Republican Leadership Stakeout Health Care Reform PODCAST MP3 9.67 mb.
FULL TEXT Transcript: Conference Chairman Pence: Good Morning, everyone.
I'm Mike Pence, House Republican Conference Chairman, and we just concluded our weekly meeting of the House Republican Conference, with a special emphasis today on the debate over health care reform here in Washington, D.C. House Republicans support health care reform. It'll lower the cost of health care for every American and in particular, it will lower the cost of health insurance to small businesses, family farmers and working families. The Democrat plan for health care reform amounts to a government takeover of health care in this country, paid for with more than a trillion dollars in higher taxes and it must be opposed. Under the Democrat plan, according to independent analysis, you'll probably lose your health care and you might just lose your job.
 Rep. John Boehner, Rep. Marsha Blackburn , Rep. Eric Cantor, Gov. Haley Barbour, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers PHOTO CREDIT: | House Republicans have led the fight against the Democrats' plan for a government takeover of health care and we will continue to as this debate goes forward. But now, House Republicans and a handful of Democrats are on the verge of a historic victory for American taxpayers and for the American health care economy. But we need your help. |
Republican Whip Cantor:
House Republicans absolutely reject the status quo in terms of health care and as we talk about the prospects of reform, we are trying desperately to get it right. And we continue to wonder why it is the President and the Speaker have taken the approach of now or never. This is not the type of change I think people wanted, and certainly the my-way-or-the-highway approach that's being followed is not offering the hope that people deserve.
So what we're doing towards that end is we're going to bring together some small business people today and part of the Republican leadership in the House-these are small business people from around the country, many of them from districts represented by some of the Blue Dogs that obviously have been speaking to the sentries on the other side who say, "Look, the health care approach on the table is bad policy, it's bad for business, and in these times of economic difficulty why should we be adding to payroll taxes, why should we be adding to the burdens of small businesses?" So we stand ready again to continue to work with our colleagues. As we know, there's 68 on the other side who've voiced some concern over this bill; we stand together with them to try and get this health care reform right-not to rush it, but to make sure we can deliver ultimately the kind of reform the American people want.
Governor Haley Barbour:
Let me just say, this is not about party; this is about what's good for the country. This past weekend, the Governor's Association met, and as you have read if you were not there, in a very bipartisan way with many Democratic governors outspoken, there were huge concerns expressed about the health care reform plans that have been moving through Congress. Democrat governors time after time after time said they were worried about getting stuck with a huge unfunded mandate, and for good reason. Nobody can tell you how this is going to get paid for. There have been proposals of $800 billion of tax increases that would fall more than anything on small businesses that don't make enough money to offer health insurance. I'm concerned about that. I think every governor is concerned about what that's going to do to my economy when job creation is the most important thing for our country.
What this bill offers will cost jobs, because it will drive up the cost of employing people. And that's why we had many Democratic governors who thought and said publicly, we can't be for this in the way it's going, which makes Representative Cantor's point: there is no use in rushing this through artificially when there are so many concerns on a bipartisan basis. Obviously the House leadership could pass this without a Republican vote. That they have had to slow down is that many Democrats, including many Democrat governors, know that this is something that can't be rushed, because it's very dangerous in some of the forms it could be in.
Conference Vice Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers:
You know, it's the week before the August recess and we continue to hear from the majority that they are going to pass their health care bill yet all across this country Americans continue to have many questions. As a mom, like millions of parents, I want to make sure that I have access for my son to go to the doctor that we choose, the therapist that we choose, the specialist that we choose, and how does this bill ultimately protect that doctor-patient relationship? There are a lot of questions.
You know, this bill also proposes to spend billions of dollars saddling our children and our grandchildren with more debt. How does that help our children's future? And hidden in this bill are cuts to Medicare - cuts to the program that helps our parents. Finally, this bill is paid for by taxing small businesses - those job creators in our country - at a time when our economy is struggling and we need to be creating jobs. How does this bill create jobs? There are so many questions. Republicans stand ready to help pass health care reform that would ensure that there's access to quality and affordable health care. A health care bill that would challenge America to be healthy. A health care bill that America would be proud Congress passed.
Republican Leader Boehner:
Let me thank Governor Barbour for being here with us today. As it's pretty clear it's not just American families that are going to have less choices in health care. It's not just American families that are going to pay more and small businesses that are going to pay more. But this is going to have a dramatic impact on the state's ability to do what it's supposed to do. Yesterday, along with the Vice Chair of the Republican Governors Association, Governor Tim Pawlenty, we released a report on what would happen to the states' ability to provide the health care that they provide today. The states are the pilot programs in our democracy. You can see what's working and what isn't working. And under the Democrat proposal it's going to tie the hands of our governors, tie the hands or our state legislatures in terms of responding to the health care needs of the citizens in their state.
As you heard Governor Barbour point out, the cuts to Medicaid, nobody's saying how this is going to happen and who's going to be affected. But if you cut Medicaid to the states it's going to reduce their flexibility. And there are numbers of provisions in this bill that will tie the hands of all the states. Because what they're trying to do is to create one big central government to run healthcare delivery system. I think that's exactly what the American people don't want. We've got the most innovative health care system in the world. Ninety percent of the world's innovation in healthcare comes from the United States. We cannot take the risk to rush this bill through Congress before we have a real understanding of its real impact.
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