Rep. Gary Palmer addresses Shelby County City Clerks Association

During the U.S. House of Representatives’ August recess, Rep. Gary Palmer stopped by the Chelsea Community Center to speak to the Shelby County City Clerks Association.

Palmer was the guest speaker at the clerks association’s August luncheon, which was sponsored by Lee Birchall with Bradley Public Finance. He provided lunch attendees with an update on Washington, D.C.

The Aug. 2 luncheon took place less than a week following the Senate’s 49-51 vote on a health care bill described by some as “skinny repeal.” Three Republican senators voted against the proposal, with Sen. John McCain as the decisive vote to defeat the bill.

“When John McCain voted ‘no’ about 1:30 last Friday morning, he denied us the opportunity to even have a chance to fix the health care bill. I cannot tell you. It was one of the more disappointing days I’ve had in my two years, seven months and 26 days in office,” Palmer said, Palmer said, adding that he is still “guardedly optimistic' that the Senate saw the vote as a wake-up call and they will take another shot out of it.

As a member of the House, Palmer said he hoped the Senate would pass any sort of health care so that it could go to a conference committee, during which the House and Senate would work out differences between the two houses’ bills.

Palmer also discussed other facets of health care, including other health care systems and the effect of the Medicaid expansion.

“As long as I’m a member of congress, I will not support a single-payer system,” Palmer said. He said the reason he would not support that is because it takes away the ability of the individual or their family to make their own health care decisions. Decisions are also made based on cost of treatment, Palmer said, and people have to wait too long for care under a single-payer system.

As far as Medicaid expansion, Palmer said this has become costly for states that opted into the expansion — Alabama did not — and increases Medicaid past its initial purpose of helping low-income families, women, children and the disabled.

Ultimately, Palmer said he supported health savings accounts. Individuals would place money into these accounts, and that money would be used for health care costs, and it would roll over between years.

Palmer also said he is focused on tax and regulatory reform. In regard to tax reform, Palmer said he wants to see the tax code simplified and to bring down the corporate tax rate to around 15-20 percent.

“What we need to focus on is simplifying our tax code, bringing our rates down, and incentivizing investing,” he said. “And it’s a two-pronged problem — taxes and regulations.”

Regulatory reform, Palmer said, would help get rid of unnecessary and cumbersome regulations that both harm local governments and businesses.

Palmer also answered questions on block grants and the priority of infrastructure. While infrastructure has seen some movement, Palmer said other items are a higher priority at this time.

“We’ve got to move through these other things,” Palmer said, noting that many people thought health care would move through Congress faster. “… It’s getting pushed back, but we’re still working on it.”