Johnson: GOP wasting time with efforts to repeal health-care law

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• Tim Johnson's conference call on January 6, 2011

Sen. Tim Johnson said Republicans in the House are wasting time by trying to repeal the health-care reform law enacted last year.

“I think we could and should skip all the nonsense and get down to work on the economy,” Johnson, D-S.D., said during a teleconference with South Dakota journalists Thursday.

“I’m disappointed the House of Representatives has taken their eye off the ball and will instead vote next week to repeal health care reform.”

On her first day in office Wednesday, Rep. Kristi Noem, R-S.D., said she expects the House to pass a repeal of the health-care law. Noem said she wasn’t sure what the Senate or President Obama will do with the law.

Johnson said he knows.

“Repeal will not gain traction here in the Senate,” he said. “That’s going nowhere in the Senate.”

Johnson said the law has improved coverage for millions of people, noting that it forbids insurance companies from refusing coverage to people because of pre-existing conditions, works to close the “doughnut hole” on prescription medication coverage for seniors and provides insurance for dependent children up to the age of 26 who live with their parents.

Noem and other Republicans have attacked the law and said it is bad for the country and the economy. Once again, Johnson took a different position.

“That is not true at all,” he said. “It will help small businesses and reduce the deficit. We can’t afford repeal.”

Joshua Shields, Noem’s communications director, said Noem was only following voters’ wishes.

“Representative Noem supports the plan to repeal and replace the job-killing health-care bill because it is something that South Dakotans have told her time and again over the last year to do,” Shields said in a reply to a question from The Daily Republic.

“Working to repeal this government expansion and replacing it with real health-care reforms that will lower cost and improve quality is an important campaign promise she intends to uphold,” he said.

Johnson said Health & Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said repealing the law would remove important consumer protections and add to the deficit. It would strip some coverage from cancer patients, reduce oversight of insurance companies, raise prescription costs for seniors, weaken Medicare, add $1 trillion to the deficit and undo dozens of other reforms that are improving health reforms.

“I agree with Kathleen about that,” Johnson said.

Johnson said any efforts taken to defund or reduce the effectiveness of the health-care law will be blocked in the Senate.

“I think once the American public understands fully what the health-care bill will do for the American public, they will like it,” he said.

He said creating jobs should be the “No. 1 goal” for Congress.

“We have more important work to focus on this year,” he said, referring to discussions of repealing the health-care law as “political gimmicks.”

On other issues:

n Johnson said he isn’t convinced that the 2011-2012 session of Congress is doomed to be deadlocked in partisan battles.

“Well, hope springs eternal on that,” he said. “I hope that we can be reasonable and proceed with these worthy projects and programs.”

n Johnson said he congratulated his Republican colleagues from South Dakota on Wednesday as Noem joined Congress and Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., was sworn in for a second term.

“As we began the 112th Congress this week our country faces many challenges, and it’s more important than ever that we work across party lines to accomplish results for the American people,” Johnson said.

“I have always said that neither party has all of the good ideas. We can’t let politics get in the way of reality, nor let partisanship get in the way of progress.”

n He said he didn’t feel voters gave Republicans a mandate for sweeping changes in the 2010 election.

“No, I don’t. Their mandate was frustration with Congress and their inability to get along,” Johnson said. “I look forward to working with Kristi and John and to create a sense of civility in this Congress.”

n He said he is looking forward to serving as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. He said there are reforms he wants to push for in this session of Congress.

“My goal is to continue to stabilize the housing finance markets so that qualified families will have access to a 30-year set-rate mortgage,” Johnson said.

n Johnson said he favors a proposed change in filibuster rules in the Senate and he signed a letter asking for a limit on how and when they are used.

“The changes in the filibuster rule are undergoing reforms but (Senate Majority Leader) Harry Reid has it that this reform will take a week or two to complete,” he said. “I don’t see filibusters going out the window, but there’s a problem when there’s a filibuster in place before we can even debate the bill.”

He said there is no need to remove filibusters from the Senate arsenal, but they shouldn’t be used to block bills from coming to the floor. The reform effort also calls for naming the senators who seek to block nominations or bills from coming to the floor, which Johnson said is “common sense.”

“We’ll see what happens with this,” he said, noting that talks between the two parties are in progress. “I’m open to compromise. I encourage negotiations between the two parties.”

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