Today in Washington D. C. - Sept 15, 2009 - Americans Concerned About Cost and Impact of Health Bills

Update (6:15 pm): House passed a resolution of disapproval against Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), for Wilson's "You lie!" shout during President Barack Obama's health care address to a joint session of Congress. 233 Democrats and 7 Republicans voted yes; 12 Democrats and 167 Republicans voted no and 5 Democrats voted present.
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The Senate will resume consideration of H.R. 3288, the fiscal 2010 Transportation-Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill. The bill provides $122 billion, including $11.1 billion for federal transit programs.

The House Democrat leadership is pushing a resolution of disapproval against Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., for Wilson's "You lie!" shout during President Barack Obama's health care address to a joint session of Congress. Note that Rep. Wilson has already apologized for his remark to the President and the apology was accepted. However, Pelois and the Democrat caucus wanted Wilson to formally stand in the House and apologize again which he refused to do. Before disapproving of Wilson, Democrats need to be consistent and punish a litany of their own like John Murtha.

More polling today shows continued public skepticism of the health care reform proposals being pushed by President Obama and Democrats in Congress. Still, Senate Democrats appear determined to plow ahead, despite their seeming inability to agree on anything, according to a number of news stories today.

A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll after the president’s address to a joint session of Congress last week shows "Americans almost evenly divided over passing a health care bill and inclined to think it would make some of the system’s vexing problems worse, not better. . . . The president’s speech apparently failed to galvanize public opinion in the way the White House had hoped. . . . Six in 10 say Obama’s proposal, if enacted, would not achieve his goals of expanding coverage to nearly all Americans without raising taxes on the middle class or lowering the quality of health care. For the first time, a majority disapprove of the way he’s handling health care policy.”

A separate USA Today article is more detailed about Americans’ apprehension over Democrats’ health care proposals: “If a bill passes this year, 40% predict it will improve health care coverage, but 37% say it will make things worse. When it comes to the overall costs and quality of health care, Americans are inclined to say the legislation will cause more harm than good. Support for a bill plummets to 26% if expanding coverage means higher taxes for the middle class, and to 20% if middle-class Americans will have to pay more for health care than they do now.”

As with most of the other polling, the new USA Today/Gallup Poll also finds Americans deeply concerned about the cost of these proposals and the already record-breaking deficit. “Nearly six in 10 disapprove of [Obama’s] handling of the federal budget deficit. In response to another question, 60% say Obama’s proposals to address the country’s biggest problems call for too much government spending, and 51% say he’s called for too much expansion of government power.  In response to an open-ended question, the top reason cited by those who oppose a health care bill was concern about big government. The cost of a bill was also high on the list.”

None of this is apparently deterring Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) who continues to claim he will have a health care bill ready to present this week and begin marking up next week. The President's visit to Montana and fund raising efforts for Baucus seems to have lit a fire under Baucus.  However, his efforts still face problems from his fellow Democrats. According to The Wall Street Journal, “Some rank-and-file Senate Democrats are voicing concerns about sweeping health legislation being crafted by … Baucus, citing what they describe as excessive burdens placed on some families and concerns over financing for the $880 billion package.” The Journal reports, “Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) complained the legislation would ask working Americans to commit as much as 13% of their income to buy basic insurance. . . . ‘That’s a real hit on middle-class families.’ . . . . Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.) raised concerns about Mr. Baucus’s mix of new taxes and other means of paying for the plan.”

Of course, Republicans also have serious problems with Baucus’ proposals, as The New York Times notes. Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Mike Enzi (R-WY) have requested major changes to Baucus’ proposal, pointing to their concerns about a Medicaid expansion becoming an unfunded mandate on states, fees imposed on health insurance companies and manufacturers of medical equipment, and a lack of explicit prohibitions on abortion funding.

Yesterday, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell focused on Americans’ legitimate concerns about financing the massive health care overhauls envisioned by democrats: “Any school kid in America could tell you that creating a massive new government program will cost a lot of money; that cutting Medicare by hundreds of billions of dollars will lead to cuts in services that people currently enjoy; and that higher taxes on small businesses will lead to even more job losses. These are serious questions; the administration’s response to them is not. Its response is to accuse anyone who asks them of being a scaremonger, and to give them the same two-word answer they gave anybody who questioned the Stimulus: ‘Trust us.’”

Who in Congress was listing listing to the people who rallied in Washington D.C. on 9-12. I believe their message was clear. They were not asking for a bipartisan effort. The people were saying, "keep your hands off our health care!"

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