TERRE HAUTE —
About two dozen Republican Party faithful braved sweltering heat Monday as 8th District Congressman Larry Bucshon kicked off his fall re-election campaign.
A rally and a cookout took place outside at the Wabash Valley Fairgrounds. Bucshon faces former Democratic state Rep. Dave Crooks in the general election.
President Obama’s economic policies have failed the country, Bucshon said. “The country is not only headed in the wrong direction, the country has gone downhill since Barack Obama was elected in 2008.”
Unemployment has been 8 percent or greater for more 40 months, and most people don’t believe they’re better off than they were three or four years ago, he said.
In an interview with reporters, he said the biggest issue in the campaign will be the “sagging economy” and the lack of jobs and job creation.
To turn that around, he said, “I think we need less federal regulation, we need to get our spending under control and we need to get rid of onerous policies that are stymieing job creation — for example the president’s health care bill,” he said. The constant threat of higher taxes also is hindering job creation, he suggested.
He also addressed the Supreme Court’s decision upholding Obama’s health care plan. He said he was disappointed, and pointed out the court didn’t decide whether the bill was good for the American people. “They made a decision on whether it’s constitutional,” he said.
Bucshon said he favors some aspects of the health care plan, including finding ways to ensure that people with pre-existing conditions have adequate, affordable health care coverage; enabling young people to stay on their parents’ insurance up to age 26; and addressing the Medicare “donut hole.”
But, overall, the president’s health care plan “is a big government approach to the health care system that is going to put bureaucrats in charge of health care for our citizens,” said Bucshon, a medical doctor. “It will blow the finances of this country, and particularly the state of Indiana, out of the water.”
He believes the plan “needs to be repealed.”
Instead, he believes the biggest issue with the health care system is its cost and the need to reduce those costs. Obama’s plan “addresses coverage but not the spiraling out-of-control costs,” he said.
Bucshon advocates “more of a free market” in the health care system that includes allowing health insurance to be sold across state lines and expanding health savings accounts. Other measures include tort reform and price transparency “so consumers know what things cost.”
He described those steps as “just a beginning.”
At the rally, Bucshon outlined his record:
• Voting three times to repeal Obama’s health care bill.
• Voting “over 200 times to cut spending.”
• Supporting a balanced budget amendment.
• Taking stands against EPA regulations that he said hurt Indiana’s coal industry.
Others speaking briefly at the rally were State Rep. Bob Heaton, R-46, and Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett, also a Republican.
Sue Loughlin can be reached at (812) 231-4235 or sue.loughlin@tribstar.com.
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As congressional race heats up, GOP’s Bucshon campaigns in TH
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