DemocRAT's Nervous, Afraid, Rethinking BuckwheatCare

http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/price_obama_healthcare/2009/11/05/282451.html

Price: 'Nervous Democrats' Rethinking Obamacare

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Rep. Tom Price of Georgia tells Newsmax that "nervous Democrats" in
the House are wavering in their support for their leadership's
"terrible, terrible" bill to overhaul the healthcare system.

Rep. Price is chairman of the Republican Study Committee, a caucus of
conservatives, and is himself a physician. He said the House bill now
under consideration would "definitely" face a court challenge over its
constitutionality.

Newsmax.TV's Kathleen Walter asked Rep. Price about the massive rally
at the Capitol in Washington on Thursday to protest the Democrats'
plan for healthcare reform.

"The mood was incredible upbeat and optimistic," Price said.

"Tens of thousands of individuals. They're concerned and they're
fearful and they're angry, but they know that this is the greatest
nation in the history of the world and that the power within this
nation rests with the people.

"They are here to express their concern about a bill that would be an
absolute movement in the wrong direction, a government takeover of
their healthcare that they're not interested in. They're not
interested in the taxes, they're not interested in the rationing.
That's the message that we heard."

Noting that a vote on the bill in the House is possible as early as
Saturday, Walter asked if the Democrats' legislation can still be
stopped.

"There are a lot of nervous Democrats who, if they were to represent
their constituents, would be voting against this bill," Price
declared.

"The problem is, so far they've just represented their leadership, and
that's wrong. That's what the American people are so upset about.

"Those moderate Democrats are talking and I think they're getting very
very skittish about voting for a bill that they know their
constituents don't want.

"So even if this passes the House, and I'm hopeful that it will not go
through in the form that it is in right now, that's just the next step
in this process. The Senate has to act and then there has to be a
conference committee and then bill has to get to the president.

"We're a long way from the end, but that doesn't mean the American
people ought not to be engaging [their representatives], because they
must right now make certain that their representatives know how they
feel about this terrible, terrible bill."

Price said Democrats are increasingly concerned that their leadership
is "pushing them off the cliff." They also note the results of
Tuesday's elections, when Republicans won gubernatorial races in
Virginia and New Jersey, "and they say look, this is not where the
nation wants to go.

"The question is, will they have the backbone to stand up and
represent their constituents and not their leadership."

Price said a healthcare reform plan put forth by Republicans would be
more than a trillion dollars cheaper than the Democrats' bill,
achieving those savings by "fixing what's wrong with the current
system but keeping what's right, instead of turning over everything to
the federal government."

The plan would increase competition among insurance companies by
allowing people to purchase insurance over state lines, permit them to
form pools to buy insurance at reduced rates, and institute serious
tort reform to fight "lawsuit abuse," an issue that none of the
Democrats' bills address. Price said that with the GOP plan Americans
would see "significant savings without cutting Medicare or increasing
taxes."

Walter cited a requirement in the Democrats' House bill that would
force Americans to purchase health insurance, and asked Price if it
would face a court challenge over its constitutionality.

"If the bill that the Democrats and Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi passes,
then it would indeed face a court challenge," he said. "Because I
don?t believe, and I would suggest most Americans don't believe, that
it is the federal government's role to dictate to free people that
they must purchase a specific product, a specific service.

"That's not what we believe in America, and so the individual mandate
that you describe is simply wrong. I believe it's unconstitutional and
there would be a court challenge most definitely."

Price added that the "status quo is not acceptable. There are some
things we need to fix in our healthcare system, and there are some
positive things we can do to improve the system that we have, without
throwing out the baby with the bathwater."

See Video: Rep. Tom Price talks about Democratic anxiety over
Obamacare - Click Here Now:
http://video.newsmax.com/?bcpid=20972460001&bclid=22770166001&bctid=48567941001


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