On the recordDecember 7, 2010
With ObamaCare, the States are going to have to cut more. In fact, we already see first responders--fire departments, police departments-- being cut in their funding. In State after State, there are educational funding cuts across the board. In our own home State of Georgia, they have had to markedly cut the educational budget because of all of these mandates that are put on them by the Federal Government and because of the requirement by the State constitutionally to have a balanced budget. I introduced a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution here in Congress; and, hopefully, we are going to do that, too. It has been part of our pledge to America, and I will continue to fight for a balanced budget. I think the Federal Government also needs to live within its own means. Just on the Medicaid expansion, we should just do block grants back to the States and let them be the laboratory of public policy, as our Founding Fathers talked about and believed in very firmly--and I believe in those same things--for Medicaid as well as for SCHIP. In Georgia, we call it PeachCare. If we send those dollars back to the States, don't tie any strings to them and let the States utilize those funds in whatever way best suits their State budgets and their State needs, we will be a whole lot better off. The States will be better off. The Federal Government will be better off. The taxpayers will be better off.
