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The Conservative Voice for North Georgia

Letters and Opinions Expressed by HCRP Members - 2010

Hall County includes the cities of Buford, Chestnut Mountain, Clermont, Flowery Branch, Gainesville, Gillsville, Lula, Murrayville, Oakwood, & Rest Haven.

The Hall County GOP welcomes and respects all opinions and letters from HCRP members and will do it's best to represent all corespondence in the alloted space.

Don't forget, there are many ways to contact us. In addition to attending our monthly conservative forums you can also contact us by email at Hall GOP, Hall GOP Webmaster, Hall Officials.

We look forward to hearing from you.

May 27, 2010

Growing Economy Means More Money for Roads, Schools

I sympathize with Mr. Bill Finnick’s concerns about the financial difficulties our schools are facing. [“Low taxes mean less money for roads, schools" - The Gainesville Times, May 13, 2010], but I don’t share his enthusiasm for higher taxes.

Families and businesses continue to suffer in this economy, so government funded agencies and entities, including schools, suffer as well. Unfortunately, the troubles are acute for schools since they rely so heavily on property taxes.

When it comes to taxes and spending, we need look beyond any immediate problems to the bigger picture. With schools and education being a clear-cut priority, we must consider how we can best fund them and other essential government services over the long term.

First, we need more revenue, not higher taxes. Second, education would be in better shape if tax money went only for essential services—properly limited government—not for an increasingly wide range of things government should not be doing.

Mr. Finnick’s solution of raising taxes is not a solution at all. What states have suffered the most though this economic downturn? The high tax states: California, Pennsylvania, Michigan and New York. High taxes produced higher, reckless spending, and raised calls for still higher taxes. Jobs and unemployed workers are fleeing these states.

Mr. Finnick notes in his letter that, “When Martin Elementary opened at the end of the longest economic expansion this country has ever enjoyed, there was no playground.” I’m glad he mentioned that long economic expansion, which helped build that school in the first place. That expansion was not driven by higher taxes - it began and progressed over the years due to President Reagan’s initial tax cuts. These cuts produced new opportunities for individuals, greater collective prosperity and built more schools and roads.

The continued expansion of government into health care and other areas of our life will make it increasingly difficult for Georgians to spend money on the services we choose. It is a consensus that Obamacare is a job-killing machine. We’re now threatened with Cap and Trade, which will aggravate the problems further when the full force of Obamacare begins to hammer our budget here in Georgia.

High taxes and uncontrolled government spending limits what we can spend on essential services. History has proven - lower taxes produces economic expansion.

Jim Pilgrim, Chairman

Hall County Republican Party

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April 2, 2010

Americans Wanted a Limited Reform, Not a Radical Overhaul

Without a doubt, for the past few years, Americans clearly wanted reform in health care. Something had to be done. But in fact is, most Americans have basically been satisfied with the health care they get; including the doctors they choose, the quality of treatments, the effectiveness of procedures they undergo and any surgery they might have. The care they get is generally excellent and second to none anywhere in the world.

Cost was the thing; Americans wanted reform that would address high and rising costs. Instead, they got a radical overhaul—passed over the opposition of most Americas—that swallowed one-sixth of the economy in one big gulp, a radical overhaul that piles bureaucracy on bureaucracy and tangles red tape with more red tape.

This so-called reform is packed with new government entities, new departments, agencies, commissions and all their bureaucratic kin - more than 150 if them.

Our current problems and the prospects for Obamacare need to be seen in this light: Our “private” health care system has come to be infused with heavy doses of government influence and control in recent decades.

Medicare reimbursements to hospitals have been under price controls for a quarter of a century and reimbursement to doctors for more than 15 years. Insurance companies were cast as the villains by the reformers - not taking into account that Medicare is the nation’s dominant insurer and shapes many aspects of the system.

Like dealing with Medicare? Obamacare is Medicare on steroids, a bulked up version of distorted pricing and disincentives that will deliver doctor shortages and slow innovation in pharmaceuticals, advanced equipment and the development of new life-saving techniques. Eventually, we’ll spend a lot more time in waiting rooms in the doctor’s office and will wait longer for needed treatment.

We’re already are seeing shortages. Anyone moving to Gainesville or other cities looking for a new physician, have found it’s much more difficult than it was 15 years ago.

The political strategy for implementing Obamacare is diabolical. The Democrats are going to move slowly; given the opposition, so they don’t frighten Americans or reinforce the idea that the Republicans were right in warning of dire things to come. So initially, as the president pointed out, a number of Americans will get real immediate benefits. Mentioned most often is Children being able to remain on their parents policies until age 26.

Before the November elections, such benefits will get a lot of attention. These benefits will be the deception of Obamacare. Americans won’t yet see that their biggest concern—high cost—won’t go away. For many, costs will go up substantially—but not immediately.

The big ticket items, such as huge increases in what Georgia and the rest of the states will pay for Medicaid, won’t show up until after the 2012 Presidential elections. These unfunded mandates will threaten the already stressed state budgets. This is the reasoning why Gov. Perdue will appoint a special attorney general to join 15 other states in fighting Obamacare in the courts.

In the longer term, Obamacare will not only damage health care but it will damage our economic recovery. Social Security is in trouble, Medicare is in trouble and Medicaid is in trouble. We cannot pay for them now and we’re adding yet another entitlement.

Americans indeed wanted real reform, reform based on a broad consensus. The 216 votes that gave us Obamacare was indeed a majority, but it was clearly not a consensus. Americans want real reform, one that leaves them plenty of choice in doctors and treatment, one that continues to develop most of the worlds new drugs and advanced equipment, and one that continues to supply plenty of doctors.

Republicans remain committed to delivering real reform, that will keep America as the world’s leader in medical innovation, able to deliver first-rate care.

Jim Pilgrim, Chairman

Hall County Republican Party