Paul Ryan on MSNBC: "Let's have an honest debate"
From the video:
Katrina Vanden Heuvel:
You have good government-plan health care. Why shouldnt all Americans have what you have?
Paul Ryan:
I have good private-sector healthcare. We do not have a public option. The federal employee plan lists a number of private plans to choose from to select and my employer, the taxpayer, pays for a portion of these private plans.
There is no public plan option in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program. You are mistaken on that point.
My Patients Choice Act that I've introduced with Congressman Nunes, Senators Burr and Coburn actually proposes just what youre suggesting: give people the ability, in State-based exchanges, to have a plan just like what we have here in Congress. A private health care plan thats actuarially equivalent to what we in Congress have.
We actually had a vote in the House Ways and Means Committee on an amendment I offered with Congressman Dean Heller which said, Lets put Members of Congress in this public health care plan so that we can experience the same thing we want to impose on the rest of the country. You know what? That amendment failed on nearly a party-line vote.
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Katrina Vanden Heuvel:
Competition is at the heart of America. To deny Americans competition by denying them the option of a public plan seems to me to be un-American.
Paul Ryan:
Whats weird about that line right there, Katrina, is that I know you and others are very much in favor of a single-payer plan, which is obviously to deny competition and have the government run it all. Whats concerning about this debate with me is that youre using capitalist rhetoric to try and move a plan that is inherently anti-market.
The problem is that the facts tell us this: A public plan option quickly becomes a government-run monopoly.The actuaries are telling us is that in a few short years, the public plan option displaces the private sector, employers dump their employees on the public plan, and then they have no choices but the public plan.
And so, lets not try to sell a government-run plan using free market rhetoric. Lets have an honest debate about what this bill is all about.
That was totally freaking awesome. My favorite part was him calling out Katrina on her use of captalism rhetoric to defend a single payer option which is inherently anti-competition after she implied that he was un-American. Brilliant. We need to get more guys like these on the front lines of the party.
ReplyDeleteKeep this guy under wraps Republicans. His demeanor and well spokeness is antithical to the usual R's that appear before the cameras.
ReplyDeleteGood find BGP. MSNBC better find a better liberal interviewer than Vanden Heuval if this guy comes on again.
TRUTH 101 said...
ReplyDelete"Keep this guy under wraps Republicans. His demeanor and well spokeness is antithical to the usual R's that appear before the cameras."
I was surprised. I hadn't no information on this Congressman before I found this video. He could be a rising star.
The federal government subsidizes Ryan's family health care with about $9,100. He co-pays about $4,300 a year for a grand total of $13,452. Ryan clearly states that his plan (Patients Choice) will give everyone the same health care coverage as he gets, but for less. Ryan's PC plan expects families to pay for $13,400 worth of insurance with a $5,700 TAX CREDIT subsidy. At the same time, Ryan’s PC plan relieves employers from the duty of sponsoring a health care plan. How? Because that is how the tax credit is paid for – his plan shifts the tax incentive from the employer to the employee. No more group leverage, you’re on your own. For everyone except himself – the government employee.
ReplyDeleteNext time you talk with Ryan, ask him if his employer (us!) will be relived of subsidizing his personal family health care plan like his plan does for everyone else.
Ryan forgets that the government plays a role in the free markets whether he like it or not. He works for the people - not private health care insurers.