United States Senator

Today, U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), Chairman of the Senate Steering Committee and member of the Senate Banking Committee, appeared on Fox News Sunday with host Chris Wallace and U.S. Representative Charles Rangel (D-New York). The following are excerpts from the discussion on today’s program:

On Democrat goal of government takeover of health care:

DEMINT: Well, people are starting to figure out that the president is on record, Congressman Rangel’s on record, for wanting a single-payer government health care system in America. So the debate’s really between the Democrats and the American people right now. And what we wanted mostly is to be able to put the -- the bill itself on the Internet and the airways so that the American people know what’s in it. They know it’s going to cut Medicare. They know it’s going to raise taxes on the small businesses that create jobs. And they know it’s going to eliminate jobs across the country.

WALLACE: So what do you think will end up happening as a result?

DEMINT: What’s -- what’s going to happen is you’re going to see Americans take to the street in August, and go to their congressmen’s office, and they’re going to go to town halls, and I think they’re going to let congressmen and senators know that they need to keep their hands off their health care.

On Democrats’ plan to raise taxes on small businesses:

WALLACE: Senator DeMint, it looks like the House is going to pass Congressman Rangel’s proposal to raise a half a trillion dollars by imposing a surtax on top earners. Now, combined with other Obama tax policies as well as local and state taxes, that would raise the top marginal tax rate in 39 states to over 50 percent. And take a look at this. The top tax rate in Denmark is 60 percent. It would be over 57 percent in Oregon, almost 57 percent in New York and California. That’s higher than Sweden and Belgium. Senator DeMint, what would that do to the economy?

DEMINT: Well, half of the so-called rich are small businesses that create 70 or 80 percent of the jobs in this country, and it’s a real jobs killer… they cut Medicare to come up with some money, and they raise taxes on -- on small businesses, and they penalize any American with a 2.5 percent tax if they don’t have government-approved health care. I mean, this is not the America we know. And the problem is not just with insurance. In fact, a lot of Americans are happy with it. We need to do a lot of things to make it work better. But a government takeover is going to work just like the “cash for clunkers” program, Chris.

On better, common sense solutions to reform health care instead of a takeover:

DEMINT: No matter what you call it, Chris, this is a government takeover. Barney Frank admitted this week that the whole reform effort is a way to move towards a single-payer government plan. There are better ideas, and I will work with Charlie Rangel and others in the Senate if we’ll focus on making the system work better and not replacing what’s working right now. There are a couple of things we could do, Chris. If we just had tax fairness for those who didn’t get their insurance at work, we could get every -- we could give every family $5,000 a year to buy their health insurance. And if we just allowed interstate competition -- they say we need a government plan for competition, yet Charlie Rangel and others have fought us on opening up competition. Right now we have a state-by- state monopoly system. If people in New York, where Congressman Rangel lives, where they pay twice what they pay in Pennsylvania, could just buy policies in Pennsylvania, you’d see a competitive market develop very quickly, and a lot of the problems they talk about would quickly go away…

I’ve introduced the Health Care Freedom Act that would force interstate competition, that would give every family who doesn’t get their insurance at work $5,000 a year to buy health insurance, which is above the national average for the cost. Lawsuit abuse reform, which the congressman won’t touch because of the political side of this -- and block grants to the states to set up pools or high-risk systems so people who have pre-existing conditions can have affordable insurance. There are good ideas out here. The idea that we need a “Fannie Med” in every state to compete with insurance companies is ridiculous… I don’t understand why the congressman is opposed to interstate competition of insurance companies.

On ‘Cash for Clunkers’:

DEMINT: This is another bill that congressman and senators didn’t even read. The federal government getting in the used car business -- and we think, “Hey, this is working great.” But my children and grandchildren are going to have to pay for these cars, and we’re helping auto dealers while there are thousands of other small businesses that aren’t getting the help. The role of the federal government is not to run the used car business. And it’s clear. You can look at Amtrak or the post office, and now “cash for clunkers.” The federal government went bankrupt in one week in the used car business, and now they want to run our health care system. I just think this is a great example of the stupidity that’s coming out of Washington right now, and I think Americans realize the numbers that we’re throwing around don’t work. We estimated this would cost $1 billion. Now they’re saying we need $2 billion more. Our children and grandchildren can’t afford to make these car dealers well right now.

WALLACE: Real quickly, because it sailed through the House in a day -- it’s going to come up to the Senate next week -- are you going to be able to block it?

DEMINT: Well, we’re definitely going to debate it. And I’ve heard John McCain is going to stand up and try to stop it. And I’m going to work with him every way I can, because...

WALLACE: That means a filibuster?

DEMINT: ... it makes no sense. I don’t know what it means right now, Chris, but this is crazy to try to rush this thing through again while they’re trying to rush through health care, and they want to get on to cap and trade electricity tax. We’ve got to slow this thing down.