McConnell, Boehner Refuse Appointments To Obamacare Rationing Board
Today In Washington, D.C. - May 9, 2013
Yesterday, the House Benghazi hearing was extraordinary, but as Gary Bauer noted "that you wouldn't know it if you depended on Big Media. Major networks like CNN and MSNBC did not cover yesterday's whistle-blower testimony on the Benghazi scandal. Instead they chose to follow Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus, who were held captive in an Ohio home for ten years, as they returned to their families. Fox News covered the vast majority of Benghazi hearing. Also today's Washington Post had a relatively balanced story, noting that the witnesses "provided a riveting, emotional account of last year's fatal attack" and 'accused senior government officials of withholding embarrassing facts.' Are Obama and Hillary in real trouble? It's too early to know for sure. The fact that some of the witnesses appeared to contradict Hillary Clinton's testimony does not by itself prove that Hillary committed perjury. You have to prove that she intentionally lied using sources other than someone else's statements."
At a press conference today House Speaker John Boehner called on the Obama White House to release more information on Benghazi. Referring specifically to an email to the Libyan ambassador, Boehner said:"I hope you all tuned in to yesterday's hearing on the tragedy in Benghazi. We learned that on September 12 -- the day after the attacks and four days before Susan Rice's TV appearances -- a senior State Department official emailed her superiors to relay that … she had told the Libyan Ambassador that the attack was conducted by Islamic terrorists.
"The State Department would not allow our committees to keep copies of this email when it was reviewed. And I would call on the president to order the State Department to release this email so that the American people can see it."
Today, the Senate will vote on two district judge nominees. The Senate will then return to consideration of S. 601 with possible votes on amendments. Yesterday, the Senate voted >to adopt an amendment to S. 601 from Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) directing the Fish and Wildlife Service to coordinate a program to prevent the spread of invasive Asian carp. Prior to that vote, two amendments failed to get the 60 votes agreed upon for adoption: an amendment from Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) that would have permitted lawful gun owners to possess their firearms on property managed by the Army Corps of Engineers andan amendment from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)which would have created a National Endowment for the Oceans.
Today, the House passed H.R. 807, The Full Faith and Credit Act (221 - 207) which prevents default should the debt ceiling be reached. This proactive step was to prevent default, provide certainty to seniors, and preserve America’s credit rating. Republican Study Committee Chairman Rep. Steve Scalise said, “Under President Obama’s watch, the American credit rating was downgraded for the first time in history, and our economy simply cannot afford for that to happen again. Without this bill, America’s credit rating will be further jeopardized by President Obama as he continues threatening default during each debt ceiling debate. Hitting the debt ceiling is a symptom of Washington’s spending problem. By taking the threat of default off the table, this bill allows Washington to focus on actually solving the spending problem so we can create a healthy economy.
“This legislation serves as an insurance policy, protecting America's economic security from the harm of President Obama's reckless and irresponsible posturing. House Republicans have laid out a real roadmap for budgeting responsibly and, by taking default off the table, this bill provides certainty for our economy while we work to implement real solutions to the spending problem that continues forcing Washington to max out its credit card.”
Specifically, the Full Faith and Credit Act:
Dear Mr. President,
We write to respond to your March 29, 2013 letter requesting that we submit the names of individuals to serve on the Individual Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), which was created in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111-148). Because the law will give IPAB’s 15 unelected, unaccountable individuals the ability to deny seniors access to innovative care, we respectfully decline to recommend appointments.
As you know, we opposed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act because we knew it would increase health costs, impose costly burdens on job creators, and raid Medicare to pay for a massive new entitlement. In order to allow supporters to claim that the law’s Medicare cuts would be realized in the future, it tasked IPAB with reducing payments to providers or eliminating payments for certain treatments and procedures altogether. These reduced payments will force providers to stop seeing Medicare patients, the same way an increased number of doctors have stopped taking Medicaid patients. This will lead to access problems, waiting lists and denied care for seniors.
The unfortunate result is that decisions which impact America’s seniors will be made in the absence of the democratic process, without the system of checks and balances that would normally apply to important matters of public policy. Yet your recent budget called for expanding IPAB by tasking it with making even larger cuts to Medicare than those called for in the health law, even though the trustees of the Medicare program have told us that IPAB’s provider cuts would be “difficult to achieve in practice,” because of the denied care that seniors would experience.
We believe Congress should repeal IPAB, just as we believe we ought to repeal the entire health care law. In its place, we should work in a bipartisan manner to develop the long-term structural changes that are needed to strengthen and protect Medicare for today’s seniors, their children, and their grandchildren. We hope establishing this board never becomes a reality, which is why full repeal of the Affordable Care Act remains our goal.
On the Senate floor this morning, Leader McConnell added, “This morning, Speaker Boehner and I informed the President that we will not be recommending individuals to serve on the Individual Payment Advisory Board. The IPAB, as some call it, is a commission set up by Obamacare that is charged with reducing Medicare payments to health care providers and determining what services should be available to seniors. Of course, we know that will lead to access problems, waiting lists, and denied care for seniors – what most people would call rationing. . . . [W]e want to know that [health care] decisions will be made between patients, their families and their physician, not an unaccountable board of bureaucrats like the IPAB – one that even has the power to overrule payment decisions made by Congress and signed into law by the President.”
Yet despite this latest challenge and weeks of news reports of serious problems arising from implementing his unpopular health care law, President Obama is apparently determined to charge ahead with it, according to Bloomberg News. “Just weeks after his re-election, President Barack Obama summoned about 20 senior administration officials to the White House’s Roosevelt Room for an hour-long meeting on the implementation of his health-care law. Obama began by reminding his staff that the Affordable Care Act would be one of his major legacies and its execution among the highest priorities of his second term, according to a Democrat familiar with the gathering. The session, which has been followed by regular presidential briefings, led to a two-track campaign to defend the measure against united Republican opposition declaring it a failure and to motivate uninsured Americans to sign up for health-care coverage.”
The Bloomberg story notes many of the problems the president is facing: “Only 16 states have agreed to set up the health-insurance exchanges at which millions will begin shopping on Oct. 1, forcing the federal government to step in and do it. Republican lawmakers have blocked funding. And a poll shows 42 percent of Americans don’t even know the law was enacted. Senator Max Baucus, an architect of the statute, said he sees ‘a huge train wreck’ coming. . . . [T]he issues facing the startup of Obama’s health-care law are formidable. Sebelius said in an April 24 congressional hearing that the federal government wasn’t sure until this year how many exchanges it would have to build for states. . . . Congressional Republicans opposed a request from the Office of Management and Budget for $949 million in additional funding for implementation, and the money wasn’t included in a continuing resolution passed in March to fund the federal government through Sept. 30.”
Leader McConnell said this morning, “I hear that the President plans to hold another event tomorrow where he will claim that Obamacare is helping women . . . . There are many other small businesswomen who will see their dreams crushed under the weight of Obamacare’s nearly 20,000 pages of regulations. There are many women in their 20s and 30s who will be unable to afford the law’s massive premium increases. And there are many mothers who won’t be able to get by if their employers cut their hours due to Obamacare. Or if they lose their jobs because of it. . . . So, the President should rethink the purpose of this event. I hope he will use it instead as a platform to prepare women for the actual consequences many of them will soon face under Obamacare. More broadly, the President needs to get out in front of this ‘train wreck’ before Americans – men and women alike – are completely blindsided by it. . . . And, if the President is truly concerned about jobs, then it’s time for him to admit that Obamacare was a mistake and work with Congress to repeal it.”
Tags: Washington, D.C. Independent Advisory Board, Obamacare, Benghazi hearing, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Yesterday, the House Benghazi hearing was extraordinary, but as Gary Bauer noted "that you wouldn't know it if you depended on Big Media. Major networks like CNN and MSNBC did not cover yesterday's whistle-blower testimony on the Benghazi scandal. Instead they chose to follow Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus, who were held captive in an Ohio home for ten years, as they returned to their families. Fox News covered the vast majority of Benghazi hearing. Also today's Washington Post had a relatively balanced story, noting that the witnesses "provided a riveting, emotional account of last year's fatal attack" and 'accused senior government officials of withholding embarrassing facts.' Are Obama and Hillary in real trouble? It's too early to know for sure. The fact that some of the witnesses appeared to contradict Hillary Clinton's testimony does not by itself prove that Hillary committed perjury. You have to prove that she intentionally lied using sources other than someone else's statements."
At a press conference today House Speaker John Boehner called on the Obama White House to release more information on Benghazi. Referring specifically to an email to the Libyan ambassador, Boehner said:
"The State Department would not allow our committees to keep copies of this email when it was reviewed. And I would call on the president to order the State Department to release this email so that the American people can see it."
Today, the Senate will vote on two district judge nominees. The Senate will then return to consideration of S. 601 with possible votes on amendments. Yesterday, the Senate voted >to adopt an amendment to S. 601 from Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) directing the Fish and Wildlife Service to coordinate a program to prevent the spread of invasive Asian carp. Prior to that vote, two amendments failed to get the 60 votes agreed upon for adoption: an amendment from Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) that would have permitted lawful gun owners to possess their firearms on property managed by the Army Corps of Engineers andan amendment from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)which would have created a National Endowment for the Oceans.
Today, the House passed H.R. 807, The Full Faith and Credit Act (221 - 207) which prevents default should the debt ceiling be reached. This proactive step was to prevent default, provide certainty to seniors, and preserve America’s credit rating. Republican Study Committee Chairman Rep. Steve Scalise said, “Under President Obama’s watch, the American credit rating was downgraded for the first time in history, and our economy simply cannot afford for that to happen again. Without this bill, America’s credit rating will be further jeopardized by President Obama as he continues threatening default during each debt ceiling debate. Hitting the debt ceiling is a symptom of Washington’s spending problem. By taking the threat of default off the table, this bill allows Washington to focus on actually solving the spending problem so we can create a healthy economy.
“This legislation serves as an insurance policy, protecting America's economic security from the harm of President Obama's reckless and irresponsible posturing. House Republicans have laid out a real roadmap for budgeting responsibly and, by taking default off the table, this bill provides certainty for our economy while we work to implement real solutions to the spending problem that continues forcing Washington to max out its credit card.”
Specifically, the Full Faith and Credit Act:
- Prevents default by requiring that the Treasury Department prioritize debt-service payments, including to the Social Security Trust Fund, in the event the debt ceiling is hit.
- Preserves our status as an economic leader.
- Protects the U.S. Credit Rating.
- Provides certainty to seniors and our economy.
We write to respond to your March 29, 2013 letter requesting that we submit the names of individuals to serve on the Individual Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), which was created in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111-148). Because the law will give IPAB’s 15 unelected, unaccountable individuals the ability to deny seniors access to innovative care, we respectfully decline to recommend appointments.
As you know, we opposed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act because we knew it would increase health costs, impose costly burdens on job creators, and raid Medicare to pay for a massive new entitlement. In order to allow supporters to claim that the law’s Medicare cuts would be realized in the future, it tasked IPAB with reducing payments to providers or eliminating payments for certain treatments and procedures altogether. These reduced payments will force providers to stop seeing Medicare patients, the same way an increased number of doctors have stopped taking Medicaid patients. This will lead to access problems, waiting lists and denied care for seniors.
The unfortunate result is that decisions which impact America’s seniors will be made in the absence of the democratic process, without the system of checks and balances that would normally apply to important matters of public policy. Yet your recent budget called for expanding IPAB by tasking it with making even larger cuts to Medicare than those called for in the health law, even though the trustees of the Medicare program have told us that IPAB’s provider cuts would be “difficult to achieve in practice,” because of the denied care that seniors would experience.
We believe Congress should repeal IPAB, just as we believe we ought to repeal the entire health care law. In its place, we should work in a bipartisan manner to develop the long-term structural changes that are needed to strengthen and protect Medicare for today’s seniors, their children, and their grandchildren. We hope establishing this board never becomes a reality, which is why full repeal of the Affordable Care Act remains our goal.
On the Senate floor this morning, Leader McConnell added, “This morning, Speaker Boehner and I informed the President that we will not be recommending individuals to serve on the Individual Payment Advisory Board. The IPAB, as some call it, is a commission set up by Obamacare that is charged with reducing Medicare payments to health care providers and determining what services should be available to seniors. Of course, we know that will lead to access problems, waiting lists, and denied care for seniors – what most people would call rationing. . . . [W]e want to know that [health care] decisions will be made between patients, their families and their physician, not an unaccountable board of bureaucrats like the IPAB – one that even has the power to overrule payment decisions made by Congress and signed into law by the President.”
Yet despite this latest challenge and weeks of news reports of serious problems arising from implementing his unpopular health care law, President Obama is apparently determined to charge ahead with it, according to Bloomberg News. “Just weeks after his re-election, President Barack Obama summoned about 20 senior administration officials to the White House’s Roosevelt Room for an hour-long meeting on the implementation of his health-care law. Obama began by reminding his staff that the Affordable Care Act would be one of his major legacies and its execution among the highest priorities of his second term, according to a Democrat familiar with the gathering. The session, which has been followed by regular presidential briefings, led to a two-track campaign to defend the measure against united Republican opposition declaring it a failure and to motivate uninsured Americans to sign up for health-care coverage.”
The Bloomberg story notes many of the problems the president is facing: “Only 16 states have agreed to set up the health-insurance exchanges at which millions will begin shopping on Oct. 1, forcing the federal government to step in and do it. Republican lawmakers have blocked funding. And a poll shows 42 percent of Americans don’t even know the law was enacted. Senator Max Baucus, an architect of the statute, said he sees ‘a huge train wreck’ coming. . . . [T]he issues facing the startup of Obama’s health-care law are formidable. Sebelius said in an April 24 congressional hearing that the federal government wasn’t sure until this year how many exchanges it would have to build for states. . . . Congressional Republicans opposed a request from the Office of Management and Budget for $949 million in additional funding for implementation, and the money wasn’t included in a continuing resolution passed in March to fund the federal government through Sept. 30.”
Leader McConnell said this morning, “I hear that the President plans to hold another event tomorrow where he will claim that Obamacare is helping women . . . . There are many other small businesswomen who will see their dreams crushed under the weight of Obamacare’s nearly 20,000 pages of regulations. There are many women in their 20s and 30s who will be unable to afford the law’s massive premium increases. And there are many mothers who won’t be able to get by if their employers cut their hours due to Obamacare. Or if they lose their jobs because of it. . . . So, the President should rethink the purpose of this event. I hope he will use it instead as a platform to prepare women for the actual consequences many of them will soon face under Obamacare. More broadly, the President needs to get out in front of this ‘train wreck’ before Americans – men and women alike – are completely blindsided by it. . . . And, if the President is truly concerned about jobs, then it’s time for him to admit that Obamacare was a mistake and work with Congress to repeal it.”
Tags: Washington, D.C. Independent Advisory Board, Obamacare, Benghazi hearing, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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