During a districtwide tour, Congressman Sam Graves came to Grant City last week and blasted the federal deficit, Obama's health plan, and Cap & Trade. Around 40-50 people attended the meeting at the Fairgrounds Building, in which he talked about his work in Washington and in which he took questions from constituents.
Regarding the deficit, he said that "if you did that, you would go broke." He said that the current deficit, which he said was higher than any in history, was "a legacy that we would have to pay back."
The theme of Graves' tour was "Main Street Matters," and he pointed to specific legislation that he said would be bad for small businesses. Cap and Trade would require all businesses to place caps on emissions or face a carbon tax. Proponents say that this legislation is necessary because they argue that man-made pollution will create long-term global warming that will result in rising ocean levels, leading to the displacement of millions or even billions of people. They envision worst-case scenarios in which low-level cities such as Boston or New Orleans or Florida would be flooded under by rising sea levels. But Graves said that the proposed solution was bad for this area because Missouri was a coal-dependent state that would be hit hard by any such legislation. Senator Claire McCaskill has publicly voiced concerns about Cap and Trade because of Missouri's coal dependence as well. He said that the result would be an estimated 60% increase in electricity rates for the state and that it would become more expensive to move goods across the country. Consequently, he said that it would be bad for the economy since it takes fuel to move goods. And Graves said that there was nothing to protect farms from these new offset requirements because he said that the EPA could overrule any agency who tries to exempt farms from Cap and Trade requirements.
"China and India love bills like this," said Graves. He said that a better alternative was an "all of the above" approach that he and his Republican colleagues were developing. Graves said that contrary to media reports that the Republicans had no ideas, he said that they did have ideas for energy policy but that the Democrats who control the committees would not give them a fair hearing. "We do have alternatives to the President's proposals and we have been trying to push these alternatives," he said.
Turning to healthcare, Graves turned to one of his favorite props, a huge copy of HR 3200, the Health Care Bill thousands of pages long, which he dropped on the table to demonstrate what he said was the ridiculous size of government. He said that the Democrats tried and failed to get that bill passed without letting people read it or knowing what it was about before the August recess. But he said that the August recess was bad for the bill's chances because people could read it and see for themselves what a bad bill it was. "We've read it and we don't like what we see," he said. For instance, on page 16, he said it states that after five years, no new individual plans could be written. In another section, according to Graves, it allows the government to set health insurance prices. Graves said that problem with a government-run healthcare system was that it would drive hospitals away and make healthcare even more inaccessible. "More and more hospitals are not taking Medicare or Medicaid anymore," he said. "And I don't want some bureaucrat deciding for me what healthcare choices I can make."
Graves accused the current Democratic leadership in the House of not listening to Republican ideas. "I've had a bill on associated healthcare plans that would drive down the cost of health insurance for three years, and it has never even gotten a hearing," he said. "We do have alternatives to what the Democrats are proposing. We are going around the county holding hearings on healthcare solutions, and the Democrats are calling us 'unamerican' because we get the word out that the way they are going to pay for all this is to cut Medicare by $500 billion to pay for all this."
Turning to the current budget deficit, Graves aid it was "absolutely unsustainable" and that the government was trying to balance it "on the backs of small businesses" with such things as surtaxes. He said that increased taxes were the "wrong approach" during a recession and that the current healthcare plan would add one to two trillion dollars to the deficit. "It doesn't mean we don't need changes," said Graves. For instance, he said allowing businesses to pool together to purchase insurance would drive rates down because he said that an insurance pool of 8,000 employees was more manageable from a risk standpoint than 10 employees. Graves said that would allow small businesses to offer health insurance to their employees. Graves said that another solution was tort reform, saying that people in states that have it have to pay for those who don't.
Talking about possible changes down the road for local jurisdictions, local authorities have worried about changes coming down the road that they would not be able to meet financially. Graves said that what was being considered was a revision to the Clean Water Act that would give the EPA jurisdiction over all waterways; currently, they only have jurisdiction over navigable waterways. Graves feared that this change would mean that the EPA could regulate runoff from farms. "That would be a huge infringement on property rights," he said.
Addressing rumors that the BRO Program, which has funded 15 new bridges in the county, would be dropped, Graves said that it was part of the Transportation Bill; he explained that transportation bills are authorized every six years and that it would not be up for renewal for another 18 months. The administration can ask for an extension, which they have in this case. In other words, he said that nothing was written in stone regarding the BRO Program.
Asked for his thoughts on the Fairness Doctrine, which required radio stations to give equal time to differing points of view, Graves said that it was "basic business sense" for outlets to put what people wanted on the air.
Talking about Social Security, Graves said that it was in "a lot of trouble" and that the administration had already announced that there would be no cost of living increase for next year despite the fact that prices were still going up.
Graves said that in order for the administration's agenda to pass, it would have to be done this year. "Bills like this have to get done this year, because they would never pass in an election year," he said. He said that the problem was that "we are always told that we have to support this or that bailout or it will be the end of the world." By contrast, Graves said that the economy comes and goes in cycles and that it would have recovered without all of the government bailouts that he said added to an already massive deficit. "I voted against President Bush's bailout last year, the GM bailout, the stimulus bill, and the spending bill," he said. "The economy will recover regardless of what the government does, but the goverment can prolong a recession by passing more taxes." By contrast, Graves said that the proper way to stimulate an economy was to cut taxes "or at least don't increase taxes." He said that as opposed to passing "Speaker Pelosi's baby" of stimulus bills, "Let's give the people more money thru tax cuts so that they can stimulate the economy themselves."
The problem according to Graves was that "bad legislation is easy to pass but hard to get rid of." For instance, he said that the Healthcare Bill was written by Chairman Henry Waxman's staff and HHS staff and consisted of what he called "regurgitated ideas" from the failed health care reform efforts of 1993. And he said that the Stimulus Bill was originally considered to be an infrastructure bill but that only 3% or so of the funds were actually devoted to that.
Asked a question about the Guantanamo detainees, he said that that "they can rot in Guantanamo as far as I'm concerned." He explained that he had read the intelligence reports on them for three hours after getting the necessary clearances and "it takes a whole week to get over what these folks were capable of." Graves said that terrorists only needed to be right one time and we needed to be right all the time in combatting terrorism. "We weren't thinking ahead before 9/11," he said. Graves said he wasn't buying the argument that America's interrogation policies had hurt our standing in the world. "People gripe about us, but we're the first country they turn to when they need help," he said. "And I do not want the UN coming in and telling us what we have to do with ourselves."
Graves said that he was more excited by the "tax revolts" than he had been by anything in a long time. He said that part of the reason that people were fed up was because the government was "overreaching on simple little stuff" and coming up with "goofy ideas." For instance, he said that the Cap and Trade bill included a tax per head on cattle, which he said that Chairman Henry Waxman was preparing to slip in at some point.
Regarding ethanol, Graves said that he was continuing to fight for more ethanol standards, which he said that Big Oil was trying to block. "A blend of 50% soy/diesel is 50% out of their market share," he said. He called arguments that ethanol was not clean "ridiculous" and that pushing to end our dependence on foreign oil through ethanol was a "win-win." He said that the CBO has debunked one of the main arguments against ethanol, that it would raise the price of food. Graves said that as an example of the kind of ridiculous arguments he heard against ethanol, the Kansas City Star did an article about how ethanol was going to raise the price of popcorn at movies.
Addressing No Child Left Behind, Graves said that it was currently in limbo because "nobody wants to act on it." It was supposed to be reauthorized last year; however, it never was. He said he would like to see three things changed. The first was that it should differentiate between schools that miss one or two criteria and schools that miss all 13. Currently, a school that misses one criteria narrowly is treated as failing, just like schools that miss all 13. The second idea that Graves said he wanted to see was for children on IEP's to be removed from No Child Left Behind standards; he said that the goals of the IEP program and No Child Left Behind were in conflict with each other. The third thing that Graves said needed to be changed was that No Child Left Behind should measure students as they progress through school, not measure last year's fourth grade against this year's fourth grade. He said that "there is a big difference between one fourth grade class and the next" and that the law of averages might work in bigger schools, but that it doesn't in smaller schools.
On the flip side, Graves said that vouchers were not a solution for failing schools because he said that would take away what made private schools unique. He said that once the government started funding private schools like they do public schools, they would start making regulations for them like they currently do public schools. "A lot of public schools are just as good as private schools," he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment