Health Care Questions for President Obama
In advance of President Obama’s news conference this evening, the Republican Conference has prepared a list of questions regarding the President’s health care initiative:
- How many jobs will be lost as a result of the $1.6 trillion nationalization of our health care industry?
- Have you read the House bill—or any of the legislation being considered? Given this legislation will affect the health and well-being of every American, will you commit to reading any legislation presented to you in its entirety before deciding whether to sign or veto such a bill?
- Do you agree that imposing taxes on individuals who cannot afford to purchase health insurance—as both the House and Senate bills would do—violates your campaign promise not to raise taxes on individuals with incomes under $250,000—“not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes?”
- Do you agree with 20 House Democrats—as well as outside supporters of health reform like Jim Wallis from Sojourners—that any health care bill must ensure that federal taxpayer funds are not used to finance and expand abortion coverage? Would you commit to working with Speaker Pelosi to ensure that Members will at least have an opportunity for a specific vote on whether or not taxpayer dollars will be used to fund abortion coverage?
- You have previously stated that you will not sign a bill that increases the deficit. Does this promise extend to the nearly $300 billion cost of adjusting Medicare payment levels for physicians?
- You have previously stated your support for rationed health care: “The chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for potentially 80 percent of the total health care bill out here….There is going to have to be a very difficult democratic conversation that takes place.” Do you therefore agree that even though rationing health care “will in some cases lead to worse health for particular patients,” waiting lists are acceptable because “on average” patients will not suffer?
- Former Congressional Budget Office Director Robert Reischauer has criticized your proposal to allow a board of unelected bureaucrats to make binding recommendations on cost savings in the health system, calling it a “terrible mistake.” Do you believe that such a board “inevitably…will be subject to political pressures”—thereby increasing, rather than decreasing, the influence of special interests and lobbyists in Washington?