The biggest political issue involves where we as a nation spend our money. In order to
Make Politics Work for the greater good, we have invited one of the most remarkable Congressional Representatives in the US to express himself. Major Bill Owens is the first Democrat to represent New York State's North Country since the Civil War... the United Staes Civil War, that is.
Congressman, you have the floor...
Reducing the national debt and creating a path of continued economic growth and job creation is my top priority as your Representative. I believe restoring fiscal discipline must be a collective effort,
with no one group sharing the burden disproportionately. That is why I voted against the Republican budget proposal for FY12, drafted by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI), which passed the House of Representatives on April 15, 2011.
Chief among
my concerns with Chairman Ryan’s budget is his proposal to replace traditional Medicare with a system of vouchers that seniors would use to supplement the purchase of private health insurance. While this may save the government money, it would do so by shifting a significant amount of health care costs onto seniors. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that should this program go into effect in 2022, a typical 65-year-old would pay about $12,000 out-of-pocket for his or her health care spending – double what he or she would pay under traditional Medicare.
There is also no assurance that private health insurance companies would offer policies to current Medicare beneficiaries who are older and require more health services, potentially resulting in a greater number of senior citizens without insurance. Chairman Ryan’s
budget also
eliminates the steps taken to close the prescription drug coverage gap (the “doughnut hole”) for seniors, so current Medicare beneficiaries would also immediately be facing higher costs for drugs.
In addition to privatizing Medicare, Chairman Ryan’s budget makes at least two-thirds of its cuts to programs for Americans of modest means, while making permanent all of President Bush’s tax cuts for high-income Americans. The spending reductions under the Ryan plan total just over $4.3 trillion over ten years. Combined with tax cuts that total just under $4.2 trillion over ten years, the Ryan plan only produces a total of $155 billion in deficit reduction over that period.
I believe we can do far better than this proposal, and that we can save more in a smarter, fairer way. That includes implementing provisions of the health care reform law like Medical Homes, where records are kept electronically and shared seamlessly, care is coordinated, preventive, comprehensive and team-based, and clinicians from the team are easily accessible to the patient, ultimately achieving the health care reform law’s two primary goals – improving care and reducing costs. You may know that our region is home to the
Adirondack Medical Home pilot project, which I have been a strong supporter of since its inception in 2004.
We can also save billions of dollars in taxpayer money and reduce federal spending in the future
simply by consolidating or eliminating dozens of federal programs where unnecessary duplication, overlap, or fragmentation exist, as outlined by the Government of Accountability Office (GAO)’s March 1, 2011 report, and which I urged President Obama to do in a letter sent with Congressman Richard Hanna (R-Barneveld) on March 4, 2011.
Another idea to address federal spending is the notion of
a so-called “infrastructure bank,” which would bring together the resources of government and private sector entities to finance America’s roads, bridges and even broadband deployment. These projects have
significant implications for American consumers and businesses, and hold the potential to create badly needed jobs today. Best of all, by bringing private interests together with government programs we can do this without adding to the nation’s debt.
Lastly, we could implement my
War on Debt Act, which I reintroduced as my first action in the 112th Congress to help pay down the nation’s debt and limit its growth in the future. This piece of legislation that would, among other initiatives, create an attractive mechanism for more American citizens to re-purchase foreign-held U.S. debt as a tax free investment, putting tax-free money in the hands of average
Americans at a time when they need it most and displaces a significant liability – foreign held debt – over which we have very little
leverage.
Most importantly, it is
critical that both sides of the aisle work together to apply a cost-benefit analysis to determine what programs are working, where there are redundancies, and where we should invest to create and sustain jobs, so that a budget for FY12 can be approved in a timely manner, and that we once again return to America’s positive, “can-do” attitude upon which the nation was built.
I hope that you will continue to contact with me your priorities and concerns for FY12 spending as this process moves forward.
Addressing these issues cannot be done on a partisan basis, which is why I will be working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to reduce overall federal spending and put the nation on a sustainable budget path. Please be assured I will keep your comments in mind.
Bill Owens
Member of Congress
