Brenham Banner-Press: McCaul: Obama Not Giving The Entire Picture

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Brenham Banner-Press: McCaul: Obama Not Giving The Entire Picture

U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul accused President Obama of not giving "the entire picture" on how health care reforms will impact average Americans.

Obama addressed the nation Wednesday night on those reforms, saying something must be done to rein in costs.

"If we do not reform health care, your premiums and out-of-pocket costs will continue to skyrocket," Obama said, looking past the dozens of reporters assembled for his White House news conference and peering straight into the TV cameras. "If we do not act, 14,000 Americans will continue to lose their health insurance every single day."

But McCaul said the proposed reforms will add billions to the federal deficit.

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"The president did not give Americans the entire picture of how his government-run health care proposal will affect the nation," said McCaul.

"The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says it makes health care more expensive and will add almost $240 billion to our deficit. The rest is paid for by raising taxes on families and small businesses that can't afford it in a difficult economy.

"Businesses in my district have told me they will lay off workers to avoid costly surtaxes. Doctors are concerned about quality of care.

"This plan creates more problems than it solves."

House Republican Whip Eric Cantor also said today that that too much of the burden of bankrolling a new health care system would fall on small businesses at a time when job-creation is virtually nonexistent.

At the same time, the Virginia Republican said he doubts that a version of the plan in the House can win passage before members of Congress leave for their August recess. "If they're going to get this passed next week, it's going to have to be a changed bill," he said.

Cantor and Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., who is acting chairman of a Senate committee that has a key role in shaping the legislation, appeared on morning network news shows. Dodd said Congress must "stick with this" and said that in the past many years, presidents of both parties have been stymied in efforts to reinvent the system.

Senior White House adviser David Axelrod reiterated President Barack Obama's plea for lawmakers to act now.

"The bottom line here is right now health care premiums have doubled over the last decade. Out of pocket costs up by a third," he said. "Health care costs are growing three times the rate of wages."

"It's an unsustainable path," Axelrod added, "and the government is being crunched by it, businesses are being crushed by it. We have to respond."

Discussing Obama's prime-time news conference, Cantor said: "What I heard last night was a president that seems somewhat frustrated that people do not understand what this government health care plan is all about. I think people still have a lot of questions about what a (new) health care plan means for them and their families."

Cantor said Republicans accept that change is needed in the U.S. health care system, but that they think Obama is pushing too aggressively for it to be done quickly.

The key, Cantor added, is to "make sure we don't rush to judgment, make sure we don't just try to get something passed."

Dodd said he thought Obama was "trying to calm the waters. ... We're getting a lot more fear and exaggeration about this."

The Connecticut Democrat also said it isn't solely Obama's job to figure out how to finance a new system, saying that "we in the Congress have to decide how to do this. But we need to stick with this. The notion somewhere that we ought to put this off until a later date — that's a Washington answer."

Cantor said accusations that the GOP favors keeping the status quo amount to "another straw man argument. ... We have said consistently that Republicans do not accept the status quo, but what we want to do is make sure we get it right."

He argued that the plan Obama favors "imposes a huge burden on small businesses. We've got to be about job creation."

Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana said he "liked a lot" of what Obama had to say Wednesday night.

"His marketing is the best part of this," Jindal added. "You listen to what the president said. He said he does not want to increase the deficit, does not want government control of health care. He wants people to keep their insurance. He wants to crack down on the abuse, the over-utilization. All that's great. The problem is, that's not what's in the House Democrat bill."

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