Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, the fine new congressman from Chattanooga and our 3rd Congressional District, has offered good sense in warning against the staggering threat of socialized medicine and higher taxes under ObamaCare, which Democrats approved last year with no Republican support.
Fleischmann is an able conservative. Health care is a hot topic. So he realistically waded right in.
It is estimated, he said in a release, "that if ObamaCare were fully implemented, its total cost would be $2.6 trillion," and it would add $701 billion to our national debt.
Are you ready for that?
We all ought to stop right now and let that sink in: ObamaCare could wind up costing $2.6 trillion and adding $701 billion to the nation's debt.
If it is not repealed, as Republicans in Congress are attempting, who will pay for it? We all will!
Fleischmann noted, "Those who crafted the health care bill used accounting gimmicks so the true cost of the law would not be revealed by the Congressional Budget Office's cost analysis - yet another example of 'politics as usual' and all the more reason to stop this law before it takes effect."
Plainly, if we don't want the federal government to socialize medicine and send us the enormous bill, now is the time for Congress to head that off before it goes any further.
Fleischmann pointed out a list compiled by Americans for Tax Reform of nearly two dozen new tax hikes that would go into effect if ObamaCare is fully implemented over the next few years.
Hadn't we better avoid that tax cost now?
Fleischmann rightly co-sponsored and voted for legislation in the House to repeal ObamaCare.
"Government is not the answer to the health care problems in this country, backroom deals are not the answer to the health care problems in this country and accounting gimmicks are not the answer to the health care problems in this country," he said.
"We need market-based reforms to create true health care reform. We need to allow the purchase of insurance across state lines, we need tort reform, we need pooling and we need Health Savings Accounts," our new congressman insisted.
Fleischmann certainly has given timely warning - before socialized medicine and its staggering tax burdens are irreversibly placed upon us.
Further, he pointed out the fact that ObamaCare would cost jobs: "I am philosophically opposed to this health care law because it is bad for American small businesses - the backbone of our economy."
He noted that a National Federation of Independent Business Research Foundation study found that the employer mandate in ObamaCare may lead to a loss of 1.6 million jobs nationwide. And "66 percent of those lost jobs would come from the small business work force."
"That same study showed 'small businesses would lose roughly $113 billion in real output and account for 56 percent of all real output lost.'"
ObamaCare is off to a bad start. Fleischmann is off to a good start. But we haven't heard the last word - and haven't been hit by the huge costs - yet.
Fleischmann said, "I hope the Senate listens to the American people and continues the process with my colleagues in the House to defund ObamaCare and ensure its catastrophic regulations never see the light of day."
We hope so, too. Costly ObamaCare is on the move and will be hard to stop.
Our new congressman is doing his part in trying to head off a huge financial and socialized-medicine mistake.