Newt Gingrich: The Press Conference President Obama Could Give
State & National Politics |
(Today's Newt Gingrich Letter has been written with
Nancy Desmond, CEO of the Center for Health Transformation)
7/22/09 Last week, the Federal Reserve made a little noticed, but astonishing announcement. In addition to projecting unemployment over 10% in the coming months, they also projected no net new jobs over the next five years. Let me repeat that to drive the point home: no net new jobs over the next five years. This is an amazing and sober prediction about the health of our economy, one that should make every lawmaker pause and reassess the priorities of government. In this environment, almost every decision for lawmakers should come down to one question: Since small businesses create ¾ of the jobs in America, would this piece of legislation create a better or worse environment for small business job creation? It is in this context that tonight's press conference with President Obama on health reform should be judged. The Opportunity Buried in the Bad News Until now, President Obama has more or less allowed Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her allies in the House to dictate the terms by which health reform would be accomplished.Disappointingly, they have chosen an expensive, big-bureaucracy health care plan that would raise taxes on small businesses. The reaction from moderate Democrats, Republicans, health professionals, indeed, from most Americans, has been growing opposition, and despite a massive majority in the House, it looks unlikely today that Speaker Pelosi can coerce this legislation through Congress like she did the energy tax. As a result, President Obama could be stuck tonight trying to defend an indefensible piece of high tax legislation in the middle of a recession with growing unemployment and massive deficits. It's a task that will be even more difficult in the wake of CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf's recent testimony before the Senate Budget Committee that the proposed legislation would actually increase the long term trajectory of federal spending in healthcare. But what if President Obama used the announcement from the Federal Reserve to, in effect, start the health-reform debate over? What if he said tonight, that given the continued trouble of our economy, he is asking Congress to go back to the drawing board to craft a pro-jobs, pro-growth, pro-reform health bill that would gain bipartisan support? What would that bill look like? A Pro Jobs, Pro Growth Plan for Health Reform The fact is America desperately needs real change in our health and healthcare system. Americans are paying more and more money for less and less quality care.At the Center for Health Transformation, we have been working for the past six years to develop solutions for the problems in our health care system, which don't rely on higher taxes, bigger government, and more bureaucrats. We believe we can have a system in which every American has access to better health with more choices at lower cost. We believe we can have a system in which the individual and his or her doctor have the knowledge and incentives to make wise choices; a system in which fraud and waste are rooted out, in which quality and best practices (not volume of services) are rewarded and in which prevention, health and wellness are central. And most importantly in today's troubled economy, we believe we can have a system that will also be central to job creation and to America's economic recovery. Six Straightforward Steps to Better Healthcare To create a system that delivers more choices of higher quality health care at lower cost we need to take the following six straightforward steps:
The Last Thing We Need is a Plan That Raises Taxes and Eliminates Jobs Clearly, the last thing America needs is more taxes on job producers, whether it is in the form of a national energy tax, automatic tax increases in 2010 when the 2003 tax relief measures expire, or a healthcare plan that will raise taxes, eliminate jobs, and allows Washington bureaucrats to make decisions that ought to be made by individual Americans together with their families and doctors.President Obama has a choice tonight, as does America. We can make health and healthcare into a major source of job creation, economic revival, and improved health and well-being for every American. Or we can make it into a government-run system that will destroy our economy along with our health. To learn more about our plan for reforming health without raising taxes, eliminating jobs or raising the deficit, please visit HealthTransformation.net.
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