Democrats Have Explaining to Do

If Republicans want to win in 2012, they need to play the hand they've just been dealt.

They have the opportunity to tell of Democrats doing horrible things to harm Americans. Republicans could speak of Democrats who are trying to harm retirees on Medicare, military personnel on Tricare and the family physicians who treat them. They could tell of Democrats stopping an oil pipeline that stands to create high-paying jobs and reduce American dependence on foreign oil.

They can tell of President Barack Obama's insistence on de-funding Social Security with a payroll tax reduction that the Social Security trust fund cannot possibly afford. Republicans can turn class warfare rhetoric against Democrats for a change, outing them for standing in the way of a measure that would require the wealthy to pay more for Medicare than is paid by the poor.

The above played out on Dec. 9, when President Obama and other Democratic leaders balked at an innovative bill House Republicans introduced in order to: create jobs, provide oil, preserve payroll tax cuts without de-funding Social Security, and protect Medicare and Tricare patients and their doctors from an ominous 27 percent reduction in reimbursements that is set to take effect in January.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid immediately announced that it would be dead upon arrival in the Senate. It would die, Reid promised, because it requires Obama to issue a work permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

The pipeline would carry oil from Canada to Texas. Its construction alone would create tens of thousands of good private-sector jobs, immediately. It would enhance our country's ability to survive a serious energy crisis caused by a natural disaster or political turmoil abroad.

The same bill Democrats will kill in order to appease environmentalists would head off a 27 percent cut in Medicare and Tricare reimbursements. The cuts are mandated as part of a cost-cutting formula established in 1996. Congress has routinely saved the government health care plans from cuts. This year, Congress has failed to save reimbursements because of budget stalemates and failure of the Congressional so-called super committee to agree on a deficit-reduction plan.

If government cannot head off the reimbursement crisis, seniors and Tricare patients will see more rationing as physicians will turn away patients and reduce office hours. The Republican bill would increase reimbursements by 1 percent in 2012 and 2013 and would pay for it by increasing premiums for wealthy retirees. The bill would pay for maintaining middle class payroll tax breaks with freezes to federal workforce salaries.

As Americans struggle with economic stagnation, unemployment and a sluggish housing market, Republicans have devised a plan that favors prosperity while protecting the health care of senior citizens and military families. Democrats oppose the bill because it protects a major job-creating project that will supply oil to our country. That's a story Republicans need to tell, and Democrats need to hide from.

REPRINTED FROM THE NEW BERN (NC) SUN JOURNAL

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