Congressman Bill Posey has met a dizzying pace and
some frustrating politics during his first seven months in
Washington.
The Rockledge Republican has helped police the bank bailout and
stimulus efforts as a member of the House Financial Services
Committee. He has fought on behalf of Brevard County's seniors
and space industry. And he has been lampooned by cable TV and the
comic strip Doonesbury for his "birther bill" calling for
presidential candidates to prove their eligibility by showing birth
certificates.
Posey, who represents the southern two-thirds of
Brevard, has gone from serving as a longtime member of a powerful
GOP majority in the Florida Senate to a member of a defiant
minority opposed to health care reform and stimulus spending in the
U.S. House.
QUESTION: What is your position in the
health care debate? Do you favor any reforms?
POSEY: We know that 80 percent of the
American public is satisfied with the health care they have. Fifty
percent of those people think it costs too much, and something
needs to be done about the cost of it. Forty thousand people in my
district alone have Medicare Advantage and would defend that to the
death.
What should be addressed is the 20 percent of the
people who don't have adequate health care or cannot get it.
And I see that the entire focus is not on that.
Q: Before you went to Washington, you
spearheaded insurance reform here in Florida. In Tallahassee, the
Florida Chamber of Commerce demands every year that lawmakers
knock-down workers' comp rates. When homeowner's insurance
doubled, Realtors marched in the streets. Doctors protested in
Tallahassee when their malpractice premiums soared. Why no outrage
over the staggering cost of employee health benefits?
POSEY: Well, one reason they're up is,
people are living longer.
And when you go to A-to-Z national health care,
there is nothing left but a rationing program. That's what you
have to do to control costs.
The real thing is, we don't really know the
final product that will get voted on. I hope we'll have 72
hours, at least, to look at the final product before we vote on
it.
Q: Some $101 million of stimulus dollars has
begun to arrive in Brevard County. The biggest piece will widen
Interstate 95 through Palm Bay. Other projects include work at Port
Canaveral, Patrick Air Force Base and Melbourne International
Airport. What do you make of the stimulus bill?
POSEY: When I think "stimulus,"
and most people think stimulus, they think heart defibrillator
(thumbs chest) -- let's make this economy go. Well . . . only
10 percent of that money gets spent this year.
They sold this as, "If we pass the stimulus
bill, unemployment will never exceed 8 percent." That was the
sales pitch. And we're at 9.5 percent nationally and
climbing.
We spent all that money, which is not free money.
And I feel like we have tried to artificially hold up this economy.
These are natural economic cycles. We are prolonging the pain
here.
Q: On space, a presidential commission has
announced recommendations on spaceflight and the shuttle fleet that
seem to put the Space Coast in a tough position. Your take?
POSEY: None of the scenarios is what we had
hoped.
There are some things you just can't do on the
cheap. And you can't maintain space dominance for half as much
as it should cost.
I see nothing that will reduce the (shuttle jobs)
gap, which the president said he would do when he was here. I see
the gap getting longer -- I don't even like to say that out
loud.
We have legislation . . . Rep. Suzanne Kosmas is a
co-sponsor, that would fly the shuttle until there is a man-rated
vehicle that can take its place.
Q: What were you trying to accomplish with
your "birther bill" calling for presidential candidates
to show birth certificates?
POSEY: We've got this acrimony going on
of, "The president doesn't have a right to be president --
he wasn't native born." Or "natural born." Or
whatever. It doesn't matter at this point. In the future, we
can fix that. You can prove your eligibility with a birth
certificate. Simple. Pure vanilla.
And everybody's calling me a "tin
hat" and a "wing nut." . . . This was an issue with
Barry Goldwater, who was born in Arizona before it was a state. It
was an issue for John McCain (born in the Panama Canal Zone). So it
only makes common sense that someday Congress needs to implement
the Constitution. Almost every other portion of the Constitution
has been implemented with laws. This wasn't.
Q: Do you suspect President Obama is not a
natural-born citizen?
POSEY: I don't have any reason to
suspect. I'm trying to stop this controversy. I voted for a
resolution that said he was born in Hawaii. That shouldn't even
be an argument.
Contact Reed at 242-3631 or
mreed@floridatoday.com.
