Dave Camp's blog

Part of the job as an elected official is right in the title - to listen to and represent the needs of the people that elected you.

President Obama came into office with the good wishes of the American people, and a complete misunderstanding of why he had been elected: It wasn’t to implement a more expansive government and skyrocket our national debt.

That much was clear when, after the President rammed through a trillion dollar stimulus, followed quickly by a massive health care law, the American people rose in concert to voice their opposition. Yet again and again this President has proven that he still isn’t listening to the people.

I want to assure you that am listening and doing all I can to make certain your voice is heard in Washington. I’m working everyday to develop solutions to our problems. (See the list here!)

I’ve developed these proposals through meetings with small business owners and constituents all across our District, and I’m honored to have the job of taking these ideas to Congress. I know what it will take to get Michigan and America back to work and I’m pushing hard to get my proposals on the table.

Cross posted on Dave Camp For Congress.com

As we kick off Labor Day weekend, a holiday meant to celebrate our country’s workers, today’s news is especially disappointing: The unemployment rate has once again crept upward.Here are the unfortunate facts for the Obama, Pelosi and Reid-led free-spenders in Congress:

•         For the 16th month in a row, our unemployment is above 9 percent.
•         At 9.6 percent in August, the unemployment rate is nearly one-third higher than         President Obama’s economic team predicted it would be with their $1 trillion stimulus bill.
•         Almost 15 million Americans remain out of work.  That doesn’t include the millions who have taken part-time jobs or simply stopped looking because they have been unemployed for so long.
•         Instead of helping small business – the real engine of our economy – President Obama has been raising taxes and skyrocketing our national debt.

We need to focus on policies that will help small businesses and get Americans paychecks, not more unemployment checks.  We need to stop following bad policy like stimulus that we know doesn’t work and hasn’t worked. We should honor our workers this Labor Day by:

•         Freezing all regulations that will have a negative impact on small businesses.
• ·         Stopping the trillion-dollar tax increase on families and employers – scheduled to begin in only four months.
•         Repealing the job-killing provisions in the health care law like the “1099 mandate.”
•         Cutting federal spending.

On this Labor Day holiday, let’s put an end to the wasteful spending in Washington and implement policies that will get our economy back on track and help employers create new jobs.

Cross Posted on Dave Camp for Congress.

Instead of working to find a way to create new jobs for millions of struggling Americans, President Obama is traveling around the country raising money for Democrats and trying to sell the “Summer of Recovery.” Oh really, Mr. President?  

The economic gains that the Obama Administration touted in April, May and June were not as large as they originally told us. In fact, if you exclude government spending, the economy saw almost no growth at all during that period. First-time unemployment claims continue to rise, mortgage foreclosures are still increasing, consumer confidence is down and businesses continue to be confused by the mixed signals of the Obama Administration. 

Every time the government provides a bailout or goes on a spending spree they send exactly the wrong message to every American. The Obama Administration refuses to get serious about the fundamental problems facing our country. They need to let the free markets work. Congress needs to stop spending money we don’t have.  

There are meaningful solutions being offered by public servants on both sides of the political spectrum. Let’s stop the spin and start listening to the ideas of Americans. We can get back on track, but it will take all of us working together, not the political spin currently being offered by the Obama Administration. 

Cross Posted at Dave Camp For Congress

The long-delayed Medicare Trustees report was released late last week and I simply can’t tell you how disappointing it was to read. The report, despite being delayed by the administration to reflect the impact of Obamacare, confirms what employers across the country have been saying for months – that the Democrats’ health care law will result in a substantial and marked decline in employer sponsored retiree drug coverage.

According to the Trustees’ report, beginning in 2013 Obamacare will eliminate a tax deduction presently available to employers - virtually eliminating the prescription drug benefit for seniors.

Based on the Trustees’ own figures:

• Up to 5.8 million seniors will lose their current retiree prescription drug coverage by 2016.

• Put another way, only 2 percent of Part D enrollees will still receive such coverage by 2016.

• An additional 1.7 million seniors who would have otherwise received an offer of retiree prescription drug coverage in the future will not have this option.

• That means 7.5 million seniors will no longer have access to retiree drug coverage by 2016 as a result of Obamacare.

Using flawed logic, double counting and budget gimmicks to show that Medicare is on better footing because of Obamacare won’t fool the American people. The truth is: taking a half trillion dollars from Medicare is going to seriously jeopardize seniors’ access to care.

Cross Posted on Dave Camp for Congress.com

Speaker Pelosi said we'd have to "pass the health care bill to find out what's in it," and four months ago, Democrats agreed - in the middle of the night, in back rooms - to pass it.

Today, they are finally taking a look at just what's in the health care bill, and turns out, they don't like what they're seeing either.

They're finding out what the American people already knew: this was a bad bill that would raise the costs of their health care, cut benefits to seniors, and hurt America's small businesses.

With the support of many rank-and-file Democrats, I offered a substitute last week that would repeal the 1099 tax provision that gives more work to small businesses while taking away their ability to create new jobs. That's right - Democrats agree that the health care law is a job-killer, and they want to repeal it, too!

But just how bad it would hurt job growth in this country didn't seem to matter to Speaker Pelosi. She and the Democratic leadership yanked their own bill and my substitute off the floor almost immediately to prevent my repeal from moving forward. Turns out, they're more interested in protecting Obamacare than American jobs.

It's too bad it took the rest of the Democrats 4 months and one bad health care law to figure it out. I continue to work to repeal and replace the health care bill.

Cross Posted at Dave Camp For Congress

I was proud to sign a discharge petition that would repeal Obamacare. But that is not enough.

We must continue to work to repeal and replace the health care law hastily passed by Democrats this spring. This law does not address the heart of the nation's health care crisis: skyrocketing costs crippling American families and businesses.

And, this law actually adds drives up costs: it includes more than $1 trillion in new entitlement spending and increases taxes by over one half trillion dollars. It expands the already cash-short Medicaid program, while hurting some of the nation's most vulnerable, our seniors, by cutting one half trillion dollars in Medicare benefits.

This bill is bad for America and bad for families.

I fully support efforts to repeal and replace the Democrats' health care law.

I have co-sponsored legislation that would repeal Obamacare and replace it with H.R. 4038, the Common Sense Health Care Reform and Affordability Act, the Republican alternative I authored and offered during the original health care debate. I also have signed a discharge petition that would repeal Obamacare.

My bill, H.R. 4038, reduces costs and expands access to affordable health care, without overreaching government mandates or increasing taxes. In fact, my bill was the only one noted by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office to SAVE the average American family money - more than $1,000 if they buy insurance on their own.

I will continue to work to repeal this costly, misguided law, and replace it with reforms that save Americans money, expand access, and protects taxpayer dollars.

Cross posted at Dave Camp For Congress.com

Recently the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) put out a really nice-looking brochure telling seniors about all the good things they would get under the Democrat’s health care law. The problem is, they leave out the fact that seniors will see $500 billion in cuts to their benefits. It’s obvious that Democrats realize how unpopular their health care law is with the American people. It’s sad that they feel the need to use taxpayer money to produce pure propaganda to try to convince people that it’s a good law.  

We all know otherwise.  

For example, the brochure says, “your guaranteed Medicare benefits won’t change—whether you get them through Original Medicare or a Medicare Advantage Plan.” 

Actually, the administration’s own actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services says seniors who use Medicare Advantage will lose benefits as a result of this bill. It also seems outrageous for HHS to claim that a bill which cuts Medicare by half a trillion dollars will actually “preserve and strengthen” Medicare. 

It seems like seniors are getting a bad deal once again. Now the administration is using Medicare funds to advertise a number of policies for which seniors are largely ineligible. I have serious concerns about the misuse of taxpayer funds to distribute such a misleading document. Our seniors deserve better.

Cross posted at Dave Camp For Congress.com

In just six months the Obama Administration increased the national debt by $1 trillion -- Pretty amazing when you consider that it took our country 206 years to accumulate its first $1 trillion in debt. The Administration continues to bury its head in the sand when it comes to what the American people want. But the rest of the country realizes what the Administration doesn’t: millions of voters on election days across the country are telling the President and Democrats in Congress – stop spending money we don’t have. Previously inactive citizens have been spurred to political activity for one major reason – the massive increases in federal spending that seemingly has no end in sight.  

In February, President Obama signed a law promising to do something about the out-of-control increase in government spending. It’s called the “Pay As You Go” Act. The President said when he signed the bill “It says to Congress … You can’t spend a dollar unless you cut a dollar elsewhere.” 

Since the President signed “PayGo,” Democrats in Congress have passed about $230 billion in un-paid for new spending. Democrats will tell you it’s for “emergencies.” Well, I wonder if the American people, one in ten of whom is unemployed, would consider $20 billion for highway construction, $54 million for tax breaks for TV and movie production costs and $15 million in aid to the Congo, to be an emergency? 

Speaker Pelosi has boasted that on the very first day she became Speaker, they made PayGo the rule of the House.  

Strange, but in the three years that she has enforced her PayGo rule, the House has violated it by nearly $1 trillion. Maybe someone should explain to Nancy Pelosi what the PayGo law says. It’s time we stop this cycle of spending that is skyrocketing our national debt.

Cross Posted on Dave Camp for Congress.com

Adding to the growing list of employers considering dropping health care coverage is the University System of Georgia, which is considering dropping benefits for future retirees due to the cost of the Democrats’ health care bill.

According to the University, the bill will increase their health care costs from $5 million to $10 million. To control costs, they are considering dropping health insurance.

This latest example illustrates the hidden costs and negative ramifications for Americans’ health care that is hidden in the 2,000-plus, $1 trillion (at least) health care bill.

Cross posted at Dave Camp For Congress.com

A new story from the AP brings down the smoke and mirrors Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats used to sell the health care law to America's small businesses.

Promising a tax credit to benefit small businesses turned out to be a good talking point. But as the story reveals, the administration left something unsaid. Under the complex formula that calculates if a small business is eligible for the tax credit, companies with more than 10 workers, that earn more than $25,000 average annual wages, are unlikely to qualify. This creates "winners and losers," and puts employers in a hard spot: don't cut employees and wages to be small enough to get the tax credit, or be able to afford health care for their employees. Neither way helps the American people.

Reality again fails to meet rhetoric in the Great Health Care Sell. 

Cross Posted at Dave Camp For Congress.com