Gingrey 'Stuck Making $172,000 a Year' Comment Drawing Fire

[Dos Equis]

What a dumb thing to say. 

Gingrey 'Stuck Making $172,000 a Year' Comment Drawing Fire
Thursday, 19 Sep 2013
By Sandy Fitzgerald

Rep. Phil Gingrey complained Wednesday that he is "stuck" in Congress — earning $172,000 — while his aides can become lobbyists and earn at least a half-million dollars a year, according to the National Review.

"[They] may be 33 years old now and not making a lot of money," the Georgia Republican said during a GOP conference, according to the National Review. "But in few years they can just go to K Street and make $500,000 a year. Meanwhile I'm stuck here making $172,000 a year."

Citing aides who attended the meeting, the newspaper reported that the comments came during a debate among Republicans, including House Speaker John Boehner, over a Gingrey measure to bar members of Congress and their staffs from getting federal subsidies for their healthcare coverage under Obamacare.

Some lawmakers at the meeting spoke against the measure, saying they need the subsidies just as much as their lesser-paid aides because of the high cost of medical insurance, according to the report.

Texas Republican Rep. Joe Barton, for example, reportedly said he's never been wealthy, and that losing the government subsidy would cost him $12,000 a year.

“That’s a burden," he reportedly said. "And it’s a burden on our staff, too.”

For his part, Gingrey believes the subsidies amount to special treatment for lawmakers and their aides that most Americans won't be entitled to receive unless they are poor and cannot afford insurance at all.

Gingrey later said he didn't remember the comment.

But, he repeated, "It is completely unfair for members of Congress and Hill staffers to get this special treatment that the general public are not getting.”

"I was engaged in a dialogue with some members of our conference who truly believe that Congress should get special treatment. And some also believe that staff members should get special treatment. I happen not to believe that," he added.

Rep. Paul Broun, a fellow Georgia Republican, called Gingrey's comments "disappointing." Both congressmen are running for the Senate seat of Republican Saxby Chambliss, who is retiring.

"While most Americans are struggling to make ends meet and battling higher healthcare costs, it's disappointing that Congressman Gingrey, whose reported net worth exceeds $3 million, complains about being 'stuck here' (in Congress) making $172,000 a year," Broun said in a statement to The Hill.

"Georgians needs a senator who understands what it’s like to balance a budget, not one who is more concerned with their salary than the needs and economic challenges faced by most Georgians."

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Obamacare-Gingrey-stuck-subsidy/2013/09/19/id/526618#ixzz2fMftjwGv

[Archer77]

Elected officials should make minimum wage and receive no benefits.

[Straw Man]

Gingrey has a long history of making idiotic comments and this won't be the last one

[Straw Man]

Actually, despite the idiotic remark, Gingrey's proposal is a good one. The Imperial Congress should not get any special preference if O-Care goes into effect. 

They don't

the moronic Repubs actually made themselves a worse deal for themselves than the general public (they added this to the legislation thinking it would queer the deal but the Dems head faked them and passed it)

[tonymctones]

Lol so the reps did this out of spite and not as a genuine belief that congress should not get special treatment?

About as credible as your the reps have no healthcare ideas bullshit

[Straw Man]

Lol so the reps did this out of spite and not as a genuine belief that congress should not get special treatment?

About as credible as your the reps have no healthcare ideas bullshit

still waiting for you to post information on all the health care reform bills legislation that Repubs sponsored.    Just pick 1 or 2 examples from the many you claim to know about.   I clearly remember how this was a priority of Repubs in the Bush years so you have an abundance of examples to choose from

[tonymctones]

still waiting for you to post information on all the health care reform bills legislation that Repubs sponsored.    Just pick 1 or 2 examples from the many you claim to know about.   I clearly remember how this was a priority of Repubs in the Bush years so you have an abundance of examples to choose from

wasnt obamacare a republican idea? isnt that what you have ranteed and raved about?

you are trying to say the reps had no ideas during the obamacare debates?

they didnt just present ideas this week to help healthcare reform?

LOL youre clueless

[tonymctones]

still waiting for you to post information on all the health care reform bills legislation that Repubs sponsored.    Just pick 1 or 2 examples from the many you claim to know about.   I clearly remember how this was a priority of Repubs in the Bush years so you have an abundance of examples to choose from

you do know that even obama cites republican ideas within obamacare right?

[Archer77]

still waiting for you to post information on all the health care reform bills legislation that Repubs sponsored.    Just pick 1 or 2 examples from the many you claim to know about.   I clearly remember how this was a priority of Repubs in the Bush years so you have an abundance of examples to choose from

Richard Nixon advocated a plan that would have required mandatory insurance.   Romney passed a health care bill very similar to Obama's plan in Massachusetts.

[tonymctones]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2013/08/28/seriously-the-republicans-have-no-health-plan/

were some of these during the bush admin???

Comprehensive Republican health reform plans introduced in Congress

Let’s start with 5 comprehensive health reform proposals that have actually been introduced in Congress—some well before President Obama even was nominated for president, and all months before the House (11/7/09) or Senate (12/24/09) voted on what eventually became Obamacare.
•Ten Steps to Transform Health Care in America Act (S. 1783) introduced by Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY) July 12, 2007.
•Every American Insured Health Act introduced by Senators Richard Burr (R-NC) and Bob Corker (R-TN) with co-sponsors Tom Coburn (R-OK), Mel Martinez (formerly R-FL) and Elizabeth Dole (formerly R-NC) on July 26, 2007.
•Senators Bob Bennett (R-UT) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduced the Healthy Americans Act on January 18, 2007 and re-introduced the same bill on February 5, 2009.
•Patients’ Choice Act of 2009 introduced by Senators Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Richard Burr (R-NC) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Devin Nunes (R-CA) on May 20, 2009.
•H.R. 2300, Empowering Patients First Act introduced July 30, 2009 by Rep. Tom Price (R-GA).

[tonymctones]

Comprehensive conservative Obamacare replacement plans

Likewise, conservative market-oriented health policy scholars have developed a rich menu of potential replacement plans for Obamacare:
•Individual Pay or Play proposed in 2005 by John Goodman; this is a minimalist version of a broader reform envisaged by Goodman built on converting the tax exclusion into universal tax credits.
•Health Status Insurance originally proposed by John Cochrane in 1995.
•Universal Health Savings Accounts proposed by John Goodman and Peter Ferrara in 2012. This combines fixed tax credits with individual pay or play and health status insurance concepts along with Roth-style Health Savings Accounts.
•Fixed tax credits. A variety of proposals have centered on using fix tax credits to replace the current inefficient and unfair tax exclusion for employer-provided health benefits. Two good explanations of how that would work are here: •James C. Capretta and Robert E. Moffit, “How to Replace Obamacare,” National Affairs, no. 11 (Spring 2012).
•James C. Capretta. Constructing an Alternative to Obamacare: Key Details for a Practical Replacement Program. American Enterprise Institute, December 2012.
 
•Income-Related Tax Credits proposed by Mark Pauly and John Hoff in Responsible Tax Credits (2002) and endorsed by the American Medical Association. More recently, 8 scholars from Harvard, University of Chicago, and USC–Jay Bhattacharya, Amitabh Chandra, Michael Chernew, Dana Goldman, Anupam Jena, Darius Lakdawalla,Anup Malani and Tomas Philipson—released Best of Both Worlds: Uniting Universal Coverage and Personal Choice in Health Care (2013) which also is built around a model of individual health insurance subsidized with income-related tax credits.
•Flexible Benefits Tax Credit For Health Insurance by Lynn Etheredge in 2001.
•Near-Universal Health Insurance Exchanges proposed in 2001 by Sara Singer, Alan Garber and Alain Enthoven (covers only non-elderly).
•Universal Health Insurance Exchanges proposed in 2013 by former CBO director Douglas Holtz-Eakin and Avik Roy (covers Medicare and Medicaid in addition to privately insured).

[tonymctones]

and just to kick you in the libtard nuts, which nancy pelosi no doubt keeps in her purse...

The forgotten history of George W. Bush’s comprehensive health reform plan

Too many people conveniently ignore that in his 2007 State of the Union message President Bush proposed a sweeping health reform plan that would have replaced the current tax exclusion for employer-provided coverage with standard tax deductions for all individuals and families. The Bush plan called for a tax deduction that would have applied to payroll taxes as well as income taxes. Moreover, if one were worried about non-filers, the subsidy could easily have instead been structured as a refundable tax credit in which case even those without any income taxes would have gotten an additional amount. This is the kind of policy detail that easily could have been negotiated had the Democrats been in a cooperative mood in 2007. They were not. On the contrary, President Bush’s health plan was declared “dead on arrival” by Democrats in 2007. Yet it is Republicans who were tagged as being uncooperative and intransigent when they resisted the misguided direction that Obamacare seemed to be headed.

What’s sad is that the Bush plan actually was superior to Obamacare when it comes to providing universal coverage. Remember, Obamacare actually does not provided universal coverage. The latest figures from CBO says that when it is fully implemented in 2016, Obamacare will cut the number of uninsured by only 45%, covering 89% of the non-elderly. Even if illegal immigrants are excluded, this percentage rises to only 92%. In contrast, the Bush plan (without a mandate!) would have cut the number of uninsured by 65%. But that’s ancient history. Consider one of the newest market-oriented health reform plans put on the table by Jim Capretta and Douglas Holtz-Eakin. Compared to Obamacare, this plan would cost roughly the same amount yet cover 22% more (8 million!) uninsured. If there’s a superior alternative to the slow-motion train wreck now being implemented, why wouldn’t the President and Democrats in Congress want to seriously consider it as a replacement?

Of course even those willing to acknowledge Bush’s health reform plan then tend to counter with the claim that he wasn’t “serious” about his proposal. It was just a defensive move to defend Republicans in 2008 against the charge that the Republicans didn’t have a plan because they didn’t care about the issue (sound familiar). Those dubious about GWB’s “seriousness” about health reform should do the following thought experiment. Imagine that the Democrats in Congress had passed a bill containing the Bush administration’s health plan–no more, no less. Does anyone seriously believe GWB would have vetoed that bill? If not, I would argue his proposal was a serious one.

[240 is Back]

Voters should do the right thing and help Gingrey escape this job he dislikes so much.

[tonymctones]

now go on strawtard, draw your silver libtard lining and say "yea, but..."

[Straw Man]

wasnt obamacare a republican idea? isnt that what you have ranteed and raved about?

you are trying to say the reps had no ideas during the obamacare debates?

they didnt just present ideas this week to help healthcare reform?

LOL youre clueless

Glad to see you finally conceded that Obamacareis a Republican iidea.
Don't forget the mandate    we can thank Repubs for that too

[tonymctones]

hahah so you thought obamacare was a republican idea but still contend the reps have no ideas on healthcare?

brilliant

[tonymctones]

still waiting for you to post information on all the health care reform bills legislation that Repubs sponsored.    Just pick 1 or 2 examples from the many you claim to know about.   I clearly remember how this was a priority of Repubs in the Bush years so you have an abundance of examples to choose from

no comment on the copious amounts of proof I gave you to refute your stupidity?

[Emmortal]

As if anyone needed more proof that politicians are only in it for money?

There's a lot that could be done to rectify these issues but no one will ever do anything, we're complacent with complaining on message boards about problems that can easily be fixed.

[syntaxmachine]

Elected officials should make minimum wage and receive no benefits.

No! Then they really would raise the minimum wage and the economy would suffer the consequences.

[tonymctones]

No! Then they really would raise the minimum wage and the economy would suffer the consequences.

Lol true