From Keith Hennessey. He groups the questions into 4 categories, so I’ll excerpt one from each category below. The press conference is scheduled for Wednesday at 8 PM Eastern time.
Economy:
You proposed spending money from the TARP to prevent foreclosures, help small businesses, and to buy toxic assets from banks. In June CBO said they had found no evidence that any money has been spent for any of these programs. How many foreclosures have been prevented, how many small businesses have received loans from, and how many toxic assets have been purchased?
Health care:
Your Administration has said that health care reform is the key to addressing our long-term budget problem. Yet you have adopted a lower standard, that health care reform legislation simply does not make our deficit problems worse. If health care reform leaves the unsustainable budget situation unchanged, and since CBO says your budget would result in nine trillion dollars of new debt over the next decade, then how else do you propose to deal with the projected explosion of government debt over the long run?
Global Warming:
Does it make sense for the U.S. to impose higher energy costs on American workers and manufacturers if the two largest developing economies [India and China] are unwilling to slow their emissions growth? Won’t that just disadvantage American workers with little reduction in future global temperatures?
Trade:
The top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Finance Committee have called for you to submit to Congress for their approval the signed Free Trade Agreements with U.S. allies Colombia, Panama and South Korea. Why have you not submitted them to Congress? When will you do so?
These questions really expose how things have gone awry with the Obama presidency.
“The last time the President made grand promises and demanded passage of a bill before it could be reviewed, we ended up with the colossal stimulus failure and unemployment near 10 percent,” said Senator DeMint.
“Now the President wants Americans to trust him again, but he can’t back up the utopian promises he’s making about a government takeover of health care. He insists his health care plan won’t add to our nation’s deficit despite the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office saying exactly the opposite. And today we learn that the President is refusing to release a critical report on the state of our economy, which contains facts essential to this debate. What is he hiding?
“If the actual legislation came close to matching the President’s rhetoric, he would have no problem passing this bill with huge Democrat majorities in both chambers. But Americans aren’t being fooled and are discovering the truth about his plan which includes rationed care, trillions in new costs, high taxes and penalties that will destroy jobs, and even government-funded abortions.
“Let’s be clear, there is no one in this debate advocating that we do nothing despite the President’s constant straw man arguments. Republicans have offered comprehensive health care reform solutions that cover millions of the uninsured without exploding costs, raising taxes, or rationing care. We can give every American access to a health plan they can own, afford and keep without a government takeover.”
So I guess it’s Michele Bachmann and Jim Demint in 2012, then! Right? Bobby Jindal can be Secretary of Health & Human Services, Sarah Palin can be Secretary of Energy, Paul Ryan can be Secretary of Commerce and John Bolton can be Secretary of State. And Edith Hollan Jones and Janice Rogers Brown go on the Supreme Court! Oh, that makes me so happy!
Although there are some positive provisions in the current House Tri-Committee bill – including insurance for all and payment reform demonstration projects – the proposed legislation misses the opportunity to help create higher-quality, more affordable health care for patients. In fact, it will do the opposite.
In general, the proposals under discussion are not patient focused or results oriented. Lawmakers have failed to use a fundamental lever – a change in Medicare payment policy – to help drive necessary improvements in American health care. Unless legislators create payment systems that pay for good patient results at reasonable costs, the promise of transformation in American health care will wither. The real losers will be the citizens of the United States.
Obama is interested in controlling as much of the economy as possible – he is not interested in providing good services and prosperity for you!
Further study
You can learn more about the Republican health care plan with short 5-minute podcasts by brilliant policy analysts like Regina Hertzlinger, Sally Pipes and Rep. Paul Ryan. Not to mention Michael Tanner and Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute. There is an alternative way to lower health care costs while preserving individual choice and liberty: consumer-driven health care. Health care videos are here.
WINTERY KNIGHT 