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Summary:
Recorded on 5-10-2009
00:15 Intro
01:00 Jay sets the stage
01:38 My comments - The setup: socialist methodology right off the bat
02:16 Where does the federal govt. get jurisdiction over healthcare from the constitution?
02:50 Veterans picked first to hide behind
03:05 Healthcare question from the audience - will you do whatever Obama says? Audience cheers and boos
05:15 My comments: the maturity of the audience lets Jay play them like a pro.
06:00 Jays response - we will disagree, please don't boo
07:10 I don't rubber stamp anything
07:19 My comments - How many bills have you voted for without having read them besides the patriot act and the stimulus package? That is a rubber stamp.
08:18 Jay is not interested in our opinions - he didn't want my written questions. He is putting on a show.
09:20 Jay: "I represent the people I represent"
09:51 You want choice preserved - we will do that. You can keep what you have now.
10:56 We would make changes to the existing private insurance - no longer be able to deny coverage to certain persons.
12:05 My comments - This is interference in the right to privately contract - and is unconstitutional and socalist in nature.
13:44 The inability for insurance companies to discriminate forces them to become expensive and they will not be able to compete with the government system.
14:30 This is not fair competition - the government has taxes to back itself up while insurance companies don't.
15:35 Jay: 3rd: We subsidize the premiums of the poor.
16:06 Sandy: Subsidies are not free - them come from the people - this is theft.
17:10 Jay: Proposal of how to pay for subsidy: a) Efficiencies in the scale and technology of the system, b) More preventative health c) additional taxes on the rich. (over $250k/year)
18:43 Sandy: You are admitting you are a socialist and you don't care about the law.
19:12 Sandy: Look at how the income tax was sold as a tax on the rich.
20:11 Jay: The devil is in the details. There will be a big debate during the discussion. Obama want's every american to get the same coverage the congressmen get.
21:35 Sandy: This is backwards. Congressmen should get the same coverage as their constituents not the other way around.
22:23 Audience memger: What about
single payer insurance?
"Single payer health insurance is a system by which the health care expenditures of an entire population are paid for through one source the Federal government or a subcontracting entity using tax revenue from individuals and employers."
23:50 Jay: We tried to get single payer system with Clinton but it failed to pass. It's a bridge too far. We need to go incrementally.
24:11 Sandy: Single payer coverage will destroy all private medical systems because there will be no way to compete with tax funded government services.
26:12 Progressive Caucus Audience member: Why have you not yet signed on to
HR 676?
27:00 Jay: Not likely passable. If I could write poetry the bills would be different. My job is to make progress where it can be achieved.
27:44 Jay: Example: Cash for Clunkers bill. Comprimised on the voucher requirements and got it passed - beats doing nothing.
28:26 Jay: People are desperate for healthcare right now. Real people need healthcare now.
29:32 Sandy: Healthcare costs have gone up as government interference has increased. Healthcare is not static. It is bursting to break into a new paradigm but it can't do this under the present limitations imposed by the government and drug company interests.
32:14 Sandy: How can a centralized system encourage preventative medicine without controling the actions of everyone - telling each of us what to eat and when to exercies. Its total slavery.
33:11 Audience follow up Q:
HR 1826 - Take corporations out of elections so we are properly represented.
33:40 Jay: Nobody tells your congressman how to vote. I support public campaign financing since 1994.
34:15 Sandy: Here's my suggestion for campaign reform: Make the districts smaller and have a larger house of representatives.
37:11 Ken Burra says the military does take care of its workers.
38:00 Jay: we have not been funding the VA adequately and is an embarrasment and has improved.
38:30 Sandy: When government funds healthcare there is no limit to its cost. Costs rise the more $ you throw at the problem.
39:30 Sandy: VA situation - We shouldn't have professional soldiers and standing armies. We have tons of problems that have risen from these policies.
40:00 Sandy: I support opposing the war but congress should have declared war instead of just allowing military use but no declaration of war.
41:00 Audience: Would you agree that we had good healthcare in the 60s? What about the HMO act of 1972? Didn't this cause the bills to go high?
42:00 Audience: How did the HMO act cause this
change in medical care costs:
42:20 Jay: I don't understand what you are saying.
42:51 Jay's stab at an answer: "Not all HMOs are created evil." Better decisions about procedures will help. More preventative care. Need more evidence based medicine to improve decisions. We need better standards.
44:24 Sandy: This guys point is probably right. He is trying to solve the cause not slap on another solution.
44:45 Sandy: The techniquie of growing government: create a problem and offer your solution.
45:30 Sandy: Medicine is ready to explode in quality and efficiency if we can just be free.
46:13 Sandy: I have a Dr. that can do better and cheaper tests than an MRI but those methods are not accepted as "standard". The status quo doesn't want a paradigm shift.
47:00 Sandy: These experiments should be done at the state level.
47:30 Audience: Why do we have to have a job to have health insurance.
49:00 Jay: Single payer option - I want people to have a choice to use a government medical plan like medicare. The insurance companies don't want this because it will cost less and they will lose customers.
50:39 Sandy: Choice - to go outside the constitution. Government as a service is the begining of the end. Europe has this - a nice comfey box. People have different ideas and desires. Taxes for this purpose is theft as outlined in the communist manifesto. All you do when you steal is create pain and destroy wealth - it never solves problems. I am sorry for this guy stuck in the trap set by government.
53:43 Sandy: Ex: Microsoft health insurance for me cost the company $15k/year. I had no option to decline that coverage and take the cash because the HMO agreement is made in the whole. Individuals do not have the option to take or leave the coverage. If I denied myself the coverage it would still cost Microsoft $15k/year for me.
55:13 Jay: Budget and tax issues
56:00 Audience: Water flouridation - its bad for our health - I have 200 pages of documentation for you. I don't understand why we continue to flouridate the water.
57:00 Jay: My understanding is that it is a health benefit but I am open to new information. Lets take a budget or tax question.
57:20 Sandy: This audience member is missing the real point - the constitution does not grant the federal government the right to flouridate our water.
58:00 Audience: Sin tax suggestion: Lets tax cigarettes more. A use tax is more fair to fund these healthcare programs.
59:00 Jay: I support the idea.
59:30 Jay: We just passed a bill after 15 years of work, to allow the FDA to monitor and regulate tomacco.
59:50 Jay: Your idea may be good but you get to a level where increasing the taxes decreases revenues - but maybe thats good.
01:00:17 Audience: I'm concerned about the ecconomic situation - recless spending is going to have to be paid by future generations.
01:00:56 Jay: We are very much behind the eight ball on this. We do know we have to change the long-term fiscal condition of the country.
01:01:26 Jay: I voted for the stimulus bill that was not paid for. I thought it was the right decision due to the crisis at the moment. Had we not given the ecconomy a boost we might have seen what happened in the 30s.
01:02:30 Short term: I look forward to when we are not suporting the Iraq War. We have been paying for the war with borrowed money. "I always thought that was wrong frankly."
01:02:51 Jay: I voted against the original Iraq war. I thought if we were to fight this war, all of us should be engaged in it.
01:03:19 Sandy: What war? No war was declared. But thanks Jay for voting against it!
01:03:47 Jay: A huge part of the federal budget is healthcare. The rate of medical inflation has to be brought down. That is where the budget cancer is. Comparing the demographics we see even bigger problems here.
01:05:47 Jay: If you want to solve the deficit problem it will involve pain.
01:06:17 Audience: NAFTA - We've watched our jobs leave this country - shouldn't we take another look at this? Think about how much $ we have lost due to NAFTA. Lets go back and relook at NAFTA.
01:08:00 Jay: Obama addressed the truck issue. He has not said he wants to address NAFTA.
01:08:36 Jay: How about global warming - something fair to our manufacturers. Lets move on to other people now.
01:13:58 Bob Horn: Finincal Justice in America. The bank bailouts have left us with a financial oligarchy in place with no check on the bankers. (Loud Applause)
01:15:05 Jay: "So I guess there's not many oligarch's in the audience" (Laughter) Halalula to what you're saying. I voted against the original bailout bill. But there wasn't any real criteria on who would get the $ or any transparency. We don't even know where the money has gone.
01:15:15 Sandy:
You voted against it but
you cosponsored it . You JERK!!!
01:16:12 Jay: Explains why he voted against the stimulus bill that he sponsored. We weep in sympathy. We love you Jay.
01:18:55 Audience: We want transparency in government. HR 1207 - audit the FED.
01:20:00 Jay: My name will be on that by 10AM Tuesday morning.
01:20:19 Audience: Stimulus bill was missing some things. Get with me and explain retirement for single COBRA people.
01:22:20 Jay: for individual issues - contact my staff.
01:22:40 Audience: Social Security Tax Limit raising - why do we have a limit on how much SSN tax we pay?
01:23:40 Jay: "I favor a progressive tax system"
01:23:42 Sandy: Thanks Jay. See the third plank of the
communist manifesto.
01:24:00 Jay: Talks about Obama moving for a more progressive imcome tax scale.
01:25:16 Sandy: Jay votes for theft.
01:28:10 Audience: Cap and Trade:
CO2 and Climate connection has never been proven. (boos and cheers) Petition of 32,000+ scientists to make this point. You are being unfair and non-democratic not to listen to this side of the debate. (boos and cheers)
01:29:47 Jay: "Apparently people think we will have an applause meter."
01:30:11 Jay: Its really regetable that the debate about CO2 got tinged by politics.
01:30:57 I went to a NOAA ship about 3 months ago. They studied the ocean conditions off the coast. They looked at the acidity of the water. The ocean water is becomming much more acidic due to CO2. The oceans are 30% more acidic than before the industrial age. Nobody disputes these acidic conditions in the water. Some of those effects COULD be - suppressing life that creates calcium carbonate. If you cange the pH enough, you can percipitate it into a calcium carbonate structure. Note the Virgin Islands coral reef is dead due to the warming of the water and perhapse due to the
pH change of the water. If you don't believe in global warming, think about this acidification issue. Salmon depond on planktion for their food. (applause)
01:35:47 So what do we do about it? When we think of this issue, we need to think of it as an ecconomic opportunity. We are in a race to create jobs for the future. We are now in a race with China to see who will build electric cars. Danes have wind turbines. Germans have surpassed us in solar energy. We need to look at this as a race to make America the leader in clean energy. I want to create the policies to help us create these jobs. This bill would level the playing field between the fossil fuel industries and the clean energies. The CO2 tax equalizes this playing field.
01:38:52 Sandy: comments
01:45:40 Audience: It feels like the taxpayers are almost like those movies with the slaves in the lower decks running the ship. If the workers stop - we are dead. Are the rich going to make sacrafices to keep the workers alive?
01:48:15 Jay: No. In congress I've learned about greed. Enron for example. We have poor people who can't pay their energy bills while your market manipulations make you millions? "You don't understand ecconomics." The executives must recognize the public interest. Now they are getting the benefit of taxpayer money they need to be more responsible.
01:50:28 Sandy: Jay is right. That with the government subsidizes - it controls.
01:52:04 Sandy: Example from highschool - the robber barons.
01:56:15 Jay: I am very disturbed about the education layoffs going on now.
01:56:21 Audience: Student loans - canned to save 94Billion
01:56:46 Jay: Yes I believe it has the capacity to increase available funds for student loans.
01:57:04 Audience: Credit rating agencies. Bonds for corporations and municipalites are different.
01:57:55 Jay: send me more info.
01:58:00 Jay: open floor
01:58:10 Audience: Grid systems for electric cars.
01:58:50 Jay: we can't use all the electrictiy we can produce without a better grid system. Backstop siteing authorities. Electric cars - we need them.
02:00:00 Jay: There are amazing advances in technology to enable electric cars. I'm glad I got $2Billion into the stimulus package to support electric cars.
02:00:30 Sandy: You're right but centralized methods of advancing progress are way to slow to keep up with technology changes. Besides, its against the law for the federal government to be involved in energy production - if you want this, support a constitutional emmendment and let 3/4 of the nation choose to turn this nation into a socialist state legally. Stop going around the law Jay!
02:04:04 Mary Whitmore: Social Security Tax Cap: The vast majority of americans pay on every $ they earn but to the top 1% it's just spare change. Its unfair.
02:05:00 I and Obama are looking for a more progressive tax system.
02:05:30 Audience: What is your position on term limits? What will happen to the Gitmo detainees?
02:06:15 Jay: I believe in the old fashion term limits - as long as they are doing a good job, let them stay. Not so for the president though.
02:06:55 Sandy: right on Jay!
02:07:00 Jay: Its important to the rest of the world that we not have Gitmo. The world want's us to be the leaders in democracy.
02:07:37 Sandy: Its a republic not a democracy.
02:08:30 Jay: We lost that special place in the eyes of the world. We lost touch with common sense due to fear and we didn't always follow the law.
02:08:53 Sandy: an amazing quote Jay. amazing.
02:09:25 Jay: Gitmo is a symbol of lawlessness - so its good to close Gitmo.
02:09:53 Tamera: Citizen Safety: Loss of Credit is putting a lot of people on the streets. Car accidents. Do you support our state Sovreignty? The people of the state dictating where our national guard goes to.
02:11:26 Jay: I support states doing what the constituion says which is to provide services to their state citizens as they see fit to provide.
02:11:56 Sandy: What constitution are you reading Jay?
02:12:36 Jay: I do not support state sovreignty to allow slavery in Georgia or the pole tax in Mississippi, or to refuse employment based on sexual gender. So there are individual rights that exceed the state's rights.
02:13:18 Sandy: I thought the question was clear. States do have the right to maintain their own militias and you have cleverly equated that with infringing on individual rights and then changed the subject - nice move Jay.
02:14:54 Audience: Are you familiar with
everify? It matches a person's name with an SSN. Will you support everify?
02:16:08 Jay: Sounds worthy of my time. Having seen the multiple foulups in government databases I want to make sure it works.
02:17:41 Jay: Border patrol issue: we have significantly improved our border interdiction and it has been expensive to do.
02:18:26 Audience: Do you support union card check?
02:!8:50 Jay: I support us going back to how it was before 1974. I support choice in union participation. Law firms are stopping people from choosing to be in a union.
02:20:20 Audience: What about Nuclear Power?
02:21:16 Jay: Nuclear power has not blossomed in the last 25 years. But it is not because of Jame Fonda or Congress - it just costs too much money. Other methods are just easier with efficiency measures.
02:22:27 Jay: Congress in the last 20 years has tried to enhance nuclear power - we provided $ for research and free insurance to promot it. It is a potential part of our future - if the price comes down dramatically. Smaller plants that are more customized. We need standardized plants to bring down costs. We need a permanant disposal system.
02:24:29 Audience: If france is doing it why can't we?
02:24:43 Jay: France doesn't have a 10000 year solution for disposal.
02:25:03 Sandy: My comments on nuc power - over regulated but Jay has valid points. I think we have
much better energy sources comming soon.
02:31:25 Audience: Obama wants us to step up to the plate. The government then sets the goals and asks us to help. How do we help?
02:32:25 Jay: The energy core and the service act helps local governments foster local volunteer activity.
02:33:22 Audience: Imigration debate: is covering up the issue of hireing skill labor from overseas.
02:33:59 Jay: There is ecconomic power in bringing in skilled people from other places. A huge benefit to US. We may lose companies like Microsoft if we don't bring the workers here. We want to identify which workers are necessary to bring in. I think we can improve this by: having more transparency and giving people more confidence that we aren't bringing in people to lower wages here.
02:36:17 Audience: How do you feel about our right to keep and bear arms? (applause)
02:36:35 Jay: "My son is a hunter and a fisherman." I support it for recreation and self defence purposes.
02:37:11 Audience: The guns are to stop the government.
02:37:33 Jay: There are reasonable things people can do to prevent people from being shot up. Convicted fellons should not have access to firearms. People should not fear that taking common sense actions like this threaten the rest of us.
02:39:14 Sandy: See the
Pensylvania Minority Report for what the constitution means.
02:42:34 Jay: Thankyou. I hope you will look at this as a dialog. I get 1000 communications a week from my constituents.
02:43:26 Sandy: Closing comments. Use
OpenCongress.org!
