Political Quotes

“I rise today to submit a resolution stating that it is the sense of the Congress that any Federal Government mandated health care reform should be on-budget. Notice I said ``any''; this is not a resolution to single out the Clinton plan or any other plan. This, by the way, is the same resolution that my friends in the House, Representative Wayne Allard and Representative Tim Penny, will be introducing today. It is my strong feeling that we need to take responsibility for the health care plans that we ask our folks to implement and to live with. If we are to increase taxes, especially mandated taxes, we need to be responsible for the costs. Leaving any program off-budget, especially when the reform is as massive as this reform will potentially be, will mean costs will be difficult to control and account for. We need to make certain that we have some way to restrain growth or I can just see it now. Instead of a health care crisis, we'll be looking at a budget crisis of incredible proportions. As you know, Mr. President, our States are buckling under the weight of unfunded mandates already. I cannot, in good conscience, support any plan which will add more liability to my State without Federal responsibility. And keeping health care reform off-budget will hide the true cost of the plan from the American public. I think they have the right to know the true costs and I think it's in our best interest to make those costs known.”