Nancy L. Johnson: “we cannot put lipstick on a paper and call it a lady, but we can put $25 billion additional dollars on the table and…”

“we cannot put lipstick on a paper and call it a lady, but we can put $25 billion additional dollars on the table and help people who are unemployed. A total of $37.2 billion does make a difference in unemployment benefits, in health care subsidies, absolutely. And in addition to this money, there is $4.6 billion for States to manage Medicaid costs or to put it into CHIP and open up CHIP for people who need affordable coverage. So not only is there $4.6 billion in addition to the $32 billion, but there is $4 billion additional money for States to either use for training expansion or other health care needs. They could use it for community health centers so more people could be covered through that avenue. There are all kinds of ways we can make certain that everyone is covered. And remember, under the Democrat alternative offered by the other body, the only people who got health insurance, the only people, now listen to this, if you represent a rural area. The only people under the other bill who got any health care subsidies were people who worked for employers who were covered by COBRA. That means if you had less than 20 employees, your guys did not get any help with health insurance, not any, zero. How could my colleagues hold out that their bill offered unemployment compensation and health insurance to those laid off as a result of this recession when, in fact, anyone who worked for an employer with less than 20 employees got zero, zero, zero, zero.…”