Pete Stark: “I guess I would remind the people that it is the Republicans that shut down the government several times because they…”

“I guess I would remind the people that it is the Republicans that shut down the government several times because they were unable to come up with a budget. I would challenge any Republican who has an idea, much less an idea of what they would do just in the oft chance they fail to come up with a bill. And even if they were to come up with a bill, they are not telling us what happens, say, in health care, an issue which they postulate a good bit about and posture about. The Armey flat tax bill, which they might choose, imposes tax penalties on employers that provide health care benefits to their employees. The Tauzin retail sales tax bill imposes a sales tax on people when they pay for health insurance and health care. I wonder if that is what they intend to do. The Republicans voted to increase the rate at which self-employed people could deduct their health care. This will end that. I presume that they really do not care, as they have not in the past, about providing health care to the 45 million uninsured. I am sure that they do not want to help employers pay for it, because I think they are indifferent.”