We need real health care reform, not reports & empty rhetoric (Sen. John Cornyn)

President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors recently released a 51-page report titled “The Economic Case for Health Care Reform” [pdf here] detailing how health care reform is needed to rescue our economy.

We can all agree that our health care system must be reformed to bring down unsustainable costs. America spends about twice as much per capita on health care as compared to other developed nations. Skyrocketing costs are absorbing 17 percent of our GDP. Yet, as health care costs continue to rise, fewer Americans can afford coverage.

In its report, the White House estimates the long term impact of reducing health care spending by 1.5 percent but neglects to include a plan for how to achieve that in cost savings. The Administration wants to spend as much as $1.5 trillion for its health care proposal and pretend it will save money over time. In reality, however, common-sense and the economic evidence tell us that increasing government spending will not solve our fiscal challenges. The Administration’s spending would instead lead to new taxes or more debt—or both.

The fact is we don’t need to, and we can’t afford to, spend more money on government program expansions. But that’s exactly what the Administration is attempting to accomplish under the guise that spending more will save more—and it’s asking the American taxpayers to spend the money upfront and in blind faith.

What this report also fails to explore is the economic impact that President Obama’s full-scale Washington takeover of our nation’s health care system will have on taxpayers. As the President said last month, our current deficit spending is “unsustainable” and we are “out of money.” He said that “we are mortgaging our children’s future with more and more debt.” At a time when our country is already saddled with debt and entitlement obligations, why is the Administration pushing to spend even more hard-earned taxpayer dollars?

While full of promises and projected figures, this report is scant on hard details and fails to explain how the White House’s proposal would result in real savings for American taxpayers. This is yet another attempt by the White House to create a façade of fiscal responsibility. This is also coming from an Administration that released a report saying the unemployment rate wouldn’t rise above 8 percent if Congress passed the so-called stimulus plan.

We need real solutions, and I believe the best way to approach health care reform is bottom-up, not top-down. Reports loaded with rhetoric, figures and promises on an issue that will impact more than 300 million Americans are not a good start.