The Lack of Transparency in Health Care Reform

Are you aware that last Wednesday, October 21, 2009, the Democratic leadership lost an important vote on health care reform? Probably not. Not many media discussed it in any detail, if at all. The New York Times did report on it in its Thursday edition, but buried the story deep inside the paper. The Heritage Foundation summarizes the vote: "You have to read all the way to page A-25 in today's New York Times to learn about it, but the Senate took its first floor vote on Obamacare yesterday and the White House lost. Big. The NYT reports: '"Democrats lost a big test vote on health care legislation on Wednesday as the Senate blocked action on a bill to increase Medicare payments to doctors at a cost of $247 billion over 10 years. The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, needed 60 votes to proceed. He won only 47. And he could not blame Republicans. A dozen Democrats and one independent crossed party lines and voted with Republicans on the 53 to 47 roll call."' For more on this important story, go to "Morning Bell: A Whole New Health Care Ball Game," Heritage Foundation, posted on October 22, 2009, in Health Care.

What happened to transparency in discussing and developing health care reform as we were promised by candidate Obama last year? It is non-existent. Instead, in a sleight of hand designed to disguise the true cost of the Democratic leadership's main health care reform proposal, this separate bill on Medicare payments to doctors was sent to a vote. Only the trick did not work. Even Democratic senators recognized what was going on and knew that it was not fiscally responsible. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) is quoted in the New York Times article as saying, "'On the eve of a historic debate on health care, it's essential to show a commitment to real reform,' which includes fiscal responsibility." See "Democrats Lose Big Test Vote on Health Legislation," New York Times, as posted on October 21, 2009. Our own Democratic Senator, Claire McCaskill, also voted against the bill.

When will the President and Congress recognize that it is more important to fix the federal budget before taking on other significant "reforms"? This is an opportune time for a realistic review and reform of the federal budget and to reign in federal spending. What the Congress should be doing right now is establishing a fiscally realistic, balanced and sustainable budget that keeps revenues and expenditures in line and which eventually retires federal debt. That process requires the examination of all federal programs to determine the purpose of each program, whether that purpose is proper for the federal government to pursue and if it is producing the desired result. Once a sound budget base is established, we can then undertake reasonable, effective health care reform with a better understanding of its true cost.

Bottom line: What the public wants now is fiscal sanity imposed on the federal budget, and efforts focused on creating new jobs.

Congress Needs To Be Calm and Focus On The Right Priority

[As published in the Springfield News-Leader, Sunday, September 27,2009]

A USA-Gallup Poll taken after the President's speech to Congress on September 9 found that more than seven out of ten Americans believe their costs and their care will either stay the same or get worse if the health care reform legislation pending before Congress is passed. Janene Sholes of Tampa, Florida, says "It'll definitely get worse because they are going to have to find the money to pay for all this stuff. And where are they going to get it from? Us." [USA Today, as reprinted in the Springfield News-Leader, Wednesday, September 23, 2009, p. 1A].

The American people understand that we face many challenges, but they also know we must keep our heads and use common sense to resolve those challenges. Instead, the President and Congress are running around wildly, with money gushing out everywhere as the solution to all of our problems- whether it is the economy, health care or protecting the environment. This is totally irresponsible and will ultimately lead us to financial ruin.

It is time for Congress to remain calm, focus and prioritize. We must focus on getting our financial house in order before tackling other issues. For example, health care reform is needed (not as currently proposed by the President and Democratic leadership), but that is premature until we reign in federal spending and what the Congress should be doing right now is establishing a fiscally realistic, balanced and sustainable budget that keeps revenues and expenditures in line and which eventually retires federal debt. That process requires the examination of all federal programs to determine the purpose of each program, whether that purpose is proper for the federal government to pursue and if it is producing the desired result.

Congress should be focusing primarily on proposals that would get the budget in order, as described above. The bills we should be hearing and reading about in the daily news are ones such as Congressman Paul Ryan's "The Roadmap for America's Future" as proposed in 2008. Or, the "SOS: Stop Over-Spending Act"(s) of 2006, 2007 and 2008 as proposed by Senators Judd Gregg and Mitch McConnell and up to twenty-two other Republican senators. These types of bills are more important now than health care reform, climate caps or so called stimulus plans. The American people understand the concept that we should get our finances in order before taking on new, ambitious projects.

Americans will have greater confidence in and actually experience a long term economic recovery if the budget is brought under control. Instead, Americans now feel growing anxiety over increasing joblessness, continuing economic uncertainty and a more intrusive government in spite of "stimulus" money and government takeovers of industries. It is time for the President and Congress to understand and follow this concept of getting the federal budget under control instead of running around trying to change everything in sight without having a solid financial footing in place first.