Gillibrand on hot topics in Washington

Healthcare, clean energy bantered around Congress

By FRITZ MAYER

WASHINGTON, DC — Senator Kirsten Gillibrand held a conference call with constituents on October 8 and discussed two initiatives being debated in Washington: the nation’s approach to healthcare, and to alternative energy.

Healthcare was first. Democrats and Republicans argued forcefully over the merits of a public option. While critics have derided it as a move toward socialism, Gillibrand strongly supported it and summed up the effort at legislation so far.

“We’ve got broad insurance reforms that I think will work: no denial of coverage because of a pre-existing condition; nobody goes bankrupt because of one illness; all preventive care will be covered. All of that is going to be done. But the big question that remains is, how do you move us to this preventive care system over the emergency room system that we have now?

“My view is that the best way to do this is to have the not-for-profit public option, something like the Medicare for all, where anybody could buy into Medicare at a percentage of income. And I’d like to see the percentage be five, six, seven percent so that it’s always affordable. I think some of the formulations we’ve been looking at lately are too expensive. You know 12 percent of one’s income is not affordable.

“Senator Charles Schumer is trying to get the public option to the Senate floor and he’s hopeful that we will have the 51 votes to pass it. So, I’m going to fight very hard over the next few weeks to really drive that argument home.”

The other topic was clean energy. The Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act was introduced in the U.S. Senate on October 1. The bill would mandate that America reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent from 2005 levels by the year 2020.

Critics have said the bill will send energy prices higher and will cost American jobs. Gillibrand argued the opposite and said that the bill would create jobs.

“This bill can provide an answer to our economic downturn. When you focus on energy independence as a job generator, as the greatest market opportunity of our generation, it really provides an opportunity to grow jobs all across New York. With manufacturing new building materials, cellulosic fuels or battery technology or any appliance or machinery that runs on an energy source, we could re-energize our manufacturing sector through these new products.

“The bill also invests in our agriculture sector because you’re creating new revenue streams for our farmers through biofuels, anaerobic digesters, cellulosic ethanol crops.”

She also said the bill helps with national security concerns because it would decrease the country’s dependence on foreign oil.

Moreover, she said the bill would help turn around global climate change, which is imperative.

An important priority for New York is to ensure that the bill brings coal-fired power plants back under the authority of the Clean Air Act.

She said, “It’s important for upstate, in particular, because that is where all the toxins get dumped from the coal-fired power plants in the Midwest. It’s just the way the winds blow, and that’s why we have acid rain in the Adirondacks and the Catskills; it’s why you should only eat one fish per month from our rivers and streams to avoid mercury poisoning.”