Iowa City mayor questions health care reform on MSNBC

IOWA CITY - Iowa City Mayor Matt Hayek is a Democrat, met Barack President Obama at the Eastern Iowa Airport Thursday and was mentioned by the president at the start of his speech at the Field House.

But that's not to say Hayek is 100 percent behind the new health care law. Hayek was on MSNBC for a brief telephone interview Thursday in which he said he believes the legislation is going to help “millions of working families,” but he does not think it addresses the national debt and skyrocketing health care costs.

“It's something our children and our grandchildren are going to pay for,” he told the cable network's David Shuster.

See the video below.

Hayek is an attorney and said his firm's health care expenses are increasing by about 20 percent a year. He said the cost to the city for providing health insurance to its 600-odd employees is “alarming as well.”

The interview only lasted a minute, and in an e-mail message this morning, Hayek said he wasn't given a chance to talk about the portions of the law he favored.

"Expanding coverage to millions of Americans is an important goal and the health care legislation is a good first step," he wrote. "But many opportunities to control costs were missed.  In the long run that has to be a primary focus, and I hope Congress and the President will be up to the task."

Despite Hayek's political party affiliation, the Republican National Committee issued a news release Thursday saying that as Obama was set to visit Iowa City, “one of the hardest sells might be Iowa City Democrat Mayor Matt Hayek.”

You'll note that the YouTube video is on a GOP page.

At least the RNC got Hayek's name right. Shuster continually referred to the mayor as “Mark.”