Listening To Grandpa

by digby

Guess what the teabaggers are up to?

GRASSLEY: SENATE HEALTH PLAN DEPLETES MEDICARE, RAISES PREMIUMS,
THWARTS CONSTITUTION

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Alert: The healthcare reform proposal that forces people to buy
health insurance could be unconstitutional and the government's
"public option" insurance plan will ultimately lead to the rationing
of medical care, Sen. Charles Grassley tells Newsmax.

The Iowa Republican the ranking GOP member of the Senate Finance
Committee also said the plan before Congress is bound to shift
"leftward" as is moves through the legislative process.

Newsmax.TV's Ashley Martella noted that the Finance Committee on
Tuesday voted 14-9 in favor of an $829 billion, 10-year healthcare
remake, with only one Republican, Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, voting
for the bill. He asked Sen. Grassley about her vote.

"I couldn't vote yes for several reasons, and I don't know her reason
for voting," Grassley responded.

"But you want to remember one thing: She's pretty meticulous and she
moves ahead, and she is not committed to following this thing all the
way through the process. That's what she's told me. And it better not
get any more leftward or they will lose her."

Grassley added that when the bill moves leftward it may even have a
"public option" in it.

Under such a plan, individuals and businesses would be allowed to
join a public healthcare insurance system which critics contend would
eventually bankrupt private insurers by offering cheaper healthcare
insurance.

"When you have a public option, the Heritage Foundation said, all
these people are going to opt out and go into the government plan
because the government's not a competitor, it's a predator," Grassley
warned.

"When you do that you're going to move into an area where pretty soon
everybody's in the government-run plan, and pretty soon you have what
they have in Canada a government-run plan with no choice, with
rationing."

Grassley explained why he opposed the Finance Committee bill.

"First of all, it takes $404 billion out of Medicare, and you want to
remember that Medicare is in bad shape anyway. So why would you take
that money and put it into a new government entitlement program?

"Secondly, this is the first time in the 225-year history of our
country that we have forced you as a constituent to buy a product.
You've been free to buy or not to buy, but now for the first time
you're going to have to buy health insurance. And if you don't buy
it, the IRS is going to tax the family $1,500."

As to whether this provision is constitutional, Grassley said: "I'm
not a lawyer but I've listened to some lawyers speak on this. I don't
think we've ever had this issue before of having to buy something,
and a lot of constitutional lawyers are saying it is
unconstitutional, or at least a violation of the Tenth Amendment."

That amendment provides that powers not granted to the federal
government nor prohibited to the states "are reserved to the states
respectively, or to the people."

Grassley continued: "Maybe states can do this, but can the federal
government do it? So I have my doubts.

"But here's the untold story 85 percent of people in this country
have health insurance already. So what does the Congressional Budget
Office as well as the industry say? That premiums are going to go up
for that 85 percent of the people because of our not doing anything
to keep them from going up.

"What is this healthcare debate mostly about for those 85 percent of
the people? They're tired of their premiums going up so much over the
past four or five years. Then you're going to have what's called the
individual mandate you have to buy insurance and you still have 25
million people who don't have health insurance."

Martella asked if Grassley agrees with Senate Minority Leader Mitch
McConnell's assertion that the bill approved by the Finance Committee
will never come before the Senate.

"I 100 percent agree with it," Grassley declared. "That doesn't mean
that none of it will come before the Senate. What he's saying is,
it's not going to have an identity all by itself because it's going
to be merged with the Senate Health Committee bill that came out of
committee back in July when Senator Kennedy was chairing that
committee.

"Understand that this thing has moved leftward even in the Finance
Committee. I was part of a group of six negotiating what was supposed
to be a bipartisan bill. The White House pulled the rug out from
those negotiations because they wanted to move ahead.

"So they moved ahead in a partisan way and the bill moved leftward in
the Finance Committee. And when it's merged with the Senate Health
Committee bill it's going to move more leftward.

"Then when you look at all the left-wing ideas that [Speaker Nancy]
Pelosi has in the House of Representatives, with her vast majority
over there, it's going to move further to the left." (NewsMax)


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