By Marianna Levyash – Talk Radio News Service

Senators Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) displayed concern over the high cost of the Senate health care bill during a press conference Thursday.

According to statistics Gregg obtained from the Senate Budget Committee, the bill increases federal spending by $1.2 trillion between now and 2019, and if fully implemented, it would cost over $2.5 trillion over the next ten years.

“This representation that it’s an $850 million dollar bill is simply wrong,” said Gregg.

Republicans opposed to the legislation say taxes will go up by nearly $500 billion, Medicare will be cut by $465 billion and that 24 million people will still be left uninsured.

“Revenues shouldn’t go to create a new entitlement, they should go to reduce the out-year already contingent unfunded liability that we have in Medicare,” stated Gregg.

The Senate is expected to vote on the bill this coming Saturday.

Speaking to reporters following President Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night, U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) says he would like the President to explain more specifically how he intends to pay for his healthcare plan, a plan Obama says will cost roughly 900 billion dollars over the next decade. (:41)

 

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Speaking to reporters following President Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night, U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) says America should be concerned over the possibility that the current administration’s healthcare plan will lead to increased spending, higher deficits and more government in general. (:27)

 

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Speaking to reporters following President Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress, U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) says the President’s speech failed to include enough specifics. Specifically, Gregg says he is concerned that the President isn’t telling the whole truth about how he plans on paying for expanding insurance coverage for millions of Americans. (:36)

 

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Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News

Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said, “The president is proposing to increase our national debt more than all prior 43 presidents combined,” adding $2.3 trillion more “to the national debt in higher deficits” than his own budget office stated.

Ryan said the budget increases taxes and spending. “But what’s so galling about this – we read today the Chinese are talking about a new currency, the Russians are talking about a new currency. We are debasing the value of the American dollar by borrowing way beyond our means,” he said.

“We are consigning our next generation to an inferior standard of living,” Ryan said.

He estimates the national debt will double in six years and triple in ten.

Dan Mitchell, senior fellow at the CATO Institute, a libertarian think tank, said, “That’s just the tip of the iceberg, because … we have trillions and trillions of unfunded liability for entitlement programs, … tens of trillions of dollars of unfunded liabilities in the future. We are in effect on a path to become the next Argentina.”

That other countries would consider a reserve currency other than the dollar is, he says, “a referendum that we are on the wrong track.”

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Chairman of the Fiscal Responsibility Task Force of the Republican Study Committee, said that one of the elements of greatness is the willingness of one generation to sacrifice for the next. The next generation, he said, will never be able to repay this debt.

He quoted Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) as saying this budget would bankrupt the country.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said “One of my constituents said it best, ‘I am tired of Congress spending money I haven’t made yet for things I don’t want.’ When you look at the push for nationalizing healthcare, when you look at the cap-and-tax scheme (Cap-and-Trade), this is what people are afraid is going to pile on more and more debt.”

“I look at this as being economic abuse of (her grandchildren’s) future,” she said.

Rep. Gregg Harper (R-Miss.) said, ”When you find out you’ve dug yourself a hole, you should quit digging, but we’ve brought in heavy machinery, and we’re making the hole so deep that we’re not going to be able to get out of it.”

“We tell our children we can’t afford to get everything,” he said, and now the children, the public, are telling the parents, the legislators, “We don’t really have to have that.”

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag testified before the Senate Committee on the Budget concerning President Obama’s FY2010 Budget. Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) praised the transparency and initiatives set forward in the budget, which included healthcare reform, a revamping of education, and a shift away from dependence on foreign oil.

Ranking Member Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) criticized the costs associated with the budget. Gregg pointed out that the debt to GDP ratio in 2013 will be 67% and questioned how sustainable such a costly plan could be. He said that it would double the publicly held national debt in 5 years.

Orszag stated that this budget accounts for $2.7 trillion in costs not accounted for in previous budgets, and although it would see some increases in mandatory spending, but this is partially due to baseline changes in this spending. He continued that healthcare reform would help, because one of the problems with entitlement spending is that a disproportionate amount of it is in Medicare and Medicaid.

On Thursday afternoon the baseball hit the batter as yet another Department Secretary took flight from the Obama administration. Soon-to-be Secretary of Commerce Judd Gregg, Republican Senator from New Hampshire, withdrew his name from consideration for the Cabinet position 10 days after having been nominated. This is President Obama’s second Commerce Secretary to go down in flames, following New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson’s withdrawal.

In a statement before the press conference, Gregg cited “irreconcilable differences” with the Obama administration in the Economic Recovery Plan and Census handling as the primary reasons for his withdrawal. At his press conference, however, Senator Gregg stated that the position was simply a “bridge too far” for him, and that the Census issue was only “a slight catalyzing issue; it was not a major issue”. Gregg would not elaborate further on the Census issue, and dodged any questions which would shed more light on it.

The Obama Administration has expressed downright confusion as this withdrawal, claiming that they were approached by Gregg, but the Senator himself has a completely different story. He said, “One of the nice things about this business is that everyone has a different recollection of what happened.” Gregg claimed that the Obama administration approached him for the position, and that he “made a mistake” by accepting the position hastily. He continued that holding a Cabinet position would interfere with how he really wants to approach issues. Gregg said that his confidence in President Obama’s Administration caused him to accept the position “without thinking through the implications” of his decision. (01:20)

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

Budget Committee Ranking Member Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) says that the Senate will be doing a budget resolution this week, and that it’s apparent from the “two resolutions that passed both the House and the Senate with basically democratic votes” that this resolution will have a massive tax increase. He said the increase for families with 50,000 dollars of income and two children, husband and wife, will represent an almost 2,100 dollar tax increase. He said for 24 million small businesses it will represent a 4,100 dollar tax increase, and for 18 million senior citizens it will represent an over 2,000 dollar tax increase. He said, in addition, for the “first time we will cross the line in one trillion dollars in discretionary spending.” (1:06)

 

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