Bond: Public Healthcare Option Would Bankrupt Private Insurance in 1 Year

ALSO CLAIMS THERE'S NOT A GLOBAL WARMING CRISIS

Using stark and unambiguous language, Sen. Kit Bond predicted that a public government-run healthcare option would bankrupt private insurance companies within one year of its implementation.

"If you try a government run option, everybody knows that within a year or less, it would drive the private sector out, and they would bankrupt the private companies because they don't pay taxes, they can subsidize their patients . . .," Sen. Bond said to reporters in Springfield this week.

ON THE CAP & TRADE PLAN that passed the House, Bond took numerous shots at comments President Obama made during the campaign. He said the energy and climate legislation would be "a disaster" for Missouri that would drive jobs out of the state.

Bond also seemed to say that the global warming crisis is being grossly overblown.

"But to put a punitive tax on where there is not a crisis in global warming, that makes absolutely no sense," Bond said.

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SKELTON EXPLAINS CAP & TRADE VOTE:

ALSO: Following mounting criticism from state and national Republicans, Congressman Ike Skelton explained his vote on the cap and trade legislation, and in a statement said his vote to send the bill to the Senate "does not give my blessing to any final bill on air pollution regulation."

"I am pleased that HR 2454 would exempt farms from the bill's proposed regulatory framework and would put in place a number of policies sought by and supported by the agricultural community," Skelton explained. "My vote to move HR 2452 to the Senate does not give my blessing to any final bill on air pollution regulation that might be presented to Congress later this year or next year. I will reserve judgment on a final bill until it has been produced."

"We will be wise to remember that energy reform is not just a matter of regulating air pollution, it is also a matter of national security," said Skelton. "There are real national and global security implications when lakes go dry and when oceans rise. As Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, this aspect of climate change worries me."