Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, this week I learned of a recent audit of North Carolina's Medicaid billing system. Normally, I don't bring up State issues like this before the House, but it turns out that this isn't just a State issue. North Carolina is currently upgrading its Medicaid billing system and agreed to pay a contractor $265 million to make the upgrades. But surprise, surprise, the upgrade will end up costing $495 million-- nearly twice as much. Who cares? That's a problem for North Carolina taxpayers; right? Not so fast. It turns out that the Federal Government is expected to pick up 90 percent of the tab for this new system. That means all taxpayers, including North Carolina taxpayers, will be shelling out an extra $200 million to cover for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services' incompetence and inability to keep a lid on costs. Making matters worse, this department went so far as to give itself an ``A'' grade for managing the upgrade program. Mr. Speaker, I doubt taxpayers will give the folks at the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services an ``A'' for flushing $200 million of their money down the toilet. This is a classic example of how government bureaucracies view Federal taxpayer dollars--as manna from heaven. This money is not manna from heaven. It is taken directly out of the pockets of hardworking taxpayers from across the Nation. When taxpayers hear stories like this, they wonder why they even pay taxes in the first place.…”