24th District rep responds to health care overhaul, Trump’s taxes

By Sarah Hall

Editor

When John Katko was first elected to represent the 24th District in 2014, one of his major campaign promises was that he would not vote with Congressional Republicans against the Affordable Care Act unless there was a legitimate plan to replace it ready to go.

Now, the GOP says they have such a plan — but Katko isn’t sure he buys it.

“I have substantial amount of concern with the current iteration of repeal and replace,” he said. “The biggest concern I’m having is I’m not sure its a full replacement — in fact I know it’s not.”

Katko said he’s also not willing to make any kind of commitment to the proposal until the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) weighs in. The CBO is expected to issue its report this week.

“That is going to instruct me on which way I’m going to come down on whether to support it or not,” Katko said.

That doesn’t mean he doesn’t support certain provisions of the plan. He likes that it doesn’t mandate coverages that people don’t need, as well as the increased availability of individual choice on the new plans. And Katko has long been critical of the ACA.

“What we currently have in place is a structure that is not sustainable,” he said. “It was based on the premise of getting millions of healthy young adults onto the exchange at lower prices, and those adults would help offset the old farts like me who have more significant health issues. The problem is people didn’t get on exchanges in the way in which it was projected…. Some states have had triple-digit [premium] increase and many have had double-digit increases. New York state is pretty good compared to the rest of the nation, but make no mistake, its really bad in many parts of this country, and so you have this very high deductible and you have very high premiums.”

Katko said the failure of the exchanges has resulted in a lack of competition.

“Many experts predict that, by about 2018, if we do nothing that the markets are going to implode and you aren’t going to have a lot of coverage,” he said. “So [the Republicans are trying to address that] by providing tax credits, increase health savings accounts and adjusting the Medicaid structure. All of those things sound okay, but I’m not sold yet on them. I am concerned that it does not appear that a final product is a full replacement yet.”

Katko said he may change his mind within the next couple of weeks, but it would depend on how the plan would affect the people of New York state, where current projections suggest that as many as 1 million people would lose their insurance, according to the New York State Department of Health.

“I want to make sure that it’s a replacement ready to go before I support it, and its a replacement that’s viable for my constituents,” Katko said. “I’m still studying it.”

Taking on Trump’s taxes

While speaking to members of the CNY Solidarity Coalition last week, Katko pledged to vote yes on legislation that would force President Donald J. Trump to release his tax returns. He repeated that promise when talking to Eagle Newspapers.

“I support the notion of the president disclosing his taxes,” he said. “It’s always been a voluntary thing. He’s the first president in an awful long time that has not. I don’t think that is a good precedent. He should be encouraged to do that. Whether you can force him to do legislatively, I’m not sure, I haven’t seen that legislation. But I do support the notion of him disclosing his taxes.”

So why has he voted—twice—with the Republicans to table motions calling for their release?

Technically, that’s not what the votes were about.

“When you’re in the minority—and the Republicans were guilty of this too—you try these esoteric, highly technical motions, basically on any subject you want,” Katko said. “And you pull up something, then you force the other side to vote no, because procedurally, it’s faulty and incorrect. Then you say, ‘Haha!’”

Rather, the votes, held Feb. 27 and March 7, related to a privileged motion — meaning the House would have to act on it within two days — filed by Rep. Anna Eshoo, a Democrat representing California’s 18th District. Eshoo’s resolution requested that the House Ways and Means Committee request the tax returns for the last 10 years. The IRS provides that the Ways and Means Committee, along with the Senate Finance Committee and the Joint Committee on Taxation, can request said information from the Treasury Department.

While Eshoo was presenting her motion, Speaker Pro Tempore Steve Womack, a Republican representing Arkansas’ 3rd District, interrupted her to rule that the motion was not privileged. No vote was held on the substance of the motion. The first was on whether the vote was privileged. The second ruling was to table an appeal on Womack’s ruling.

“It’s kind of a game that they’re playing,” Katko said. “I’ve never voted ‘no’ on a bill related to President Trump’s taxes. No bill has ever been to the floor.”