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Paul Ryan Will Push "Repeal and Replace"
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), one of his party’s top voices on fiscal matters, calls the newly passed health reform plan a “fiscal Frankenstein” that will “make insurance more expensive,” providing an opening for the GOP to push for a partial repeal.
Ryan, the top Republican on the House budget committee, said the plan will help “a very small segment of the population,” such as people with pre-existing conditions, but make life more expensive for “the vast majority of the population.”
“What matters to people is: Are their premiums going up or are their premiums going down?” Ryan said in an interview as his Capitol Hill office for the POLITICO video series, “Health Care Diagnosis.”
Ryan, who calls himself “a numbers guy” and resists talking about political strategy, said he’ll be pushing for what he calls a “repeal and replace” approach to rolling back the law Obama signed on Tuesday.
“You’re going to see sticker shock,” Ryan said. “You’re going to see lots of premium increases. You’re going to see people in the individual market losing their premiums, losing their insurance. … All brokers of insurance are gone in a year, in my personal opinion.”
“Obviously we’re not for keeping this law,” he continued. “We should repeal it and replace it with reform … but not just to go back to the status quo that we knew yesterday. That wasn’t sustainable, either. We’ve been saying all along we want to fix what’s broken in healthcare without breaking what’s working in healthcare. So repeal and replace it with something better.”
Asked if Republicans had overplayed their hands with dire claims about the plan, Ryan replied: “The problem I see with this bill is: Is this bill socialized medicine today? No, but it think it clearly puts us on the trajectory for that. ... So what I’m worried about is in our nation, we’re reaching a tipping point in this country where more Americans are more worried about their government benefits and dependencies than they are about their own securities. … They’re more relying on the government for their livelihoods than they do on themselves.”
Ryan said he’s begun laying the groundwork for his role as one of his party’s appointees to President Barak Obama’s newly formed deficit-reduction panel, the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.
“I’m mailing them my entitlements plan,” he said. “We’re sending them some things that we’ve already written, … just so you know who I am and what I’ve been saying, to be very candid. Anybody who knows anything about me knows I’m not a tax increaser . . . . spending, in my opinion, is the problem.”
Ryan acknowledged speculation that the commission was designed to provide cover for recommendations for tax increases, but he said he’s willing to wait until the group gets going because deciding what he thinks of it.
“I want to get something done, I want to be constructive, I want to approach it with a good attitude,” he said. “If this thing, this commission can help us get spending under control, I want to help, and that’s what I’m going to be offering.”
Last month, Ryan introduced a “2.0” version of his “Roadmap for America’s Future,” which includes proposals for health care, retirement savings, job training, and tax and budget reform. The plan made Ryan a convenient target for Democrats, who claim it’s a sugarcoated attempt to partially privatize Social Security and Medicare.
“President Obama kind of elevated it and then [Budget Director Peter] Orszag came after it and the DCCC and the DNC , so now I’m sort of the punching bag,” he said. “I’m OK with that. I’m actually very, very much at peace with it because what the Democrats … are trying to do is win this next election by tearing down Republicans and making us seem worse than they are.
“They don’t want an election as a referendum on their performance; they want an election based on fear and if they can disperse fear into the mind of a voter about Republicans, they can stay in power. So what’s comforting to me: In order for them to attack my plan, they have to completely demagogue it -- meaning mischaracterize it -- and that’s good, in my mind. … [I]t tells me that I put up a viable alternative to the social welfare state they want to create for America.”
Ryan said the “new media economy” makes it easier for a minority party to promote its alternative ideas. “You have a [presidential] bully pulpit that heretofore could kind of concentrate and control the media,” he explained. “This bully pulpit it not as singularly effective, because of all the new media that’s out there.
“So when I get demagogued by the president and the Democrats, … I have avenues where I can get the truth out about this plan. The point I’m trying to make is when people find the facts, they know there’s something wrong, they know debt’s getting out of control and they know we’ve got to do something to fix it.”
“I don’t care if I lose this job for trying to do what I think is right,” he added. “The way I look at this is: Every term you should act like it’s your last term. And what matters to me is that you sleep well at night.”
The congressman paused and grimaced. “OK,” he said. “Last night I didn’t sleep very well because of this health-care bill.”
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10 Reasons To Fire Nancy Pelosi
1.) Pelosi Called Opponents Of Government-Run Health Care Experiment "Un-American." (Speaker Nancy Pelosi & Rep. Steny Hoyer, "'Un-American' Attacks Can't Derail Health Care Debate," USA Today, 8/10/09)
2.) Last Night, Pelosi Once Again Ignored The Will Of The American People And Voted Again To Pass Their Government-Run Health Care Experiment. (H.R. 3590, Roll Call Vote #165, Approved 219-212; D 219-34; R 0-178, 3/21/10)
3.) Yesterday's Vote Came Just Four Months After Pelosi Rammed Through $1.2 Trillion Health Care Bill On A Saturday Night. (H.R. 3962, Roll Call Vote #887; Approved 220-215; D 219-39; R 1-176, 11/7/09)
4.) Leading Up To The Vote, Pelosi Made Clear Once Dems "Kick Open That Door ... There Will Be Other Legislation To Follow ... We'll Take The Country In A New Direction." (Greg Sargent, "Pelosi: Passing Health Reform Will Set Stage For Great Debate With GOP," The Plum Line, 3/15/10)
5.) Pelosi Claims To Be Unaware Of The Behavior Of Disgraced Former Rep. Eric Massa, And Continued To Defend Rep. Charlie Rangel Despite Ethics Committee Admonishment. (James Hohmann, "Nancy Pelosi Defends Charlie Rangel, Again," Politico, 2/26/10; MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show," 3/11/10)
6.) In June, Pelosi "Laid Down The Gauntlet" To Rush Through Cap And Trade National Energy Tax. (Steven T. Dennis and Tory Newmyer, "Pelosi Flexes Muscle," Roll Call, 6/24/09; H.R. 2454, Roll Call Vote #477; Approved 219-212; D 211-44; R 8-168, 6/26/09)
7.) In February Of Last Year, Pelosi Passed President Obama's $862 Billion Stimulus, Promising To Create Jobs; Yet Since Then, America Has Lost 3.3 Million Jobs. (H.R. 1, Roll Call Vote #70: Passed 246-183; R 0-176; D 246-7, 2/13/09; U.S. Bureau Of Labor Statistics, www.bls.gov, Accessed 3/5/10)
8.) Pelosi Has Failed To Run House In Spirit Of Bi-Partisanship, With Democratic Members Being "Explicitly Told Not To Work With Republicans." (Rep. Jim Cooper, "Reconciliation Rules - Not Bipartisanship - Will Kill Health Care Reform," The Huffington Post, 6/18/09)
9.) Despite Pelosi Promising "The Most Open And Honest Government In History," Even Dem Member Admits "Caucus Is A Real Disappointment" Because They "Aren't Transparent." (Rep. Nancy Pelosi, "Pelosi: 'We Will Create the Most Open and Honest Government in History'" Press Re lease, 1/18/06; Glenn Thrush, "Sestak Blasts Pelosi, Obama On Transparency," Politico, 1/7/10)
10.) Pelosi Accused The CIA Of Lying To Her And To Congress On Use Of Interrogation Techniques. (David Espo, "Pelosi on CIA: 'They Mislead Us All the Time,'" The Associated Press, 5/14/09)
Obamacare: Time To "Fire Pelosi"
This weekend, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ensured that the 111th Congress will live in infamy. Instead of listening to the people she used every procedural trick at her disposal to pass her health care legislation. She must be stopped.
Over the last year, the American people have witnessed a Speaker who will stop at nothing to achieve her vision of a Leftist government. She believes that she is no longer accountable to congressional rules, and national laws. Those are just guidelines that can be tossed away on a whim if determined they will prevent her from accomplishing her goals.
On Sunday, she cast them aside with reckless abandon and forced through her government takeover of health care.
Nancy Pelosi has no regard for public opinion. Even in a hostile electoral environment, she asked members of her caucus to fall on their swords so that she might add another achievement to her increasingly shameful legacy. Her actions are deceptive, dishonest, and simply unconstitutional, but she shows no remorse. To her, the ends justify the means.
Let there be no doubt: Nancy Pelosi’s sole priority in this entire health care drama has been authorizing a government seizure of the American health care industry and nationalizing a full one-sixth of our economy. She ignored the cold hard facts of the federal budget. Plainly put, you cannot add $1 trillion dollars to the budget and then claim that it’s revenue neutral, cut $500 billion from Medicare, and won’t affect recipients.
The math simply doesn’t work. But Nancy Pelosi doesn’t seem to have any problem with fudging the numbers when it’s to her advantage.
Worse yet, Speaker Pelosi has claimed that she would preside over the most ethical and transparent Congress in history. She has repeatedly denied Americans their Constitutional right to know what Washington is doing in their name, because she knows that if they find out, they will hold her caucus accountable.
For the sweetheart deals and arm-twisting tactics; for this unconscionable dereliction of her duty; for this gleeful defiance of the Constitution; and for the utter contempt with which she has repeatedly treated the American people, Speaker Pelosi MUST be fired.
The time has come for Americans to speak out. If you believe that American government should be open, honest, and transparent; if you believe that individual Americans, not the federal government, are best equipped to make their own medical decisions; if you believe that the Constitution of the United States – not this radical leftist agenda – is still the ultimate authority in our land, I am asking for your help to fire Nancy Pelosi.
I am asking you to pledge your support to punish her and every Democrat who joined her in this abomination and help Republicans regain the majority in the House.
The voice of the people was ignored on health care, but with your help we will make sure they hear it loud and clear when we remove Speaker Pelosi from her throne this November.
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Sources: Politico, RNC, SWAC Girl, Big Government.com, Youtube, Google Maps
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