Grassley: 'Public Option' Will Lead to Nationalization of Healthcare

[Herb Schaffler]

Grassley: Democrats' 'Public Option' Will Lead to Nationalization of Healthcare


Wednesday, August 5, 2009 7:13 PM

By: Jim Meyers

Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley tells Newsmax that the healthcare reform plans Democrats are proposing would be a "backdoor" to a Canadian-style, single-payer plan and the nationalization of healthcare.
In an interview with Newsmax.TV's Kathleen Walter, Grassley indicated he would strenuously oppose Democratic plans advanced in the House and the Senate. The ranking Republican on the Finance Committee, he is one of three Republicans from the Committee involved in talks with Democrats on plans to overhaul the healthcare system.
See Video: Sen. Charles Grassley reveals how much damage the Democrat’s ‘public option’ could do to American medical care - [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link.
Though a Republican, Grassley is considered a moderate on the healthcare issue and his view may hold sway over Democratic conservatives or “Blue Dogs” who have been on the fence over whether they’ll embrace health plans that President Obama has backed.
Grassley slammed a key element of Democratic plans – the so-called “public option.” Under these plans, individuals and businesses would be allowed to join the public healthcare insurance system.
But critics contend such a system, offering cheaper health care, would eventually bankrupt private insurers.
About the public option, Grassley said his biggest worry is "the extent to which the federal government runs everything — and that would be the case with the public option."
"And I want to say how that happens. It doesn't happen just because you pass a public option. It's a backdoor to a Canadian-style, single-payer plan. And don't forget, seven out of the 13 Democrats on Senator Kennedy's [Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions] did vote for a Canadian single-payer plan."
Grassley warned that such a system would increase costs and lead to massive new taxes.
President Obama has pledged not to raise taxes on middle-class Americans.
"First of all, a very very important consideration for any tax issue that's coming up right now is, when we're in the middle of a recession, why would you want to raise any taxes?" Grassley asked. He is also a member of the Joint Committee on Taxation.
"[Democrats have] got the feeling you can raise taxes on the top one percent and solve all the problems of government. That's not real. You could confiscate, let alone tax, all the income over $250,000 that people make each year, and you couldn't run the federal government for more than three or four months. So it's idiotic to think that's a solution...
"You get the feeling that [Democrats] not only want to tax at 39.6 percent, but also add 5 percent to it for healthcare, and add on the average of 5 1/2 percent for state income tax. Pretty soon you're above 50 percent, and pretty soon you have a higher level of taxation than Sweden has."
He also rejected demands by the president and some Democrats that Congress should pass healthcare legislation quickly.
"We're not focused on getting done by a certain time. There might be other people that have that in mind. But our goal is, quite frankly, to do it right.
"And when I say do it right, it involves two things that are very essential that we always have to keep in the back of our mind.
"Number one, we're talking about some restructuring of one-sixth of the economy. That's a big thing in and of itself that Congress has never done before.
"And the other one is that when you deal with something called healthcare, you're talking about the life and death of every American. And so for those two reasons, the prime consideration has to be to get it right, as opposed to get it done by a certain time."
Grassley noted that Democrats originally stated that they wanted to pass healthcare reform before the upcoming summer recess. But he said the 4-week recess will provide an opportunity for people to discuss the healthcare proposals and tell their representatives what they think of them.
"Much of this legislation doesn't go into effect until the year 2013 because it takes a long phase-in period, so what's one more week or one more month when our goal is to get it right?" Grassley said.
"Instead, we will work to develop a nonpartisan bill that will not lead to the nationalization of health insurance, which you do through a public option."
Grassley also said he opposes Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court because she is a "judicial activist" who "believes you ought to be able to legislate from the bench," and warned that the cap-and-trade plan being pushed by Democrats would lead to the export of all manufacturing in the U.S. to China.
See Video: Sen. Charles Grassley reveals how much damage the Democrat’s ‘public option’ could do to American medical care - [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link.









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