Luján speaks to Santa Fe Reporter about health care

You can listen to Congressman Ben Ray Luján, D-New Mexico, talk health care reform in an interview with the Santa Fe Reporter. You can get the embedded version over at SFReeper, or just download the mp3 .

Some quick notes on this:

• When asked about the report that shows health care lobbyists now outnumber members of Congress 6-to-1, Luján says that he hasn’t seen many health care lobbyists, saying it might be because of his “strong position on [the] public option and on health care reform.Instead, he’s seen more advocates and labor.
• When asked whose fault it is for the misinformation that is going around, the Congressman says that it is many people’s fault; including “Republican leaders” Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh.
• Luján on ‘death panels:’ “People believe that to be true. That couldn’t be further from the truth.”
• Luján says, “There has already been a lot of compromise.”
• He says he doesn’t know if opponents to health care reform are completely against health care reform or if they just want the President to fail.
• Objects to the idea that this is something that is being “rushed and pushed,” and says that it is something that is years in the making.
• Luján did not directly answer whether or not he would vote for a bill without a public option.
• Luján is a co-sponsor of H.R. 676, John Conyers’ single-payer bill.
• “I think the surcharge on the most wealthy makes a lot of sense.” The surcharge would start on income over $250,000 a year for individuals and higher for couples, with the full surcharge taking effect on income of over $1 million a year.

Thank you to the good folks at the Santa Fe Reporter for making this audio available to the public.