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First District Congressman Ed Whitfield says one of the biggest problems facing America today is our debt. Whitfield, during a teletown hall meeting Monday, said the government owes over $14 trillion, with China owning most of our debt. He says the government today needs to be more truthful, transparent and say precisely what the problem is. But the congressman believes the government has not been transparent in the past. He says the money we’ve spent fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, plus the money the government owes to Social Security recipients now and to those in the future, and money owed to Medicare beneficiaries and to Medicaid has not been including in the debt we have now, calling those items “off-budget.” He says when you include those items; the debt is more like $50-to-$60 trillion. “So for me, I think one of the things that we need to do is we need to start withdrawing funding for our activities in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Whitfield said. “I don’t mean stop funding it, but I mean to start expediting our exit strategy because that is spending a lot of money. Even the military leaders that we talk to are uncertain about what the results are going to be in Afghanistan because as soon as we leave we know that Al-Qaeda and others are going to be back there.” The congressman says in order to deal with the debt; you are going to have to look at how you are going to handle Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, which commissions have been set up to look at these areas. He says no decision has been made about what to do yet, but Whitfield says leaders are committed to protecting Social Security. When asked about the rise in oil prices, Whitfield said this issue is affecting everyone right now. The congressman says we are using 21-to-22 million barrels of oil everyday, but only producing domestically about five million barrels a day, meaning we have to buy the rest from someone else. He says hearings have been held on this issue and there are a lot of things that affect the price of oil. One of the things he mentioned was commodity speculators, who buy future options on oil and then sell them, which does have a dramatic impact on oil prices. “As you know, we had the big spill in the Gulf of Mexico and a lot of the drilling on the outer continental shelf was stopped and permits were not issued for further drilling, so there was a significant reduction in oil production in the Gulf,” Whitfield said. “So that also has had an impact on prices.” The congressman says worldwide, there’s a demand for about 85 million barrels of oil everyday, when actually we’re producing about that same amount. He says Congress is looking at some options to get oil production going again here at home like expediting permits for drilling in the Gulf of Mexico along with opening up Alaska and other parts of the country for further oil exploration. Whitfield was also asked about “Obamacare” and why would anyone want to repeal it seeing many can’t afford health insurance. Whitfield said the health care companies supported President Obama’s plan because there was a provision in his plan that mandates everyone must buy health insurance if their employer doesn’t provide it. And if the person doesn’t buy it, then the congressman says he or she will have to pay a penalty. The congressman says folks should be able to buy health insurance from any company in America, something he and others who agree with him, want to see happen. “Right now you can only buy health insurance from a company that does business in Kentucky,” Whitfield said. “And so if we open it up so that you have like 1,500 companies that are selling insurance, we think that competitiveness will help reduce the prices. But President Obama opposed that, and as I said no one could even offer one amendment to “Obamacare” when it was on the house floor.” Whitfield says another concern is that if you talk to any governor in the country today, you’ll find out that one of the reasons their state is having financial trouble is because of the cost of Medicaid. He says the President’s plan will put 20 million more people on Medicaid, and doctors have said they are going to stop taking Medicaid patients because their reimbursements from the government are so low that they can’t afford to do it anymore. He says if you put this many people on Medicaid, they won’t see a doctor. They will end up going to the emergency room, which the congressman says “is the most expensive health care delivery system.” He says we can address these issues and lower the cost, but it’s hard to do when no one really knew what was in the President’s plan.

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