Rep. Paul Ryan (D-WI) is making a name for himself in Republican circles as one absolutely sharp cookie when it comes to the budget, healthcare, and the intermingling of the two. At today’s House Rules Committee that was discussing if and how the reconciliation may proceed, he is testifying the actual numbers of costs as derived by the CBO. It is devastating to the idea of this bill being a net deficit reducer (once a number of the "magical number hand-waving" is done). At about 5:28, he gets to the nub of the problem: money and should Congress be meddling so much into the personal lives of regular Americans?
So, it is very, very clear, that when you strip away the gimmicks, when you look at the fact that thistreats Medicare like a piggy bank to create new government programs, what we are doing here is that we are imposing a new entitlement that we don’t know how to pay for on top of the other entitlements that we don’t have money for, we are imposing job killing tax increases that American people at a time that we are trying to create jobs.
And finally, let’s just take a look at the architecture of this legislation. It is designed to give the Federal Government control over what kind of health insurance available for all Americans, it mandates Americans buy health insurance that is determined by the Secretary of HHS, it tells us how much healthcare is enough, and ittells us which treatments are worth paying for.
I don’t think this is what people send us here to do.
Complete vid:
