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Wall Street Journal: Republicans Stress Jobs in Health-Care Debate

November 10, 2009
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https://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/11/07/republicans-stress-jobs-in-health-care-debate/

Republicans Stress Jobs in Health-Care Debate
Peter Landers reports on the health care debate.

Republicans are seizing on Friday’s unemployment report to step up attacks on the Democrats’ health-care bill. In statements on the floor of Congress today, Republican lawmakers repeatedly referred to the rise of unemployment above 10% to make the case that Democrats have “misplaced priorities,” in the words of Rep. Joe Wilson (R., S.C.).

Rep. Eric Cantor, the Republican minority whip, said at a news conference that the Democratic plan would “impose higher taxes on small business while we’re expecting them to create jobs.” Small-business groups say the tax on married couples earning more than $1 million could hit some business owners. They also oppose penalties the bill would impose on businesses with payroll of more than $500,000 that don’t offer employees health coverage.

Another frequently repeated phrase was “government takeover” – which is what Republicans say will happen to the health-care system if the Democrats’ bill becomes law. What Democrats really want, said Rep. John Shimkus (R., Ill.), is a single-payer system where the government is the only entity paying health-care bills.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.) raised the specter of single-payer systems overseas, which she said deny people timely treatment for cancer and other diseases. “We have all heard the horror stories of what happened in Europe and Canada,” she said.