Toomey, Portman Want to End Obamacare, Not Shutdown
WARREN, Ohio -- Two Republican U.S. senators visiting the Mahoning and Shenango valleys Thursday lamented gridlock that in recent years has often stymied efforts to address the key issues facing the nation.
The venues for the two visits could hardly have been more different. U.S. Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio toured a rundown neighborhood north of downtown Warren to tout legislation that would allow municipalities and land banks to tap into additional funds to demolish vacant structures. In West Middlesex, Pa., U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey addressed a legislative luncheon at the Park Inn by Radisson presented by several western Pennsylvania chambers of commerce and other development organizations.
“The country’s got big problems including the economy and here in the Valley we see that. So we’ve got to get together as Republicans and Democrats and help solve problems,” Portman said.
Portman pointed to the legislation that was the focus of his media event in Warren, the Neighborhood Safety Act, which he introduced in June, as an example of bipartisan efforts that stand as an exception to the gridlock. A companion bill was introduced in the U.S. House of representatives that also has both Democratic and Republican sponsors, including U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-13 Ohio.
Another Portman bill with bipartisan support, dealing with energy efficiency, is expected to come up for vote in a few weeks when legislators return to Washington. “It’s one of the examples where you can get together and figure out a way to encourage good policy. It should be nonpartisan, not just bipartisan,” he remarked.
“There is a lot of gridlock in Washington. It’s really frustrating,” Toomey told reporters following his speech at the luncheon. The event was jointly hosted by the Shenango Valley, Lawrence County, Ellwood City, Grove City Area, Mercer Area and Greenville Area chambers of commerce, Lawrence County Economic Development Corp. and PennNorthwest Development Corp.
Toomey, who like Portman is in his first term, admitted Republicans push for the 60-vote threshold for legislation in the Senate probably more often than they should. He said he aims to find “areas of common ground, areas where we might find some agreement.” He pointed to the American Jobs Act, legislation he wrote with a series of Democratic cosponsors that ease regulations and costs on small businesses seeking to raise capital.
“It’s an example of how the government ought to work,” Toomey said. “We’ve got excessive regulations and when we can push back on that, that’s constructive. But I agree that it doesn’t happen as often as it needs to, and we need to keep looking for common ground.
One area of common ground the two GOP senators occupied Thursday is their desire to avoid a government shutdown over defunding the Affordable Care Act, as is being threatened in the House. Neither of the lawmakers -- both of whom were elected in 2010 when the Tea Party movement, angered in part by passage of the health-care law, boosted prospects for Republicans nationwide -- approve of the law.
“It’s bad policy," Portman said. "It was shoved through without any Republican support and that’s one reason it’s bad policy – not that Republicans have the answers, but things should be bipartisan and I think we’re seeing the results of that.” The law, he argued, is impacting not only health care but the economy, as employers hold back on hiring full-time workers and instead add part-time employees to avoid its provisions.
“It ought to be repealed and replaced with something that makes more sense in terms of providing lower costs in health care, which to me is the key issue to access,” Portman said.
But threatening to shut down the government unless Obamacare is defunded “doesn’t make much sense” because it is in another part of the budget, what is called mandatory spending, Portman continued. Discussions on the law should continue and “let’s work on a separate track to repeal [Obamacare] and make sure that we’re putting in place something that makes more sense,” he said.
Toomey agreed with his Ohio colleague that the Affordable Care Act is “bad policy” and is damaging the economy.
“I certainly hope we don’t have a government shutdown,” he said. “That’s very disruptive, but I do think we need to defund Obamacare and we need to repeal it. It’s costing us jobs right now.” Rather than a shutdown, he said he expects a series of “discreet reforms” that he and others are working on will take place.
“But in the end ,we can’t let this continue to go into effect and do the kind of damage that it’s been doing,” Toomey said. “So my focus, my hope, is that we dismantle as much of this bill as we can while we can and repeal it entirely when we’ve got the political ability to do that.”
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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