Fiscal McCarthyism
By: Michael S. Steele
Chairman of the Republican National Committee
Nearly 60 years ago, Sen. Joseph McCarthy stood before a small group in Wheeling, West Virginia and waved a piece of paper claiming to have the names of more than 200 people who were members of the Communist Party and shaping foreign policy at the State Department. Of course, McCarthy never produced the list; though he went on to repeat that claim -- albeit with wildly varying numbers -- for years.
Just a few weeks ago, President Obama stood before the American people and made the dramatic claim that his health care plan would "eliminate hundreds of billions of dollars in waste and fraud." Of course, the president never identified exactly where those enormous savings would come from. Rather than offer a single meaningful example of this massive waste, he resorted to the classic Washington head-fake that accomplishes nothing while giving the impression that something is being done: he proposed to appoint a commission.
Americans know that there is waste and abuse in our health care system. Americans also know that our leaders must do something about it -- something more than appointing yet another commission or putting our health care concerns off for someone else to deal with.
Republicans have been saying for some time that Democrats can begin to address such waste, fraud and abuse by eliminating the practice of defensive medicine through appropriate tort reform measures. It is estimated that unnecessary medical procedures cost as much as $200 billion per year. Yet, despite the price tag, these wasteful and costly procedures do nothing to help patients. They have everything to do with providing doctors with some level of cover from the torrent of frivolous lawsuits they encounter in any given year.
Addressing and eliminating defensive medicine could alone pay for expanded health coverage for virtually every uninsured citizen. Yet when presented with a choice between saving billions in wasteful spending and upsetting the trial lawyers who fund the Democratic Party, the president and the Democrats choose the trial lawyers over sensible solutions to our health care system.
Our children's lives will be fundamentally changed for the worse as a consequence of the decisions this president and this Congress are making today. Even before Congress took up his health care plan, President Obama proposed borrowing trillions from foreign creditors. In return, they get the lion's share of our nation's future economic output. In short, our children will be working to build productive capacity and improve standards of living not here in America, but for foreign creditors.
The Congressional Budget Office has warned that unless the president achieves the savings he has failed to identify, his health care package will add hundreds of billions more to the deficit, even after imposing huge tax increases. For good measure, CBO also noted that expecting future Congresses to enact savings identified by a commission is hardly a sure thing. Translation: It ain't gonna happen.
President Obama is a smart guy, and he understands this perfectly well. He assures us that his hugely expensive plan will not add "one dime to the deficit." But this is knowingly misleading. He pledges that future Congresses will come forward with more spending cuts if the promised savings don't materialize. This, too, is knowingly misleading. But, saying that his administration will "pay" for a massive expansion of government in an era of huge and growing deficits by pledging that, by golly, someone else down the road will cut out the waste which he won't dare identify, let alone act on, is a claim so specious that it disrespects the intelligence of the American people. It's nothing more than robbing Peter to pay Paul -- and then robbing Paul.
The fiscal McCarthyism being practiced by President Obama and the Democrats is worse than cynical. It is damaging. The Democrats' knowingly deceptive claims and misguided approach to health care reform are reckless distractions from the need to bring down health care costs and make coverage more affordable for all Americans.
President Obama and Republicans alike want to reform health care. The first step towards real reform will be realized when the Democrats abandon their massive government-run plan and the rhetoric they use to disguise it in favor of solutions that we know can go a long way towards addressing what is wrong with our current system. Michael S. Steele is Chairman of the Republican National Committee
Editor's Opinion
By: Barbara EspinosaFor starters the Constitution does not grant government the power to mandate to the people, that they must have or do anything. Congress has been ignoring the Constitution for many, many years and its past time that government returned to adhering to the Constitution that has served this country well for 222 years.
My Opinion this should not be an issue or even on the table for discussion other than to refine the portions that are broke. Do not throw away the basket of good apples to get to the one bad one at the bottom of the basket.
Chairman Steele has made some very good points, every time the healthcare issue is spoken about by the President or a Democratic member of Congress the following occurs.
1.The number of people that do not have health care changes
2.There are billions of dollars in waste and fraud
3.They speak about defensive medicine
Healthcare can be managed better by a government bureaucracy than the individual and their Doctor.
My questions and comments are:
A.Why do the numbers of the un-insured keep changing? Some people may not want insurance. Illegals should not be included, to make it sound direr. When polled 85% of Americans like the insurance they have. Why penalize the 85% for 15%. The goal should only be the 15%.
B.You know there are billions of dollars in waste and fraud, stop talking about it redefine the process to eliminate waste and fraud. Don't start another program when you can't properly oversee the one that is already in place. Makes perfect sense to me.
C.The term Defensive medicine and Tort Reform are tossed around and not everyone understands what it means. Speak in easy everyday English, not legalese. Its preventive medicine and frivolous lawsuits.
A and B are easily corrected.
C. May take rescinding some statues and laws. Preventive medicine needs to be discussed with medical professionals on how best to implement a program.
Tort Reform {Frivolous lawsuits} can be corrected by changing requirements to sue. The next fix is insurance companies change the statues to allow them to sale insurance interstate the same as car insurance and then a citizen can shop for insurance that best suites their families needs.
A GOVERNMENT THAT CANNOT MANAGE THE POSTAL SERVICE, MEDICARE, MEDICAID, SOCIAL SECURITY and perform below average service and maintenance in VA HOSPITALS SHOULD NOT TAKE OVER 16 to 20 percent of the nations economic output, but leave it to the professional and the private sector. THEY ARE NOT FISCALLY RESPONSIBLE... they have created massive debt; they should practice balancing the budget and redefine the programs already in place into efficient and less costly departments. Editor/owner of web page BE
