Interview With Patrick Murray, Rep. Jim Moran’s Opponent
On Monday evening, a friend told me that Patrick Murray, the Republican opponent of Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), was holding an event on the roof of my apartment complex. Intrigued due to the RealClearPolitics video of Moran saying “the economy has recovered” this past weekend, as well as the ethics issues Moran was cleared of earlier this year, I attended the event, where the campaign allowed me a few minutes to interview Murray.
My first question to Murray was about the recession statement by Moran. Murray noted that the good job news was largely coming from the hiring of Census workers, and said the high unemployment rate showed that the stimulus didn’t work. He also said the comments by Moran showed that after 20 years in Congress, he was out of touch with his own constituents.
The final word on the Congressman’s comments? An emphatic “No!” regarding being out of the recession.
Following up on his comment of Moran being out of touch, I asked what Murray thought of term limits. He said he supported them, though he wasn’t certain what the best limitations were. He verified that he would want to hear different options before deciding on one, though he reiterated his support for term limits.
One of the Murray supporters at the event had told me she liked Murray because he was not a politician, which I found interesting. That brought me to ask Murray if he had chosen to run because of the ethics issues Moran had run into, and he simply and firmly said “No.” He then explained he was running because Moran was not the best person for the job, due to a variety of factors, including anti-Semitic remarks the Congressman made. He also stated he felt Moran was doing too much explaining to his constituents, and not enough listening. He cited a health care town hall where Moran brought former Vermont governor Howard Dean in to explain the health care bill, instead of listening to the concerns of his constituents. [Note: This was an infamously raucous town hall from last year.]
Murray launched into a few details regarding what he felt needed to be done. He said jobs; national security; and the national debt were front-end concerns, and said regarding the debt that we as a nation need to “turn this ship around.” He also said Moran and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi were “at the heart” of the tax-and-spend policies of the current Congress.
Due to time constraints – Murray did say we could go into more detail should I want to sit down with him again – I asked only one more question: as a Republican, if he were elected, would Murray work to cut defense spending as part of an overall approach to turning the debt ship around?
Fiscal hawk Republicans like Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) have put themselves on the record as supporting such a policy. Murray, a former Army Colonel with 24 years of experience in the military, said he could not comment on what Senator Coburn had done, but that he supported Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ recent proposal to cut between one and two percent of the defense budget after careful analysis. He said he was “very hesitant” to cut the budget in the middle of two wars, and that the first duty of the federal government is to provide for the common defense.
Unfortunately, I had to let Murray get back to the event, but I plan to follow-up. He seems like he has a pretty good head on his shoulders, and it would be great to have another conservative Republican with military experience since there are so few in Congress.
Author’s Note: I contacted the Moran office so they could respond to some of what Murray said, but as of the publication of this article his office had not responded.
Punishing the Guilty- Unless We Don’t
The Heritage Foundation nailed it in their Morning Bell yesterday:
The TARP program has so far distributed $247 billion to more than 700 banks. Of that, $162 billion in principal and $11 billion in interest and dividends have already been repaid. Except for AIG, almost all banks that received taxpayer money are expected to pay back the American taxpayers in full. As The New York Times reports: “The losses from the bailout fund are expected from money paid to rescue Chrysler and General Motors and the insurance giant American International Group, and from a program to help homeowners avert foreclosures.”
So the real deadbeats that are not giving us “our money back” are not the banks, but the union-backed car companies and failed government mortgage modification programs. But guess what? The White House has chosen not to include the car companies among the institutions that will pay this so called “Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee.” Also exempted are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored entities that helped create the crisis.
It’s time we told our elected officials to stop picking winners and losers, and voted in people who are in favor of term limits and in favor of a separation of business from government. Beyond liberal or conservative, these are the issues that are so important to America. After all, when Howard Dean, Markos Moulitas and Arianna Huffington agree with The Heritage Foundation…perhaps it’s time for- and I dislike using this word- change to how our system works. Of course, it’s up to us, the voters and citizens of America, to make said change.
Health Care Updates
Lawsuits galore from at least a dozen states over the individual mandate, says The New York Times. The Times cites a Heritage Foundation legal analysis on the subject that is being used by many mandate opponents, including the Florida Attorney General highlighted in the article, to show how such an individual mandate is unconstitutional.
Other conservatives are attacking the mandate by reminding us that the Congressional Budget Office had multiple issues with the idea during the Clinton health care reform efforts.
Also, good times for Democratic Members of Congress and their trial lawyer buddies. Apparently, the latter worked really hard to make sure their industry wouldn’t get tagged in the health care reform efforts, and Democrats appeased them. Of course, former Vermont Governor Howard Dean made clear this would happen months ago. Unfortunately for Democrats, the CBO used real numbers and evidence to show tort reform would save the public $54 billion over ten years. (Conservatives, this is where we write, call, e-mail and fax our Senate and House Members of Congress to tell them they are not representing us…)
For fun- H/T to Ed Morrissey at Hot Air- here are some lobbying numbers from the law industry. Surprisingly, Republicans have averaged around 25% of lobbying efforts from lawyers since 1990. I didn’t expect it to be that high.
Democrats & Liberals Standing On Principles
The left is revolting over health care reform. Almost all Americans agree the country does need health care reform, but not the kind the current crop of Democratic Senators and Representatives want. The left and far left- as well as some of the middle- were leaning towards passage of the health care reform package going through the Senate. However, since Senator Lieberman (I-CT) broke the Medicare buy-in into pieces the other day, Keith Olbermann, Markos Moulitsas- the founder of Daily Kos- have come out against the bill, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has as well and former Vermont governor Howard Dean is against it. Too, an opinion piece featured on Huffington Post calls Dean “a genuine hero” for the way he is opposing the current bill, and the SEIU is calling out the President.
Part of me feels badly for these guys and gals. They worked really hard to put President Obama and his Democratic majority into power and are being rejected on what has been their biggest issue all along. Despite being what many consider a far-right conservative, I greatly respect their stand on their principles, and hope they will continue to work to create real reform, as Dean referenced here in his Washington Post column today: “Any measure that expands private insurers’ monopoly over health care and transfers millions of taxpayer dollars to private corporations is not real health-care reform. Real reform would insert competition into insurance markets, force insurers to cut unnecessary administrative expenses and spend health-care dollars caring for people. Real reform would significantly lower costs, improve the delivery of health care and give all Americans a meaningful choice of coverage. The current Senate bill accomplishes none of these.”
Except for forcing companies to cut unnecessary administrative expenses, I like what Dean for health care reform results. Hopefully he, Kos and the rest of the left will join The Heritage Foundation, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) and other conservative organizations and individuals in bringing choice, competition and lower costs to American health care.
The Mayo Clinic Speaks
Senator Reid, when The Mayo Clinic, possibly the most respected medical establishment in the nation, dislikes your bill, you are in trouble.
President Obama and The Mayo Clinic have worked together on health care reform this year. Mayo has critiqued the health care reform efforts before, but also praised efforts on payment reform. However, consider the following regarding the current Senate bill: “Expanding this system [Medicare] to persons 55 to 64 years old would ultimately hurt patients by accelerating the financial ruin of hospitals and doctors across the country. A majority of Medicare providers currently suffer great financial loss under the program. Mayo Clinic alone lost $840 million last year under Medicare. As a result of these types of losses, a growing number of providers have begun to limit the number of Medicare patients in their practices.? Despite these provider losses, Medicare has not curbed overall spending, especially after adjusting for benefits covered and the cost shift from Medicare to private insurance.? This is clearly an unsustainable model, and one that would be disastrous for our nation?s hospitals, doctors and eventually our patients if expanded to even more beneficiaries.”
Mayo spends a fraction what the most expensive Medicare-accepting hospitals do on patients and uses fewer resources by far. When they can’t break even on Medicare, who can? Yet Democrats want to expand Medicare? Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean was on MSNBC the other night- I was in the gym and decided to watch Keith Olbermann for a few minutes- and he fully supported the expanded Medicare concept. That alone is almost enough for me to oppose it, though when a single-payer advocate in Congress supports it as well and Stuart Butler of The Heritage Foundation is against it the opposition becomes complete.
Mayo has its critics- but many of those critics merely claim Mayo can keep costs down because it has patients that are less racially diverse, wealthier, etc. Those critics add to the case Mayo makes above, because if Mayo does have the advantages critics claim and still can’t break even on Medicare reimbursement, how can the vast majority of the rest of the nation’s hospitals even come close?
Liberals make the argument that Medicare brought millions of elderly people out of poverty- this may or may not be true, but the simple fact is that many or perhaps even most Congressional Democrats don’t have a clue about financial sustainability- granted, nor do most Congressional Republicans- and by expanding Medicare they hasten the bankruptcy of America.
