Nancy L. Johnson: “there is not anything in this bill that will prevent us from passing unfunded mandate legislation. Nothing in this bill…”

“there is not anything in this bill that will prevent us from passing unfunded mandate legislation. Nothing in this bill prevent us from passing laws that will mandate costs on States that we do not pay for. The only difference is that 51 percent of us will have to vote to do that. But this bill is about accountability. It will force us to write good law that says specifically whose responsibility is what and who is going to pay. I, for one, am going to be perfectly proud to stand on this floor and force States to pay 10 percent of a child-support system; absolutely, we pay 90, they pay 10, and we all benefit. I will vote to force States to pay 25 percent of water-treatment plant costs; absolutely a good deal. But I ought to be voting for that. I ought to be accountable for that, and I ought to go home and take the rap for that and argue with my folks about that being a square deal and a sound partnership. Now, on Medicare, frankly, if the unfunded-mandate law had been in place, our Congress would not have been able to underfund Medicare payments to hospitals and physicians. Do you know who takes the rap because we do not fund Medicare? It is all of those little guys out there who pay their own health care premiums. Their premiums in Connecticut are one-third higher because we underfund Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement rates. That is a disgrace.…”