WASHINGTON - This morning on CNN's State of the Union , U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) outlined how strong the opposition to the Democrat's $2.5 trillion health care bill is across the country and made clear that the House will have to vote again on the bill, because of strict budgeting rules. Excerpts from Hatch's appearance on CNN are below:
ON SENATE CHANGING HEALTH CARE RECONCILIATION BILL, RETURNING IT TO HOUSE FOR ANOTHER VOTE:
"Well, if the rules are followed, they'd have to [send it back to the House], because there is a Social Security component. And you can't do that on reconciliation. There's also an appropriations component as well. So if the parliamentarian upholds that and Joe Biden doesn't overrule the parliamentarian, which would be a first, then it seems to me that it's going to have to be sent back to the House. So anybody that thinks that this is only going to be a one-time deal today in the House, I think, is grossly mistaken."
ON PUSHING PEOPLE INTO MEDICAID:
"Of the 31 million people you're going to cover, 16 million are pushed into Medicaid. I mean, let me just tell you, we're coming to a Europeanization of America. And the American people sense it. They feel it. They know that we can't afford this.
"And - and Medicaid, they're paying - the doctors are getting 66 percent of what the private sector pays doctors. And they're up in arms. They're not going to take patients now. You can imagine how bad this is going to be if this bill goes through."
ON COST TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE OF THE DEMOCRATS' $2.5 TRILLION HEALTH CARE BILL:
"All I can say is, everywhere I go, people say, how do we pay for this? You know, in all honesty, they have jacked up the costs of Medicare. They're going to take better than $500 billion, now, out of Medicare. They're going to increase taxes by over $500 billion. They're going to sock it to individuals who can't afford to buy insurance. They're going to have to pay 2.5 percent of their gross income. Businesses are now going to have to pay up to $3,000 per employee if they don't provide health insurance.
"You reach a point where you say, who is going to pay for all of this? And it's going to come down to us taxpayers. And like I say, it's the Europeanization of America, and that's the worst thing that could possibly happen to our country."
ON BUDGET GIMMICKS IN BILL:
"Now, the CMS actuary - that's the actuary for the administration - says the cost curve will not be bent, that premiums are going to go up. I have to say that I believe that CBO, of course they have to decide these budgetary matters based upon the papers given them by the House of Representatives and by the Senate, and those papers are stacked in favor of trying to live within our means, but they don't.
"The fact is that they double-count in this bill. They have all kinds of other gimmicks in this bill that try to get this bill down -- everybody knows that this. Extrapolated over 10 years, is going to be $2.5 trillion more on top of what we're already spending, $2.4 trillion.
"You cannot tell me that this country can afford to do that and that we can't find a way, by working together, to really come up with a health care system that will work and work within financial means."
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