this Congress. Implement tort reform. Reduce costly government mandates and regulations. Allow the purchase of insurance across state lines. Expand health savings accounts. Change the tax code to make insurance portable and stop penalizinag unemployed individuals. Support retail health clinics in stores like Wal-Mart and Target that are often open 24/7. Provide vouchers for the working poor and chronically uninsured.
Jan T (Thu Nov 12 09:57:00 2009)
Jo, one thing that you (and our esteemed Cato institute, which is funded in part by the insurance industry) do not seem to accept is that "insurance" is the paying for something you "may" need down the line. A Medicare-for-all system consumes resources only when the health care is actually provided.
As well, when you leave a middle-man bureaucracy in place it consumes a vast amount of the resources that could/should instead be spent on providing health care to the unemployed/uninsured.
I am constantly reminded of the quote by Winston Churchill: "America will always do the right thing, but only after everything else fails."
Jack Lohman (Thu Nov 12 10:33:58 2009)
Jan, some of Ryan's ideas are good (expanding retail clinics, adding tort reform) but some are terribly wrong-headed. The insurance bureaucracy should be eliminated, not expanded to compete across state lines. Be careful of what you ask for.
IF that were to create any good competition the insurance CEOs are going to beat down physician and hospital charges long before they consider reducing their salaries, bonuses, profits, or political payola.
Ryan usually seeks whatever is opposite the Dems, even IF the Dems have a good idea (which they haven't had, incidentally).
Obstructionism? Yea, he's good at it.
Jack Lohman (Thu Nov 12 12:45:35 2009)
Billie, Why is health insurance in Idaho a fraction of the cost of insurance in New York? Insurance mandates put in place by politicians, not insurance CEO's! The profit margins of insurance companies aren't much different than other major industries. Government is already spending far too much on Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP because of waste, fraud and mismanagement.
Jan T (Fri Nov 13 16:50:14 2009)
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