Rep. Tom Price Fears Negative Health and Economic Impacts of Gay Rights Bills

Georgia congressman and potential Senate candidate Tom Price appeared today on a conference call with Tea Party Unity, the group founded by far-right pastor Rick Scarborough, where he agreed with a caller who suggested that any bill involving social issues should require a study of the “fiscal impact” the legislation would have.

The caller was none other than Rabbi Noson Leiter, who blamed Hurricane Sandy on New York’s marriage equality law. Leiter warned about the “tremendous medical health impact and economic impact” of the “homosexual agenda” and asked Price whether Congress will consider studying the “fiscal impact” that “promoting such a lifestyle will result in.”

Price hailed Leiter and said he was “absolutely right,” adding that “the consequences of activity that has been seen as outside the norm are real and must be explored completely and in their entirety prior to moving forward with any social legislation that would alter things.”

He went on to say he was dismayed by “people who wake up one morning and think that they’ve got a grand new way of doing something” that ends up becoming “a huge cost-driver to state pensions” and have significant health costs.

Leiter: Congressman, is it feasible to consider that any legislation on the various moral issues that’s being considered, whether it be pertaining to the homosexual agenda, abortion or pornography, taking into account the fiscal impact of that legislation. In other words, when they want to let’s say promote some homosexual agenda item, that they should take into account the tremendous medical health impact and economic impact that promoting such a lifestyle will result in.

Price: Yes, thank you rabbi and you’re absolutely right. The consequences of activity that has been seen as outside the norm are real and must be explored completely and in their entirety prior to moving forward with any social legislation that would alter things. I’m always struck by people who wake up one morning and think that they’ve got a grand new way of doing something when as you all know that the tried and true traditions in history that made us great are preserved and have survived because they are effective. I hear you, medical health and costs; you talk about a huge cost-driver to state pensions and other things, many of these areas would significantly alter state balance sheets.