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Roe predicts economic rebound this year, vows to work on health care

JOHNSON CITY — If anything needs to be stimulated inside the Beltway it’s common sense and fiscal restraint, freshman 1st District U.S. Rep. Phil Roe said Friday.

“It’s a lot better to be in the mountains than on the metro (Washington’s subway system),” the Johnson City Republican told a small group at the local chamber of commerce. He said his first two months in office have been enlightening, and that despite the challenges facing Congress and the administration, he expects the economy to begin rebounding later this year.

“I think we’re going to be fine in this country, although there are days when I wonder,” Roe said. “I have a feeling we’re going to start climbing our way out of (the recession) this year.”

Roe spoke on a wide range of issues but spent the most time on the economy and the various spending and stimulus bills that have passed since January. He said once the dust settles from the fiscal debates, he foresees major debates later this year over two big issues: health care reform and a tax on carbon fuels, commonly known as a “cap and trade” system.

On the economic front, Roe expressed disappointment at how little time legislators had to study a more than 1,000-page stimulus bill and shared his worries about the country’s long-term debt situation. He said that despite a “gentlemen’s agreement” to allow at least 48 hours before votes on major legislation, the stimulus bill was pushed to a vote five hours after he received it.

“That is shameful when you’re potentially spending $787 billion,” Roe said.

He said the bill includes numerous examples of spending that he doesn’t believe will stimulate the economy and ticked off a litany of projects he saw as of questionable value.

Roe said the infrastructure portion of the package, which he felt should have been an entirely separate bill, was larded with pork barrel spending.

“This was a spending bill to pay off some political debts, with a little money thrown in for infrastructure.”

Roe got a humorous anecdote out of one of his examples of questionable spending: $200 million for putting down new sod on the Washington Mall between Congress and the Lincoln Memorial (something stripped from the final bill).

“I held up my hand in a conference meeting and said I’d go up Stoney Creek and get some boys and we’d do it for $100 million.”

He would have preferred to see a stimulus package with more tax cuts for small business and even a cut on capital gains taxes instead of a proposed increase, saying that capital gains tax cuts have historically increased revenues from that tax.

“They (majority Democrats) believe that by taxing success, somehow everyone will be better off,” Roe said. “I disagree. I believe in rewarding success.”

That was one reason he had to swallow hard to vote Thursday with about half of Republican House members, and with Democrats, to tax at 90 percent certain bonuses given to employees of firms that have received government bailout funds.

“It just goes against my core to use the tax code to punish somebody,” Roe said.

He called more than 20 constituents to ask opinions about the $165 million in AIG bonuses and said he decided to honor the nearly universal outrage he heard from people in the district.

“It looked like the people that had tanked the company and put the economy at risk were being rewarded.”

Roe, a physician, used the government’s overall handling of the AIG situation — more than $150 billion of taxpayer funds have gone to prop up the insurance giant — to help bolster his contention that a reformed health care system shouldn’t be entirely government-run, calling it “a poster child for not wanting the government running health care.”

Roe said he has visited various think tanks, from various sides of the political spectrum, for two hours each week to talk health care, and he’s one of 10 doctors in a physicians caucus. Roe said he supports the following:

•A basic plan for all Americans.

•A system that keeps people from having to enter bankruptcy as a sole result of illness or medical problems.

•Plans that are portable, allowing people to keep them after changing jobs.

Roe said the Senate is basically down to two proposals, one by Massachusetts Democrat Ted Kennedy that is basically a “single-payer” government-controlled option, and another by Montana Democrat Max Baucus that includes more free-market elements. The House has numerous proposals that he called “a bowl of spaghetti,” but he said he expects progress to be made this year.

Roe said he believes Washington is in the midst of a monumental philosophical struggle between people who believe the scope of government should expand aggressively to meet our current challenges and people who prefer to shrink government and promote entrepreneurship and greater individual responsibility.

Roe, who classifies himself among the latter, said that divide is dominating debate on most current issues, from health care and stimulus spending to how to deal with climate change.

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