Pittinger: GOP must deal

March 28--WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Conservative Republicans who helped shuttle their own party's American Health Care Act need to follow the example of Ronald Reagan, according to U.S. Rep. Robert Pittenger.

Pittinger, whose 9th District in the U.S. House includes Scotland County, shared his thoughts on the demise of the Republican-sponsored legislation with Fox News on Saturday.

"We need to take a lesson from Ronald Reagan, our great conservative president. Reagan's governance was based on the 80 percent rule," Pittenger said."If he could get 80 percent of any bill, he would declare victory and know he had achieved his objective. "We can't ... anticipate we should get 100 percent of what we want."

A vote on the American Health Care Act was postponed on Thursday because Republicans did not have the votes to pass it. One reason for the bill's downfall was strong opposition by members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus.

The bill -- supported by President Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan -- would have repealed tax penalties for people without health insurance, rolled back federal insurance standards, reduced subsidies for the purchase of private insurance and set new limits on spending for Medicaid, the federal-state program that covers more than 70 million low-income people. The bill would have also repealed hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes imposed by the Affordable Care Act and would also have cut off federal funds to Planned Parenthood for one year.

While conservative Republicans felt the bill did not do enough to get rid of President Barack Obama' signature legislation -- the Affordable Care Act -- some moderate Republicans expressed concern that bill would leave 24 million more Americans without insurance in the coming years.

Pittinger said any successful legislation would have to factor in competing concerns.

"You have to be considerate of those who live in districts that are far different in demographics, they have more seniors, they have more people who are in poverty, they may have rural or urban," the Charlotte Republican said. "Our districts are far different. And you have to recognize that in a body of 240 people."

Still, Pittenger said that Democrats need not gloat over the GOP legislative stumble.

"(Democrats) shouldn't be cheering when next month they're going to have an increase in rates again," he said. "The reform that they passed is collapsing on its own weight. When Aetna says it's on a death spiral, when Humana says they're leaving next year, there is no opportunity for this health care plan they passed to succeed, and it has to be reformed."

Democrats in Congress were not consulted by Republicans or the president as they put the bill together and tried to pass it.

Reach Scott Witten at 910-506-3023

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