Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA)

Despite this bipartisan support, the incoming Republican leadership in the House is threatening to defund the bill, the implementation of which requires $1.4 billion over the next five years, mostly to hire new food inspectors. The bill is officially deficit neutral, according to the Congressional Budget Office, as it raises fees to offset its cost, but Congressional appropriators still need to okay the FDA to spend the money.

And Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA), the incoming chairman of the appropriations subcommittee charged with the FDA budget, seems disinclined to do so:

“There’s a high possibility of trimming this whole package back,” Kingston said yesterday in a telephone interview. “While it’s a great re-election tool to terrify people into thinking that the food they’re eating is unsafe and unsanitary, and if not for the wonderful nanny-state politicians we’d be getting sick after every meal, the system we have is doing a darn good job.”

Even without some of the high-profile food recalls of last year — including of salmonella-contaminated eggs and E. coli-contaminated spinach — there is a significant public health justification for upgrading the nation’s food safety system.

At the moment, one out of six Americans suffers from a foodborne illness every year, with 128,000 of those resulting in hospitalization. Ultimately, 3,000 people die from foodborne illness each year, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The law gives the FDA the ability to force recalls, which it currently is barred from doing, and do more to inspect food coming into the country.

As The Wonk Room explained, aside from the public health benefits, the bill will actually save taxpayers money in the long-run (while costing them nothing in the short-run). According to Georgetown University’s Produce Safety Project, foodborne illness costs the U.S. $152 billion annually.

Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA)

But yesterday, during a town hall at College of Coastal Georgia in Brunswik, Kingston did what’s quickly becoming a popular trend for Republicans. He walked back from his repeal rhetoric and highlighted some of the benefits of the new law:

Instead Kingston, who had joined all other Republicans in the House in voting against the overhaul, focused on changes he thinks should be made to make it better. He said lawmakers have “unfinished business” and both parties should work together to improve the nation’s health care system….At one point, he assured the crowd there are no “death panels,” a charge made by some conservatives over the course of the year-long debate and echoed by at least one citizen in attendance Wednesday. He also said it is too early to tell if the new law violates the U.S. Constitution.

“There are a lot of things in this bill I think you and I certainly like,” Kingston said and called for more provisions to be added that would “end frivolous lawsuits, which increase medical costs, allow people to purchase insurance across state lines and increase the transparency in cost for medical procedures.” “I think as a practicality you’re going to have trouble repealing the whole deal,” Kingsdale said at a different Town Hall on Monday. “But there ought to be areas where Democrats and Republicans can come together.”

Kingston may be directly acknowledging the centrist nature of the health care bill in his district, while still calling for the act’s repeal to national media. On Sunday, just one day before he admitted that repeal was impractical, Kingston appeared on Fox News to tout the effort.

Yesterday, tens of thousands of people gathered in rural West Virginia for the coal-powered “Friends of America Rally.” The point of the event was to rail against the Waxman-Markey clean energy legislation. Massey CEO Don Blankenship, the driving force behind the rally, said that “America itself” was at stake if the bill wasn’t stopped.

Fox News personality Sean Hannity was one of the rally’s keynote speakers, and he took the opportunity to gloat about Van Jones’ resignation. He vowed to the audience that he would get rid of “every other one” of Obama’s so-called czars:

HANNITY: Do you want another czar?

CROWD: No!

HANNITY: I don’t think so. By the way, we got rid of one, and my job starting tomorrow night is to get rid of every other one. I promise you that!

Watch it:

Hannity’s pledge is part of a larger right-wing campaign. Glenn Beck has announced that Cass Sunstein, Mark Lloyd, and Carol Browner are his next targets and asked his followers to dig up all the dirt they can on them.

Republican lawmakers are trying to argue that Obama should be barred from appointing more advisers until the administration addresses their constitutional concerns. Yesterday on Fox News, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) said that all of Obama’s advisers should have to go through the same vetting and approval process through the Senate as Supreme Court nominees and Cabinet secretaries. Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) has said that the “president should suspend any further appointments of so-called ‘czars’ until Congress has an opportunity to examine the background and responsibilities of these individuals.”

The conservative strategy is to bring the executive branch to a screeching halt. Republicans in the Senate have tried to hold up key Obama nominees in what amounts to ideological witch hunts and self-interested horse-trading. Additionally, several of the so-called czars have actually already been confirmed by the Senate.

At a recent town hall held by Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA), an elderly gentleman named Jim Parker stood up and told the congressman that he was recently treated for colon cancer. “I did not have insurance,” he said, because “things didn’t quite work out” after he started his own business. Parker informed Kingston that “a friend of mine was in the same position, and we buried him last January.”

Kingston responded by telling the man that “you did do very well” because he was able to get treated when he arrived at the hospital. Parker responded, “I am functionally bankrupt!” Kingston cut him off and reiterated his point:

But you did get coverage. You didn’t get the insurance, but they won’t turn you down at the door. And we do need to focus on people like you. However, here’s the problem: among other things, in countries that have socialized medicine, you have longer waiting lines, you have bureaucracy…it does lead to rationing.

Watch it:

Kingston’s argument is a familiar conservative trope. In July 2007, President Bush claimed that “people have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room.”

Of course, just going “to an emergency room” is what drives up health care costs for all Americans. “Access to emergency room care is not the same as access to comprehensive, coordinated, and timely health care services—the kind of care that coverage facilitates.” And as the town hall attendee noted, without insurance, a hospital visit commonly leaves Americans bankrupt.

Kingston has been telling the media that the August town halls have helped to defeat Obama’s health care plan. And he recently told Politico that the GOP is “going to keep the nightmare going through the fall.” A nightmare all too real for people like Jim Parker.

In recent weeks, conservatives have been attacking a small provision in the House-proposed health care legislation that would allow Medicare to cover advanced care consulting. The Republican National Committee sent out a research document claiming the House legislation is encouraging euthanasia. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) said it was placing “seniors in a position of being put to death by their government.” Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin picked up this meme on Friday and took it further in a statement she posted on her Facebook page:

The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

These claims are complete lies. The House bill would simply give seniors the option of speaking with an expert about advanced care issues, such as living wills. As FactCheck.org explains, “[I]t requires Medicare to cover counseling sessions for seniors who want to consider their end-of-life choices — including whether they want to refuse or, conversely, require certain types of care.”

“This measure would not only help people make the best decisions for themselves but also better ensure that their wishes are followed,” responded AARP Executive Vice President John Rother. “To suggest otherwise is a gross, and even cruel, distortion.”

On Friday, HBO host Bill Maher questioned Republican Reps. Darryl Issa (CA) and Jack Kingston (GA) about Palin’s “death panel” statement. “It’s a scare tactic, no question about it,” said Kingston, who added that there are no death panels. Issa ignored the question and tried to change the topic. Watch it (around 20:30):

Guests on today’s Sunday talk shows were also largely incredulous at Palin’s statement. “About euthanasia, they’re just totally erroneous. She just made that up,” said former governor Howard Dean. “Just like the ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ that she supposedly didn’t support.” On NBC’s Meet the Press, conservative columnist David Brooks said it was “crazy.” On CNN, reporters said it showed how Palin has trouble discussing substantive issues:

JESSICA YELLIN: No, and that’s a low blow. That’s not an accurate assessment of what this panel is, but it definitely will get her attention.

DAN BALZ: Jessica is right, it does get attention. It’s not the way to debate this bill, and it’s another example of Sarah Palin having difficulty figuring out how to enter into a serious debate about issues.

ED HENRY: Yes, and people are being whipped up on that issue right now and they think that essentially euthanasia is going to be allowed based on this health bill. Obviously it just doesn’t pass the Joe Six-pack test, I think even Sarah Palin would acknowledge.

The one person who did defend Palin today: Newt Gingrich.