Peter Roskam RSS Articles

Suburban Life Editorial: Legislators on right track with health care bill

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

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Being members of the minority party in the House, Biggert and Roskam are characteristically not thrilled with the plan. They expressed concern that Republican ideas for reforming health care were rejected by the Democrats. When it comes to issues such as tort reform, health insurance portability and competition across state lines, I agree with the Republicans that these are key to making any reform plan work.

Foster was perhaps the most noncommittal in his response to the House plan. He said while the plan addresses his concern for covering people with pre-existing conditions and keeping costs in check, “the details matter.” He pledged to analyze the bill’s particulars before taking a stand.

Lipinski likewise said he study the bill before deciding whether he’d support it. He said he will “not serve as a rubber stamp simply because this bill goes by the name of health care reform.”

I hope Republicans can put some of their ideas in the bill, and Democrats should be open to this. If we can get our four local legislators thinking along the same lines, there’s hope for this process.

Click HERE to read the full editorial.

Suburban Life: Roskam Delivers Health Care Bill to Library

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

The top pages of a stack of papers that make up the latest version of the health care bill rustled in the wind as U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam used both hands to carry a copy into the Wheaton Public Library Monday morning.

Roskam, R-6th District, of Wheaton, accompanied by his wife Elizabeth and staff, dropped it on the desk of the library's reference counter and told a library employee that he wanted the library to have a physical copy of the bill because it could crash computers when downloaded.

“Two thousand pages, it’s almost twice as long as the previous bill, HR 3200, that had been introduced in July and got a pretty bad reception from the public,” Roskam said in an interview immediately after he delivered the bill.

While the delivery of the bill was a planned event to which media was invited, Roskam said his interest was that the public has access to it.

“Who knows what's in this thing?” he said.

Sarah Meisels, library director, said the bill will be made available to anyone interested in looking at it.

“It’s at the reference desk. But who’s gonna read over 1,000 pages, and if they do, who’s gonna understand it?” Meisels said.

Read the article online HERE.

She said the bill is also available for people to photocopy.

Roskam said the bill, with a price tag of nearly $900 billion, cuts to Medicaid, potential to raise taxes on small businesses, and mandate that American citizens purchase a government-approved insurance policy, will have an impact on every one of his constituents.

Roskam said he has not yet read the bill and will require help from his staff to do so before the bill is voted on later this week.

“You don’t read legislation like a novel, though, you’ve got to break it down,” he said.

Shannon O'Brien, spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, D-14th District, of Geneva — whose district borders the western edge of Wheaton — said Foster is nearly halfway through the bill.

“The congressman is actually reading the legislation right now,” O'Brien said. “... (Foster has) said the devil is in the details and he wanted to analyze it before he made a decision (on whether he supports the bill).”

Roskam said Democrats do not yet have the votes to get the health care bill passed.

“What you’ll notice is the majority leader (Democrat Harry Reid) has been reluctant to give a certain date, because they don’t have the votes yet. And so they’re out meeting with their members,” Roskam said.

Roskam said whether the bill passes depends on how Americans respond in the next ten days.

READ THE BILL

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT

Read the bill here. Speaker Pelosi's healthcare bill, HR 3962 the Affordable Healthcare for America Act, is 1,990 pages long and costs more than $1.2 trillion dollars. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) confirms that "HR 3962 would increase the federal budgetary commitment to healthcare by about $598 billion over the 2010-2019 period."

Click here to read Congressman Roskam's Five Principles for Healthcare Reform. House Republicans have mainstream solutions to reduce the costs and increase coverage of health insurance. Read more about GOP healthcare solutions in the Chicago Tribune.

CBN News Interviews Roskam on Honduras

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT

Watch the video here.

Representatives of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya say they are close to an agreement with the interim government.

The United States and others in the international community insisted that Zelaya be reinstated as part of any agreement.

Interim President Roberto Micheletti, however, says that would violate the constitution.

U.S. congressman Peter Roskam, back from a fact-finding trip to Honduras, told CBN News that many Hondurans are puzzled by U.S. support for Zelaya.

"Think about the irony of this. We now have an administration that will basically enter into conversations with Iran, enter into conversations with Cuba, enter into conversations with Hugo Chavez, but shuns an ally that is acting, according to the congressional research service, within the confines of their constitution," he said. "I think that is the part that is surprising to them."

Roskam added that the solution is to focus not on Zelaya, but on the presidential elections next month.

The U.S. and other countries have already said they will not recognize election results if Zelaya is not put back in office before those elections.

Roskam Chicago Tribune Op-Ed: Democratic Elections in Honduras Deserve America's Support

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT

As published in the Chicago Tribune, October 15th 2009:

There is little debate aboutthe value of Honduras as an American ally. As a democracy in anincreasingly unstable region, Honduras has been a partner in the war on drugs,a necessary check against President Hugo Chavez's aggressive regime inVenezuela and an important $5 billion export market for American manufacturersthrough the Central American Free Trade Agreement. A stable anddemocratic Honduras is unquestionably in America's best interest.

I recently traveled to Honduras as part of a GOP congressionaldelegation observing efforts to ensure an open, free and fair election therethis November.

When leftist President Manuel Zelaya sought an amendment to the constitution,which strictly limits the president to a four-year term, it caused greatconcern. Were Honduras to fall into dictatorial hands, the consequences wouldhave been wide ranging and dangerous.

In June, Zelaya was forced into exile and subsequently removed as president bya ruling of the Honduran Supreme Court and vote of the National Congress ofHonduras. In fact, the U.S. Law Library of Congress reviewed the case and saidZelaya's removal from office was within Honduras' constitution. Yet,the U.S. State Department took a contrary and frankly surprisingposition by siding with the exiled would-be dictator Zelaya, refusing torecognize the interim government headed by interim President RobertoMicheletti, cutting off nearly $43 million in democracy building aid andwithholding support for the November elections.

To be sure, Central America is a tenuous region and the Obama administrationmust carefully maintain the support of our allies. Moreover, Micheletti hasmade some very notable tactical errors, including forcibly making Zelaya leaveHonduras and then temporarily restricting the freedom of the press.

These are serious mistakes, but they don't make the case for democraticelections any less warranted.

There remains a solution that will satisfy American interests, providestability to a region in short supply of it and, most important, give Honduranswhat they deserve -- fair elections. Even if the State Department will notrecognize Micheletti's interim government, it should support election monitorsto observe the upcoming Honduran elections.

Neither Zelaya nor Micheletti are on the ballot, nor should they be. Michelettilost his presidential primary and has made no efforts to alter his situation.Zelaya is term-limited and his time as president has come and gone.
The silverlining will be the election of a new, legitimate leader in Honduraswho will provide a counterbalance to Chavez's dictatorial regime.
To read the op-ed on the Chicago Tribune's website, click here.

Roskam Hosts CNBC's Squawkbox

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT

On Monday, October 12th 2009, Congressman Peter Roskam appeared live on set on CNBC's Squawk Box as a co-host for two hours. Roskam discussed the state of our economy, our exploding national debt, current congressional spending, the healthcare reform debate and more.

Roskam, along with Rep. Rob Andrews (D-NJ) joined co-hosts Becky Quick and Joe Kernan for all segments, including interview with Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr (D-IL), economist and former Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Holtz-Eakin and more.

Click on the links below to watch highlights from Roskam's appearance on Squawk Box.

Click here to watch Roskam's discussion of the stimulus, the economy and the Obama Administration.

Click here to watch Roskam discuss congressional spending and just how unsustainable our skyrocketing national debt is.

Chicago Sun-Times on Roskam's Honduras Trip

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT

Chicago Sun-Times
Honduras Turmoil Goes Local
Abdon Pallasch
http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/1820028,CST-NWS-Honduras12.article

Two Republican congressmen from Illinois are urging the Obama administration to change course on Honduras after a visit there a week ago.

Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was shipped out of his country, then infiltrated his way back in and is now holed up at the Brazilian Embassy in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa.

He had been scheduled to leave office after the Nov. 29 presidential election. But because of his removal, the Obama administration now says it will not recognize the legitimacy of that election. It has cut off the $30 million-a-year foreign aid budget for Honduras.

U.S. Representatives Peter Roskam (R-Wheaton) and Aaron Schock (R-Peoria) say the administration should side with the rest of the Honduran government, which believes Zelaya's ouster was for the best.

"The high court made it clear that in their view, they acted in consistency with their constitution," Roskam said after meeting with all 15 members of the country's supreme court.

The congressmen also met with five of the six presidential candidates, including Zelaya's vice president, and all of them said the country's congress and courts were justified in removing Zelaya from office five months early before he could rewrite the constitution to extend his reign, as Venezuela's Hugo Chavez did.

"It struck me that we met with not only the interim government, the 15 supreme court justices, the presidential candidates -- five of the six -- who all agree Zelaya was corrupt and needed to be removed, including Zelaya's own vice president," Schock said.

But the Obama administration feels that removing a president from office and exiling him from the country sets a bad precedent in a region with a history of coups.

They insist on Zelaya being reinstated as a condition of recognizing the upcoming election and resuming foreign aid.

Like Chavez, Zelaya was popular with Honduras' poor, raising the minimum wage from $6 to $9.60 a day. But his critics say that populism masked corruption; that he took a payoff from Chavez and was allowing his country to be used as a transfer point for illegal drugs.

All sides agree the government went too far by deporting him to Costa Rica, but the government is apprehensive about giving him back the presidency even with limited powers.

"It seems ludicrous to me that we are turning our back on a 30-year friend of the United States," Schock said. The congressmen and other Republican congressmen and senators have asked for a meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to discuss the matter.

Daily Herald: Jobless Numbers Bring out Political Differences on Economy

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT

Jobless Numbers Bring Out Political Differences on Economy
Daily Herald
Camille Le Tallec

Unemployment figures showing even more Americans out of work have prompted suburban Republicans to claim stimulus efforts haven't worked while Democrats maintain the job market is often the last to rebound at the end of a recession.

The most recent unemployment reports show the U.S. economy lost 263,000 jobs in September, raising the national unemployment rate to 9.8 percent. According to the U.S. Labor Department, 15.1 million Americans are now out of work and 7.2 million jobs have been eliminated since December 2007 when the recession began.

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Not surprisingly, suburban Republicans say the answer lies in less, not more, government intervention. Rep. Peter Roskam, a Wheaton Republican, said lowering individual taxes and taxes on small businesses would boost consumption and encourage job creation.

Hinsdale's Republican Rep. Judy Biggert agreed. "Proposals for more job-killing tax hikes on energy and massive new spending on government-run health care only further undermine growth and add to the economic uncertainty of American families and small businesses," she said.

Some Democrats, like Evanston Rep. Jan Schakowsky, have also evoked the idea of tax exemptions. An extension of tax credits for first time buyers, a measure the stimulus package has created, and a tax credit for new hires, are being discussed, she said.

...

Read the full article HERE.

Foreign Policy Magazine on Roskam's Trip to Honduras

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT

"It's in our interest to lay out a clear pathway after which we can recognize a government that's chosen on November 29," Roskam said, "The Hondurans are going to choose."

Battle over Honduras policy heats up
Foreign Policy Magazine
Josh Rogin

To the great chagrin of the State Department, a group of Republicans led by South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint have opened up a second front of U.S. engagement toward Honduras, conducting their own version of shuttle diplomacy.

DeMint took a band of lawmakers to meet with the de facto regime there this weekend, maneuvering past objections of Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman John Kerry to set up a channel of communication with the new leadership, which has been completely snubbed by the Obama administration.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made it clear that the U.S. is siding with ousted President Manuel Zelaya, but Zelaya's erratic behavior since he snuck back into Honduras and holed himself up in the Brazilian Embassy, combined with the apparent failure of diplomatic efforts by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias and the Organization of American States, has provided an opening for those in Washington who argue that engaging the current leadership there is both strategic and practical.

Back in Washington, the battle over Honduras policy is tangled up with DeMint's effort to hold up the nominations of two of Obama's key Latin America appointees, Thomas Shannon to be U.S. ambassador to Brazil and Arturo Valenzuela to be assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Richard Lugar, R-IN, said in an interview with The Cable that he supports the GOP trips to Honduras but not DeMint's holds.

"On balance it may be helpful. Clearly there was an impasse there," said Lugar, referring to the trips. "Our foreign policy has tried to be mindful and consistent with the OAS and this has led really to our having really no representation in the country."

Lugar himself intended to visit with de facto President Roberto Micheletti before the State Department pulled his visa as part of its freeze-out.

Lugar has pressed DeMint repeatedly to drop the holds. He said that a successful election on Nov. 29 election and a recognition of the election results by the administration would likely lead to DeMint releasing his holds and could also represent the way out of the crisis.

"Presently I think we're headed toward a foreign-policy disaster of an election that would not be recognized by anybody and really no way out of the pass," said Lugar.

OAS officials are in Tegucigalpa today to try to mediate between the two sides, with Shannon as part of the delegation. And although Lugar is hopeful, he is preparing to press the administration later this week to alter its Honduras policy to prepare for a post-Nov. 29 relationship with whoever wins.

"For the moment I see an impending debacle which would be very unfortunate for the people of Honduras, quite apart from a failure of our own foreign policy," Lugar said.

DeMint briefed GOP senators on his trip during Tuesday's caucus lunch, the first full discussion of the issue among Republicans, Lugar said.

Congressman Peter Roskam, R-Ill, also spoke with The Cable just after returning from Tegucigalpa to talk about his delegation and the strategy behind the GOP's controversial engagement approach.

The delegation, which in addition to DeMint and Roskam included Reps. Aaron Schock, R-FL, and Doug Lamborn, R-CO, met with Micheletti, as well as several other senior regime leaders, the entire Supreme Court, all the candidates for the upcoming election, several American expatriates, and selected representatives of Honduran civil society groups.

House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-FL, was expected to meet with Micheletti as well the next day.

Although the State Department tried to prevent the delegation from going, U.S. consular officials did assist the delegation logistically, but did not participate in the meetings, Roskam said. The delegation also had a tense meeting with U.S. Amb. Hugo Llorens, in which Roskam described him as being "very defensive."

"The very consistent theme that was coming across was a sense of bewilderment from all the Hondurans we were meeting with at their treatment by the United States," Roskam related.

Micheletti acknowledged to the group that he did not have the authority to physically remove Zelaya from the country, but he seeks communication with the U.S. government and was not pleased that the State Department had cut him off.

The conclusion Roskam drew from the trip was that the problem in Honduras won't be solved until the Nov. 29 election, in which neither Micheletti nor Zelaya is running -- that is, if it can meet reasonable standards of freedom and fairness.

U.S. trade with Honduras is at stake, Roskam argued, and is needed to counter the expanding regional influence of anti-American forces such as Venezuela's Hugo Chávez.

"It's in our interest to lay out a clear pathway after which we can recognize a government that's chosen on November 29," Roskam said, "The Hondurans are going to choose."

Washington Post On Roskam's ACORN Press Conference

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT

Some Criticize SEIU For Its ACORN Connections
Washington Post
Carol Leoning

...
Last week, Republican Reps. Mark Steven Kirk and Peter Roskam of Illinois and Patrick T. McHenry of North Carolina urged the Census Bureau to stop allowing the SEIU to help recruit workers for its 2010 head count. "There's simply no place for a group so closely connected to ACORN to be part of something of such national importance as the U.S. Census," Roskam said.
Some liberal groups say that Republican complaints about the SEIU represent guilt by association.
"Right now, there is an insidious and coordinated effort on the part of the extreme right to target individuals and grass-roots community groups as a way to silence the voices of women and men who have suffered the most under eight years of right-wing policies," Stern said of attacks on ACORN and the SEIU.
Herman Benson, a labor expert and the founder of the Association for Union Democracy, said there is nothing improper on its face about the SEIU seeking out ACORN's help in connecting with low-income community members.
The larger concern about the union, Benson said, is how much Stern has centralized power within it and consolidated smaller locals into mega-unions run by handpicked loyalists whom members cannot effectively challenge.
ACORN's financial problems surfaced in 2008, with the discovery that the founder and a small staff had concealed his brother Dale Rathke's embezzlement. SEIU allegedly suffered similar malfeasance at the hands of Tyrone Freeman, a former chief of staff to Stern, whom Stern chose for his administrative slate in 2008 and named a national vice president.
In August 2008, the Los Angeles Times reported that Freeman spent more than $1 million in union money in two years.
SEIU spokeswoman Michelle Ringuette said that in the wake of that report, the union created an ethics commission.
Some of the SEIU's ties to ACORN have been cut recently. Wade Rathke resigned from the union's board last year. Last month, the SEIU revoked the charter of the ACORN sister organization that Rathke ran, Local 100.

Read the whole article HERE.

WIND AM 560 “Big John & Cisco” Show

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 04:00:00 GMT

Big John and Cisco talk to Congressman Peter Roskam about earmarks and why Congresspeople use military jets.

WLS AM 890 "Don Wade & Roma Show"

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Congressman Peter Roskam joined Don Wade and Roma to explain why the federal government would even talk about a cap-and-trade system right now in an economic crisis. Is there anything that won't rise in price if a cap-and-trade system came into place? Should we be concerned about Barack Obama's budget proposal? And will Rod Blagojevich's book be a corruption 101 lesson to others in politics?

WIND AM 560 “Big John & Cisco” Show

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 05:00:00 GMT

John and Cisco talked to Congressman Peter Roskam in the studio about the lack of bipartisanship, why he and others do not support the stimulus package, and the direction of the GOP.

Mancow's Morning Madhouse

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Congressman Peter Roskam joined Eric “Mancow” Muller to discuss the economic stimulus bill.

WTAM 1100 Cleveland

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Congressman Peter Roskam joins Bill Scooter on WTAM Cleveland to talk about the very latest developments with the economic stimulus package, egregious wasteful spending and how Congress could have done better.

WLS AM 890 "Don Wade & Roma Show"

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Congressman Peter Roskam joined Don Wade and Roma to give you the inside story on the controversy with Barack Obama's nominees and with the federal stimulus package. What is the Barack Obama standard and is he sticking to it? Should he be setting such high standards and then turning around and handing out waivers? Was Michael Steele a good pick to head the Republican National Committee? Is he just what the party needed? Plus, will Springfield sneak a gas tax on Illinoisans? How will that hurt the state of Illinois?

WIND AM 560 “Big John & Cisco” Show

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Big John and Cisco talk to Congressman Peter Roskam about why he and the rest of the Republicans voted against the stimulus bill, and what damage is expected.

WBBM 780 AM NewsRadio

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Congressman Peter Roskam talks to WBBM NewsRadio about his meeting with President Barack Obama and comments on the proposed $825 billion spending bill currently being debated in Congress.

The Michael Reagan Show

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Congressman Peter J. Roskam joined Michael Reagan, son of the late-President Ronald Reagan, to talk about the inauguration of President Barack Obama, the proposed stimulus package and the legacy of President George Bush.

WIND AM 560 “Big John & Cisco” Show

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Big John and Cisco ask Congressman Peter Roskam if he wants to run for Senate, what he thinks about the Dems' infighting, and what he would ask Hillary Clinton at her hearing.