Cooper on health care

Nashville's congressman talks about the health care plan he supports as well as town hall meetings

Email | Print By Ken Whitehouse

Jim Cooper

Town hall meetings are all the rage these days. Well, at least there seems to be a lot of rage at town hall meetings.

Nashville's U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper has seen what is going on in other congressional districts and he's decided to stay the course and not change his routine on how he meets with constituents.

Since President Barack Obama released details of his health care reform plan, town hall meetings held by members of Congress have largely become a spectacle of rage.

"In urban areas," Cooper said, "I mainly accept invitations from civic groups and other organizations. I have never done a town hall meeting and don't plan on doing one. When Congress is in session, I am here three to four days a week and meeting with groups and individuals."

Cooper feels that accessibility isn't an issue and stated that, as of Aug. 7, he had caught up with everyone who had requested to speak with him.

Despite this, groups and former rivals are trying to box him into having a town hall. Over the weekend, the Davidson County Republican Party issued an invitation to Cooper to talk about health care. The group claims their meeting would not be a "Republican meeting" and would be hosted by "someone from a media outlet." Odds are Cooper won't accept that invitation.

Another person trying to get Cooper into a town hall format is Tom Kovach. Kovach has run as a Republican against Cooper for congress and is a former Metro Schools employee.

When Kovach tried to gather a crowd for a protest at West End Middle School – where Cooper was scheduled to greet students on the first day of classes – the Tennessee Democratic Party pointed out that Kovach had been fired by Metro Schools for assaulting a student.

Last week, Kovach also protested outside of WKRN News 2's facilities on Murfreesboro Road. According to a posting on the Tennessee branch of the American Independent Party's Web page, where Kovach is listed as state chairman, "The reason for the protest is that ABC-TV is effectively handing over their news division for [Alleged] President Barack Obama to promote government-sponsored healthcare."

In speaking with NashvillePost.com, Cooper says that much of what is going on right now is a "sideshow." He said, "People have a right to be frustrated over the fiscal issues our country is facing. In a way, I am delighted that people are waking up to what I have been talking about for years."

Cooper has a record on this front. He has argued that only accrual accounting that recognizes statutory commitments to future spending, such as Social Security and Medicare obligations, can show the true condition of the federal budget.

In 2005, the reported deficit was $319 billion on a cash basis, but it was $760 billion if calculated by the accrual method called for by Cooper. Cooper persuaded the House Budget Committee in 2006 to adopt an amendment requiring use of accrual accounting and then wrote the foreword for a subsequent book, "The Financial Report of the United States," that explained the differences in the numbers.

Cooper has a long history of weighing in on health care reform. New York Times columnist David Brooks last year detailed the very bitter fight between Cooper and then-First Lady Hillary Clinton when health care reform was broached in 1992.

Now that health care matters are back on the national radar, Cooper is back in the thick of the discussion.

So how does he stand on Obama's plan? Cooper is against it. He has said so on television and in print. What is he for? A bill called the "Healthy Americans Act" sponsored U.S. Sens. Robert Bennett (R-Utah) and Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) and U.S. Reps. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Missouri) and Ana Eshoo (D-California).

According to the bill's sponsors, the "Healthy Americans Act" would:

• guarantee private health care coverage for all Americans and allow them to choose the health insurance that is right for them;
• provide health benefits equal to those that Members of Congress now enjoy;
• modernize the employer-employee relationship regarding health care benefits making health care portable from job to job and even allow Americans to keep it between jobs;
• provide incentives for individuals and insurers to focus on prevention, wellness and disease management rewarding Americans for maintaining healthy lifestyles;
• establish tough cost containment measures that save $1.48 trillion over 10 years;
• as demonstrated by the Congressional Budget Office, the plan would pay for itself once the act is up and running by eliminating administrative costs and changing the outdated tax code that gives businesses write-offs for even the most lavish designer health plans; and
• return surpluses to the government after the first two years of implementation.

Cooper laments that Congress has been given to much leeway in forming legislation and that he would "welcome more White House involvement" in drafting legislation. He points out that everyone is waiting to see what is introduced in the Finance Committee of the U.S. Senate, because that is where the legislation that will be voted on will originate. "Everything else is a sideshow," Cooper said.

While his name was on health care proposals in 1992, Cooper said that he isn't listed as a sponsor on a bill that he has been fighting for for years. Asked for reasons why, Cooper joked and asked if we had seen an article in the Washington, D.C. publication Politico that named him as number five on the list of "10 most hated people by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi."

Just because Cooper is against the Obama plan, don't expect to see him at any opposition rallies anytime soon. "I don't go to pro or con rallies, I'm a nerd...a substantive guy."

He continued, "We are a health care city. We should have a better understanding. I respect the far left, those who support [a] single payer, and the far right, those who want to do nothing. But they are both wrong. People know what they are against but don't know what they are for."