Senator John Thune (R-SD) held another bloggers' conference call this afternoon and the topic--Do I have to tell you?--was ObamaCare.Always courteous, the senator apologized for being late--and he if was more than five minutes late, then my watch is set wrong. Thune skipped the traditonal opening statement and started taking questions.
He was not courteous about ObamaCare, calling its passage "tragic," and that "this is a disaster for the future of this country not only because it's bad health care policy, but because of all the debt we're going to pile on, and the games that we're played to understate the true cost of this (bill).
Part of the bill's reconciliation package includes a federal takeover of the student loan program, which Thune calls "a huge thing too." Yes, we're talking about health care legislation. Revenues from the loan program will finance ObamaCare--but to me it's simply a sneaky tax.
Thune summarized it this way: "We're not only taxing small business, seniors, individuals, and families...but now we're going to tax students to pay for this too."
Thune said the GOP will do what it can to improve matters during the reconciliation process, but he's also looking towards November. "We're going to take this to the voters, Thune said, "and I think this is an issue that the American people are going to be focused on going into the fall elections and I hope they give us the opportunity to get back in charge and have us govern around here."
Which will give the GOP "the chance to repeal and replace this with something that makes sense and drives health care costs down as opposed to increasing them, which is what this bill does."
I love South Dakota--I've been there three times, but not since 2005--so I felt compelled to ask the senator a question about ObamaCare and how it would effect rural states such as Thune's.
"Well, they tried to sweeten it up," Thune explained about the legislation, "they put some stuff in the bill, the Frontier States Provision...which got some support from some of the providers and hospitals from across the Midwest."
The Frontier States Provision expands Medicare eligibility in some largely rural states and will fund some health care facilities.
But what Thune calls "crumbs" doesn't change impact of the bill, such as cuts in Medicare Advantage (the Frontier States Provision doesn't look so good now), higher student loan rates, as well as socking small business with an employer mandate and higher taxes. These are not just South Dakota issues. But Thune reminded me of a reason why I love South Dakota. "One of the things I'll say about places like South Dakota," Thune explained, "is that there's a basic distrust of big government and this creates a lot more big government."
Thune expects eventual push back and resistance to the health care bill in rural areas, but added that climate change legislation will also be unpopular there.
Man, does this guy know the issues--inside and out. I'm looking forward to the next call with the South Dakotan.
Related post:
Sen. John Thune delivers weekly Republican address
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