Rep. Kevin McCarthy reports form the Hill this week. If you want to weigh in, post comments for our congressman. In his own words:
"Health care reform continued to dominate discussions in the halls of Congress this week, and Speaker Pelosi ended up postponing any vote on a final version of her proposal until after the August district work period. While it was not what Speaker Pelosi would have wanted, I think it is good for all Americans to have more time to understand how this proposed health care reform could affect the personal health care that we and our families currently receive, and the treatments we get from our physicians.
"On Wednesday, a bill I introduced that focuses on increased accountability on Wall Street to protect “Main Street” was passed by the House. Under current law, those who commit misconduct while working for an entity regulated by the SEC, like a stock exchange, could resign and avoid being held accountable for their wrongdoing. My bill, H.R. 2623, would close these loopholes in securities laws, and also helps the overseers at the SEC better monitor actions to protect families and retirees from harmful actors in the industry.
"Later that afternoon, I was a guest on Neil Cavuto’s show on Fox Business to discuss the ongoing health care debate. If you missed the clip, you can see it on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/RepKevinMcCarthy. We discussed a Senate idea of government sponsored health care Co-Ops. As details on this proposal are scarce, the old notion rings true that the devil is in the details -- but I don’t see many angels in Congress. I am concerned that this Co-Op idea would in reality be Congress creating a Trojan horse for a government takeover of healthcare. Just look at what Senate Majority Harry Reid said: “We’re going to have some type of public option, call it ‘co-op’, call it what you want…”
"Thursday night, I was a guest on MSNBC’s “the Ed Show.” We had a spirited debate on the future of our country, and of course health care was a major topic. Ed was not too familiar with the details of the Democratic proposal so I had to fill him in -- you can check out the whole clip on my YouTube page. Paying for future health care reform is a significant concern for many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. For example, both the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Joint Committee on Taxation have said that the current Democrat proposal includes tax hikes for American families and small businesses. What are the effects of these proposals? Earlier in the week a small business owner of a pizza shop visited Congress and told me that the small businesses tax hikes wouldn’t result in layoffs, but would result in his business being completely shutdown. I do not think this is the time to increase taxes for job creating small businesses (American small businesses create over 70 percent of jobs in America) – especially in our communities when California continues to struggle with double digit unemployment and reports on Friday show that our national economy has shrunk twice as much as predicted. American families need jobs, and I will continue to work grow small businesses. It’s commonsense -- more vibrant small businesses = more American jobs.
"The week finished up with the House passing the final appropriations bill: the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, which will provide our men and women with a 3.4% pay increase, and 14% increase in medical care for service members. No funding to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center was included, and the bill continues the ban on releasing detainees within the U.S.
"Congress will not be in session this next month and I will be returning to California for the August District Work Period for a full schedule that will focus on small businesses and the ongoing health care reform debate that will gear back up in the fall. Thanks for reading.
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2 comments:
Watch Congressperson Kevin McCarthy recite unsupportable gibberish at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTTx6DcQdHg
What is our Representative saying when he says a Republican Plan is better? Better for whom? The insurance companies that support his campaigns!
The McCarthy Plan is embodied in the Patient's Choice Act of 2009 http://www.house.gov/ryan/PCA/PCAsummary15p.pdf. The Patients' Choice Act of 2009 effectively ends tax breaks for employers who provide health coverage to their workers! That plan is a guaranty that insurance companies will continue to rule who is insured and how much the Patient "chooses" to pay for insurance. Guaranteed choice cannot be achieved under the private market. No effective enforcement mechanism is possible to require private insurers to offer coverage when the insurance companies control all aspects of health care. How can a nonprofit, independent board "penalize companies that cherry-pick health patients"? Such activity is already illegal and actionable, but the insurance companies spend millions fighting lawsuits that attempt to make them follow the law. Under McCarthy’s plan the market will consolidate in the same way that HMO’s and Preferred Provider Organization industries have grown to be "highly-concentrated, or anti-competitive, in 96% of metropolitan areas." http://www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/368/competing-in-market.pdf Congressman McCarthy does not pay attention to what the AMA says about providing health care. He does not recognize the fact that families and employers cannot afford the cost of health care plans now, and will not be able to afford health care under an insurance industry driven program.
Good documents posted here; thanks, Stephen!
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