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Politico.com...
House GOP punches
reform again
By: Kate Nocera and David Nather
January 27, 2011
House Republicans launched a two-pronged attack on health reform
Wednesday, ripping apart the idea that it cuts spending and painting it
as a disaster for business.
The first hearing of the Budget Committee took on the spending
argument, while the Ways and Means Committee went after the law as
anti-business.
And despite President Barack Obama’s State of the Union plea to stop
the fighting on health care, the administration counterpunched by
calling in Costco chief executive officer Jim Sinegal to argue in a
conference call with reporters that, actually, the law is pretty good
to businesses.
There’s risk for both sides in the dueling story lines. Republicans
could overreach by spending too much time laying out the case against
the law through their daily drumbeat of hearings and repeal bills.
“The danger for them is that they’re making the same mistakes we did,”
said Dem pollster Mark Mellman.
For Democrats, the risk is that the public won’t buy their claim that
the law will reduce the deficit over time. In a poll released Tuesday
by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 60 percent said the law would increase
the deficit. That’s up from 45 percent in April 2010, right after Obama
signed the legislation into law.
“To continue to stick to the case that they lost last year plays right
into Republicans’ hands,” said GOP pollster Whit Ayres.
Republicans argue that the Congressional Budget Office estimate, which
shows repealing the law could increase the deficit by $230 billion, is
flawed because it looks at only 10 years and the law’s costs will
increase after that. The public might be open to their view, the poll
suggests.
“There is doubt, clearly, that this can bring down the deficit, and
those doubts are growing,” said Carroll Doherty, associate director of
the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.
But the Kaiser poll also found that 62 percent opposed cutting off
funding to stop the law from taking effect. And a Pew survey this month
found the law ranked ninth on the list of the year’s most important
issues, while the economy and jobs were first and second. “Revising the
health care law is a middle-tier issue, even for Republicans,” Doherty
said.
Republican pollster David Winston said the party has to build the case
that getting rid of the law will help the economy, and hearings are the
best way to highlight problems the GOP blames on the law, such as
higher premiums and tax increases. “This is significant enough that it
has to be dealt with,” he said. “This is something that has to be
clearly laid out, using the committee process.”
And use the committee process the GOP did. The Ways and Means Committee
heard from two small-business owners who were clearly distraught about
the legislation.
Joe Olivio, owner of a small New Jersey printing company, said he’d
have to change a health care plan his employees were happy with because
of the law. Additionally, he said, he does not qualify for the tax
credit.
“Providing qualifying coverage to all full-time employees is a huge new
expense. At $7,000 per full-time employee, this ... is beyond our
ability to pay,” said Scott Womack, who owns IHOPs in Indiana and Ohio.
Republicans took every opportunity to discredit administration
economist Austan Goolsbee’s assessment that the law would stimulate job
growth and help small businesses.
“I hear near unanimous opinion from small-business owners that this
health care law is going to be devastating for them,” said Rep. Wally
Herger (R-Calif.). “Can you explain why the administration’s claims are
so out of touch with what we are hearing from people who are actually
creating jobs?”
“I often hear a lot of misunderstanding of what is in the law” and what
would apply to small-business owners, Goolsbee said.
He tried to highlight that as many as 4 million small businesses may be
eligible for the tax credit and that the law would allow small
businesses access to the same cheaper premiums as large employers. He
said the 1099 provision could go but that the law would decrease the
deficit and help millions. He said health care costs were rising long
before the reform debate began and that reform actually helps slow
increases. Private-sector jobs have increased every month since the law
was signed, he said; and most important, the CBO says the law will
reduce the deficit.
The arguments fell on deaf ears.
“You’ve said a lot of things just aren’t true in the real world,” said
Rep. Sam Johnson (R-Texas).
Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.) asked Goolsbee how the 1099 tax provision
was inserted if no one liked it to begin with.
“I don’t know; I wasn’t there. I’m just an economist,” Goolsbee said.
“Then why are you here? Why are we listening to you?” Reichart said.
Republicans on the Budget Committee tried to undercut the CBO-scored
savings in the law, too.
Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) pressed Rick Foster, actuary for the
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, on whether funds are being
“double-counted” as both paying down the deficit and extending
Medicare’s solvency. That’s the key critical double-accounting
[situation],” Ryan said. “There’s an issue with trust fund accounting,
and then there’s an issue with what actually happens.”
Foster said some of the Medicare savings are in fact double-counted. He
said a hypothetical $100 in Medicare taxes would be counted as $100
toward paying for health reform and $100 toward paying for Medicare.
“The obvious catch, at least I hope is fairly obvious, is $100 can’t be
spent as $100 toward health care and $100 toward Medicare
expenditures,” he said. But, “because of the budget accounting
principles and the trust fund accounting principles, both of these
things happen,” Foster said.
Foster also said the law is unlikely to reduce unsustainable growth in
medical costs because the newly insured will be taking advantage of new
access to medical services.
No one seems to be backing down.
“Republicans can continue to trash the health reform law all they want,
but the American people clearly don’t want them refighting debates of
the past. Republicans ... didn’t propose any new ideas for creating
jobs and didn’t do anything on their so-called ‘replace’ promise,” a
House Democratic aide said.
Jennifer Haberkorn contributed to this report.
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