Political Quotes

“I suggested during the health care debate that anyone who voted for the new health care law ought to be sentenced to go home and serve as Governor for 8 years under the new law and try to make it work. The vote we are about to have this afternoon is another symptom of the same problem. Here is what the vote today, which is characterized as being about teachers and Medicaid, actually does. It is a $10 billion bailout to help States pay teachers, but it ties the Governors' hands so a Governor can't change education funding levels if their State budgets are in trouble, which almost every State is. Second, there is $16 billion for States to pay for Medicaid--the Federal program that is a combination of Federal money and State money--but, again, this ties the Governors' hands so Governors can't adjust the State Medicaid programs in a way that will make it possible for them to afford to continue to run the program. Third, what we are about to vote on this afternoon raises taxes by about $10 billion to help pay for these proposals.”