Jackson Citizen Patriot: Vote for repeal serves public's interest
During last year’s historic mid-term elections, the people made their voices heard, many for the first time. Many constituents in the 7th Congressional District told me that they became active in the political process because the federal government had become too big, too active, and too intrusive in a short period of time.
This growth in government manifested itself most clearly through President Obama’s health-care plan. I, like many of my constituents, vigorously opposed this plan and its job-killing taxes. That is why I repeatedly made the promise during my campaign that I would reverse the course of the Obama administration and vote for the full repeal of “Obamacare “at my first opportunity. On Wednesday, I did exactly that.
As an original co-sponsor of H.R. 2, Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s bill to fully repeal Obamacare, I worked to repeal this law because it raises taxes and creates burdensome new regulations, largely against small businesses, the catalysts for economic growth.
The law includes 24 new or additional taxes totaling approximately $600 billion. The higher taxes in this law are sure to affect each and every American, everyone from those who use tanning salons to those who own a business or even choose to purchase the very best health coverage. That’s why I also co-sponsored H.R.4, the bill to eliminate the onerous requirements for businesses to report all transactions valued at more than $600 to the IRS.
The law’s billions of dollars in costs are unreasonable, and millions will lose access to their current coverage, especially seniors. An independent report by actuaries at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services found that “natural health expenditures under the health reform act would increase by a total of $311 billion (0.9 percent) during calendar years 2010-2019” and that as many as 14 million Americans would lose access to their current coverage.
We must repeal the health-care law not solely because of the taxes, the astronomical costs or the losses in coverage. But we must repeal the law because many people agree with me that it is a direct assault on the freedoms of all Americans and frustrates American exceptionalism. According to a Gallup/USA Today poll last week, only 13 percent of Americans support the current law.
I believe true reform can be achieved through multiple patient-centered alternatives. We must expand the use and flexibility of health savings accounts, end lawsuit abuse, allow small businesses to join together in economies of scale to buy quality and affordable health plans for their employees, and permit the purchase of health insurance across state lines. These reforms were components of a health-care reform bill that I previously introduced and plan to continue to pursue in the coming weeks.
If we repeal Obamacare and implement patient-centered alternatives, then we will bring certainty back to many businesses, encourage job creation an economic growth, lower tax rates, reduce government spending and create a regulatory climate that encourages economic expansion.
This editorial was published in the Jackson Citizen Patriot on January 23, 2011.