Grassley Takes the "Think it Out Approach" at the White House Health Summit

First of all, I'd like to make it clear that I am all for reforming America's health care system. We live in a bizarre society where some people see a doctor to plump their lips, while others can't afford the most basic care. These people put off medical care until there is no other choice. I was one of the uninsured for nearly a decade and I once waited so long to see a doctor that I ended up in the ER on an IV drip for dehydration. But I am not at all comfortable with the direction that the current administration has taken. They have already shown that they can throw trillions of dollars at a problem with little or no result. They produce impossibly huge pieces of legislation with the hopes that no one will bother reading them through. In an already controversial bill, there were hot bed bits that called for things such as tax-payer funded abortions. As such, I'm glad Iowa Senator Charles Grassley is taking the tortoises sure and steady path in a congress intent on jackrabbit starts.

My views do not always mesh with those of Charles Grassley. When I went to the polls in Dayton, Iowa, I cast my vote for our incumbents with hesitation. As a pro-life environmentalist there are rarely candidates I feel I can fully support . But all that aside, what Grassley said at the White House Health Summit on February 25th should give people pause. According to washingtonpost.com, Grassley said the proposed health plan in would increase taxes for small business by 20 to 33 percent. In an already difficult economic climate Grassley feels that "when you do these things you hurt the economy because small business is the machine that brings employment in America, 70 percent of new employment."

Grassley also feels that REQUIRING people to buy insurance is an "unconstitutional mandate". He says that, "for the first time in the 225-year history of the country the federal government is telling you, you got to buy something. That just doesn't make sense to a lot of people at grassroots of the Midwest."

Grassley went on to discuss how unrealistic many of the cuts were and expressed a fear that many smaller, poorer hospitals would be put at risk. He also expressed a fear that many elderly people would actually lose access to health care.

In the end Grassley recommended that Congress "ought to proceed " only on "those things we can agree on".
In this case, I believe he's right. Something definitely needs to be done about health care. And while I don't think the watch and wait approach is best, I do feel we need to work out the kinks before we proceed. Pushing through a bad piece of legislation just to say, "Well at least we did SOMETHING!" is worse than doing nothing at all.

Sources:
"Sen. Chuck Grassley on Medicare at White House Health Summit", washingtonpost.com
Christina Bellatoni, "Who's Going? List of Health Care Summit Attendees". TPM Livewire
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