Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman from Indiana for his remarks. I thank him also for his leadership on the Budget Committee. I thank him for his passion to see a better future for our kids and for our grandchildren. Mr. Speaker, having served in a State legislature before coming to Congress, I served in one where we had to balance our budget. And in our State legislature, our single largest expenditure was, by far, Medicaid. Medicaid exceeded all the money that we spent on public education, higher education, and the Department of Corrections combined. We spent more money on this one Federal State program than we spent on all of education, and that we spent on our prison program. Mr. Speaker, there is an inverse incentive for States to be good stewards of Medicaid money. In my State, we received $2.37 of Federal money for every $1 of State money that we spent. What my colleague from Indiana is talking about is giving States incentives to manage these programs. If the States had incentives to manage the programs in a better way right now, their hands would be tied by CMS. The Federal Government won't allow the States to create programs and manage their Medicaid population the way that the States could if they had the opportunity to do that. {time} 1600 If we give these laboratories of democracy across the country the ability to innovate and the ability to meet the needs of the people that they serve, then they will do that.…”