Tom Price in State of Georgia Archives


On Abortion: Would allow firing workers for birth control, abortion

Price opposed a 2015 Washington, D.C., nondiscrimination law that would have prevented employers from firing workers for using birth control or having an abortion.
Source: TheCut.com on 2019-20 Georgia 2-year Senate race Sep 26, 2019

On Abortion: Co-sponsored Right to Life Act, protecting zygotes

In 2005 and 2007, he co-sponsored two personhood bills known as Right to Life Acts, which would have granted zygotes full legal protection under the Constitution from the moment of fertilization, effectively banning both emergency contraception and abortion. The bills were introduced but never voted on.
Source: TheCut.com on 2019-20 Georgia 2-year Senate race Sep 26, 2019

On Abortion: For Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act

He voted for the so-called Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act in both 2013 and 2015, which would have resulted in a nationwide 20-week abortion ban--no matter that such legislation is unconstitutional since 20 weeks is before fetal viability. He also supported an amendment preventing medical-training grants from being used to train graduate students how to perform abortions.
Source: TheCut.com on 2019-20 Georgia 2-year Senate race Sep 26, 2019

On Abortion: Opposed to free birth control on religious grounds

He's opposed to free birth control which studies show reduce the abortion rate. He told ThinkProgress in 2012 that there are no women who struggle to afford birth control and that the ACA's contraceptive mandate is wrong. "Bring me one woman who has been left behind. Bring me one. There's not one," he said. "The fact of the matter is, this is a trampling of religious freedom and religious liberty in this country."
Source: TheCut.com on 2019-20 Georgia 2-year Senate race Sep 26, 2019

On Budget & Economy: Deficits created by stimulus threatens economic stability

One thing that the stimulus has created is an unprecedented budget deficit. The budget shortfall was $1.4 trillion, nearly four times the deficit of the previous year. Congress will soon be forced to increase the federal debt limit that already sits at $12.1 trillion. This will be the fifth increase in the debt limit since Democrats took control of Congress. The deficits created by the stimulus are not only unsustainable in the long term but have grown so large they threaten economic stability.
Source: The Hill on 2019-20 Georgia 2-year Senate race Dec 17, 2009

On Budget & Economy: Stimulus package favors Democratic projects

Far from rolling over, House Republican leaders are trying to win concessions from President Obama over the massive economic stimulus package and have proffered a bill of their own to put on the negotiating table. "People are recognizing very quickly that's it's not one, stimulative, and two, it's full of all sorts of things that are sort of favorite political projects of the Democrat majority," said Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., chairman of the Republican Study Committee.
Source: Fox News Town Halls on 2019-20 Georgia 2-year Senate race Dec 24, 2015

On Civil Rights: Against LGBT rights, same-sex marriage

Price has spent his career opposing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, or LGBT, rights. He's voted for a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, voted against protecting LGBT people from employment discrimination, and indicated he agreed with a false claim that LGBT rights legislation would have a negative effect on "medical health."
Source: AmericanProgress.org on 2019-20 Georgia 2-year Senate race Jan 18, 2017

On Civil Rights: Would allow LGBT discrimination under civil rights laws

Price is a co-sponsor of the First Amendment Defense Act, or FADA, a law that would allow individuals and corporations alike to ignore civil rights laws and discriminate against LGBT people. FADA would undermine future advancements in civil rights law for LGBT people and gut existing federal nondiscrimination protections in many areas, including employment, housing, and the homeless shelters and hospitals.
Source: AmericanProgress.org on 2019-20 Georgia 2-year Senate race Jan 18, 2017

On Civil Rights: Supports football coaches proselytizing at high school

In response to concern that state employees leading students in religious activities is commonplace and not an isolated event, Collins replied, "They're right. In Hall County and throughout Georgia's 9th district, we-- cherish our right to worship in our own way." Collins said he felt disgusted that while "innocent lives are being lost in Iraq and other places at the hands of radical religious terrorists, a bunch of Washington lawyers are finding the time to pick on kids in Northeast Georgia."
Source: The Humanist on 2019-20 Georgia 2-year Senate race Aug 25, 2014

On Drugs: Opposes needle exchange programs

Dr. Price voted to block U.S. funding for needle exchange programs in 2009, several years into his now-12-year stint representing Georgia's sixth Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. He also voted in 2007 to prevent the District of Columbia from using its own, nonfederal funds on needle exchange programs.
Source: Science Magazine on 2019-20 Georgia 2-year Senate race Dec 2, 2016

On Drugs: Criticized for comments on opioid addiction treatment

Price's comments suggesting opioid-type medication to treat opioid addiction isn't very effective prompted hundreds of experts to urge him to unequivocally support the treatment. Price's comments prompted more than 600 practitioners and researchers to sign a letter asking Price to "set the record straight." "The perception that persons receiving long-term therapy with medications--especially with buprenorphine and methadone--are not actually in recovery is widespread but grossly inaccurate."
Source: PolitiFact.com on 2019-20 Georgia 2-year Senate race May 26, 2017

On Drugs: Co-signs support letter to free states to act on marijuana

"The legal status of cannabis in the United States is in disarray. It is incumbent on Congress to clarify these issues and reform our federal laws," Collins, the ranking minority member on the House Judiciary Committee, wrote to chairman Jerrold Nadler, with Matt Gaetz, who co-signed the letter. The Republican lawmakers are endorsing the Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States Act, a bill to shield state cannabis laws from federal intervention.
Source: Forbes Magazine on 2019-20 Georgia 2-year Senate race Aug 25, 2014

On Education: Allow state agencies to control Head Start funding

In 2007, when Head Start was last up for reauthorization, Price authored an amendment which would have allowed up to eight states to create Head Start "demonstration programs." In those states, Head Start funds would flow to and through state agencies rather than directly to individual providers. By moving the program from federal to state control, Price argued that states would be able to coordinate Head Start with state-run early childhood programs.
Source: NewAmerica.org on 2019-20 Georgia 2-year Senate race Jan 18, 2017

On Government Reform: Regulators should be teammates and allies to business

We need regulation, there's no doubt about it, but we need regulation where the regulators are seen as teammates and allies to folks creating jobs out here and businesses, not adversaries. Right now, what we've got is (an) administration that has empowered the regulators so that when they come into a business, it's no longer in a counseling manner It's to punish them, it's to fine them, it's to make them frightened for the very survival of their own business.
Source: Marietta Daily Journal on 2019-20 Georgia 2-year Senate race Jan 18, 2017

On Government Reform: Healthcare regulation leading some to leave the field

Price called for a more hands-off approach to regulation, arguing that while the government should oversee healthcare IT to an extent, the view adopted should be from a figurative distance of 60,000 feet. Price underscored his argument by suggesting that government regulations are leading to mass frustration among healthcare providers, with many choosing to leave the field as a consequence. "We need physicians to be patient-facing, not computer-facing," he said.
Source: AdvancedMD.com on 2019-20 Georgia 2-year Senate race Apr 28, 2017

On Gun Control: Gun ownership protects those at scene of crime

Price asserted that when violence has taken place, gun ownership has protected--not harmed--those at the scene of the crime. "In fact, guns are used more often to protect lives, not take lives. Steps to remove firearms from the hands of law-abiding citizens endanger those very citizens," he said.
Source: CNN coverage of 2019-20 Georgia 2-year Senate race Jan 10, 2017

On Health Care: Forced out of HHS for travel expenses

He served for roughly seven months as health secretary before being forced out in September 2017 over the travel expenditures. Trump was also angry with Republicans' failure to repeal former President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. The government spent nearly $1.2 million on the secretary's travel during his seven months in office. Price apologized and repaid a small portion of the money.
Source: Associated Press on 2019-20 Georgia 2-year Senate race Sep 26, 2019

On Social Security: Supports major cutbacks to Social Security

The conservative Georgia doctor has long been a proponent of major cutbacks to Social Security. "So all the kinds of things you know about--whether it's means testing, whether it's increasing the age of eligibility, whether it's providing much greater choices for individuals to voluntarily select the kind of manner in which they believe they ought to be able to invest their working dollars as they go through their lifetime. All those things ought to be on the table and discussed."
Source: Forbes Magazine on 2019-20 Georgia 2-year Senate race Mar 10, 2017

The above quotations are from State of Georgia Politicians: Archives.
Click here for other excerpts from State of Georgia Politicians: Archives.
Click here for other excerpts by Tom Price.
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