Congressman Banks Gets Message Across Despite Hecklers
June 3, 2017 at 3:38 a.m.
Congressman Banks Gets Message Across Despite Hecklers
By David [email protected]
And several hecklers gave Banks some feedback while he was talking and answering questions. But in a press conference afterward, he said the outspoken people were passionate about what they believed and it was all part of the process.
He started the meeting by giving an update on Washington. He was elected to Congress in 2016 and has been on the job for five months.
“We started the Congress with the big issue of repealing and replacing Obamacare, which Republicans have promised to do for seven years. We passed a bill called the American Health Care Act. It passed with 217 votes out of the House. It needed 216 votes. It’s now being debated in the Senate. Yesterday, John Cornyn, the Senate majority whip, stated that he had hoped that they could wrap up the Senate version of the bill by the August recess, so get it done by sometime in July to send it back over to the House. And then after we get back from the August recess, then the negotiation process will begin between the House version and the Senate version to try and come to some kind of agreement,” Banks explained.
He said the AHCA does a number of things: repeals the individual and corporate mandates; repeals the $1 trillion of Obamacare taxes, including permanently repealing the medical device tax; rolls back about $1.2 trillion of the Medicaid expansion that came about through Obamacare; creates a refundable individual tax credit for individuals who purchase their health insurance outside of an employer plan; and doubles the threshold for investments in health savings accounts.
He said many House members voted for AHCA because it takes a “large step toward rescuing a health care system in this country that’s collapsing in on itself due to the weight of Obamacare and replaces it with something that would be more accessible and affordable health insurance for more Americans than what they receive today.”
He referenced last week’s Congressional Budget Office report that said, “on average, Americans are paying 105 percent more on their health care premiums than what they were paying before Obamacare was implemented.”
That’s the moment a couple of women in the third row, including Dee Moore, started vocally disagreeing with Banks.
Moore ran as a Democrat against Republican David Wolkins in the Indiana State Representative District 18 race in 2016.
Banks said even his liberal Democrat friends in Congress agree that Obamacare is not sustainable and something has to be done. To that end, he said Republicans have passed the AHCA as a first step.
After this weeklong recess, Banks said Congress will return its sights to tax reform.
“I believe that there’s nothing that we can do in this Congress that will move and grow our economy forward for the next generation than tax reform – with 35 percent corporate tax rates in our country the highest corporate tax rates in the world. Both the White House plan and the House Republican plan will seek to reduce corporate tax rates from 35 to 15 percent to make us one of the most competitive on the global stage,” Banks stated.
The tax reform plan also would eliminate the federal inheritance tax, which the hecklers said would only benefit the really wealthy. Banks said that wasn’t true and it would create economic growth.
He also said most of his attention in Congress is directed toward the time he serves on three committees, with the House Armed Services Committee taking most of his time because of the “weighty, significant national threats we face in the world today and the tumultuous and dangerous world from North Korea to Iran, to the very complicated nature of the threats we face with Russia and their possession of nuclear weapons, the most nuclear weapons of any country in the world, including the United States.”
There’s also issues in China, continued threats from?ISIS and radical terrorists groups from around the world, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continuing, he said.
During the Q&A segment, Banks fielded several questions about health care, the medical device tax repeal and tax reform. City Councilman Mike Klondaris asked Banks to talk more about tax reform, and Banks replied, “If we can pass significant and permanent tax reform in this Congress in the months to come, we will see an era of economic growth and prosperity that we haven’t seen in a lifetime. That, combined with much of the work we’ve already done to continue to roll back the regulatory environment that was brought about over the past eight years, we’ll create economic growth at a pace that my daughters’ generation will benefit from and protect their ability to see an American dream in their lifetime as well.”
Friday morning, the May jobs report was released and the economy grew, “far exceeding expectations by an additional 138,000 jobs,” Banks said, attributing that to a reaction of the regulatory reform that’s taken place in the first five months of the current Congress.
In the press conference after the town hall meeting, it was mentioned that the local unemployment rate is very low, but businesses like Paragon Medical and other orthopedic companies were having difficulty finding qualified workers.
“It’s a great point,” Banks agreed. “We’ve toured numerous businesses this week as I’ve been visiting constituents in the district. The common refrain I hear from everyone, from restaurant owners to major manufacturing employers, is that they’re looking for qualified employees who are willing to show up at work, that they have jobs available. We have historically low unemployment rates at the moment, but the jobs numbers that came out this morning are showing that the economy is reacting to a more pro-growth, pro-business environment in the country as we repeal regulations and try to get the economy working. That means more good-paying jobs, and that works well with what you’re describing from these employers as well. We also have to look for ways we can re-incentivize work in America, get people back to work, and not create incentives for those to stay home and choose not to work at the same time. That’s what I’m hearing from the employers that I’ve visited with from around the district.”
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And several hecklers gave Banks some feedback while he was talking and answering questions. But in a press conference afterward, he said the outspoken people were passionate about what they believed and it was all part of the process.
He started the meeting by giving an update on Washington. He was elected to Congress in 2016 and has been on the job for five months.
“We started the Congress with the big issue of repealing and replacing Obamacare, which Republicans have promised to do for seven years. We passed a bill called the American Health Care Act. It passed with 217 votes out of the House. It needed 216 votes. It’s now being debated in the Senate. Yesterday, John Cornyn, the Senate majority whip, stated that he had hoped that they could wrap up the Senate version of the bill by the August recess, so get it done by sometime in July to send it back over to the House. And then after we get back from the August recess, then the negotiation process will begin between the House version and the Senate version to try and come to some kind of agreement,” Banks explained.
He said the AHCA does a number of things: repeals the individual and corporate mandates; repeals the $1 trillion of Obamacare taxes, including permanently repealing the medical device tax; rolls back about $1.2 trillion of the Medicaid expansion that came about through Obamacare; creates a refundable individual tax credit for individuals who purchase their health insurance outside of an employer plan; and doubles the threshold for investments in health savings accounts.
He said many House members voted for AHCA because it takes a “large step toward rescuing a health care system in this country that’s collapsing in on itself due to the weight of Obamacare and replaces it with something that would be more accessible and affordable health insurance for more Americans than what they receive today.”
He referenced last week’s Congressional Budget Office report that said, “on average, Americans are paying 105 percent more on their health care premiums than what they were paying before Obamacare was implemented.”
That’s the moment a couple of women in the third row, including Dee Moore, started vocally disagreeing with Banks.
Moore ran as a Democrat against Republican David Wolkins in the Indiana State Representative District 18 race in 2016.
Banks said even his liberal Democrat friends in Congress agree that Obamacare is not sustainable and something has to be done. To that end, he said Republicans have passed the AHCA as a first step.
After this weeklong recess, Banks said Congress will return its sights to tax reform.
“I believe that there’s nothing that we can do in this Congress that will move and grow our economy forward for the next generation than tax reform – with 35 percent corporate tax rates in our country the highest corporate tax rates in the world. Both the White House plan and the House Republican plan will seek to reduce corporate tax rates from 35 to 15 percent to make us one of the most competitive on the global stage,” Banks stated.
The tax reform plan also would eliminate the federal inheritance tax, which the hecklers said would only benefit the really wealthy. Banks said that wasn’t true and it would create economic growth.
He also said most of his attention in Congress is directed toward the time he serves on three committees, with the House Armed Services Committee taking most of his time because of the “weighty, significant national threats we face in the world today and the tumultuous and dangerous world from North Korea to Iran, to the very complicated nature of the threats we face with Russia and their possession of nuclear weapons, the most nuclear weapons of any country in the world, including the United States.”
There’s also issues in China, continued threats from?ISIS and radical terrorists groups from around the world, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continuing, he said.
During the Q&A segment, Banks fielded several questions about health care, the medical device tax repeal and tax reform. City Councilman Mike Klondaris asked Banks to talk more about tax reform, and Banks replied, “If we can pass significant and permanent tax reform in this Congress in the months to come, we will see an era of economic growth and prosperity that we haven’t seen in a lifetime. That, combined with much of the work we’ve already done to continue to roll back the regulatory environment that was brought about over the past eight years, we’ll create economic growth at a pace that my daughters’ generation will benefit from and protect their ability to see an American dream in their lifetime as well.”
Friday morning, the May jobs report was released and the economy grew, “far exceeding expectations by an additional 138,000 jobs,” Banks said, attributing that to a reaction of the regulatory reform that’s taken place in the first five months of the current Congress.
In the press conference after the town hall meeting, it was mentioned that the local unemployment rate is very low, but businesses like Paragon Medical and other orthopedic companies were having difficulty finding qualified workers.
“It’s a great point,” Banks agreed. “We’ve toured numerous businesses this week as I’ve been visiting constituents in the district. The common refrain I hear from everyone, from restaurant owners to major manufacturing employers, is that they’re looking for qualified employees who are willing to show up at work, that they have jobs available. We have historically low unemployment rates at the moment, but the jobs numbers that came out this morning are showing that the economy is reacting to a more pro-growth, pro-business environment in the country as we repeal regulations and try to get the economy working. That means more good-paying jobs, and that works well with what you’re describing from these employers as well. We also have to look for ways we can re-incentivize work in America, get people back to work, and not create incentives for those to stay home and choose not to work at the same time. That’s what I’m hearing from the employers that I’ve visited with from around the district.”
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