House Facing Problems With Health Care
Rural members of the House want different health care answers.
Compiled by staff
Published: Jul 20, 2009
Rural Democrats are speaking out against the health care bill unveiled by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., last week. According to information from the Rural America Solutions Group 22 Democratic members of the House sent a letter to the speaker to state their opposition to the plan because it will raise taxes and place undue burdens on small businesses. The letter reportedly expresses that the country shouldn't kill the goose that will lay the golden eggs of recovery.
As Congress returns to work this week lawmakers also face a negative report from the Congressional Budget Office. CBO's Douglas Elmendorf told the Senate Budget Committee last week that the main proposals being considered would fail to contain costs, one of the primary goals, and could actually worsen the problem of rapidly escalating medical spending. Elmendorf said CBO doesn't see the kinds of fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the trajectory of federal health spending by a significant amount.
Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, says Elmendorf's assessment is of great concern and called for renewed focus on restraining spending. He said nothing else matters if reform doesn't get costs under control; it would just put more people into a broken system.
The Rural America Solutions Group says it will continue to fight to make quality health care coverage affordable and accessible for every American, provide Americans with the freedom to choose the health plan that best fits their needs and protect Americans from being forced into a government-run health care plan. They say a government-run health care plan would just mean new taxes and government mandates.
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