“You can’t count her out, because she’s been very good at getting votes.” That from Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan Friday, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi works to round up Democratic votes for health care reform. “Cap and trade, they were down 24 votes the night before. At three in the morning, they brought a 400 page amendment giving away all this pork, all these goodies and special interest deals to members to get them to vote for it, and they ended up passing it by eight votes,” Ryan said. “That kind of horse trading, that kind of carrot and stick muscle job, is occurring right now.”
The Janesville Republican, in a Friday morning interview with a Madison radio station, continued to make the point he’s been making for weeks: the bill from the Obama adminstrationa and Congressional Democrats is will lead to government run health care. “You’re federalizing the regulation of health insurance, you’re subsidzing health insurance, you’re mandating health insurance and you’re telling everybody exactly what kind of health insurance they have to buy or provide for their workers, and you’re subsidizing it from the federal governmemt,” Ryan told WIBA. “So if that’s not government run health care, I don’t know what is.”
Ryan says the bill includes cost incentives which will drive larger employers to stop offering insurance to their employees, driving them into a government regulated health care exchange. “Once this eschange is up and running, in about two years, 66 percent of the people who have health insurance through their jobs will lose it, and will have to go into this exchange,” Ryan predicted. But will the bill pass? Ryan insisted that at this point, things are still too close to call. The magic number for Democrats to pass the measure is 216 votes. A vote is expected on Sunday.
Paul Ryan interview (12:05 MP3) AUDIO: Paul Ryan interview (12:05 MP3)