Frank Lautenberg: “we listened to the comments from our colleague from Kentucky about how much New Jersey or New York can afford. But I…”

“we listened to the comments from our colleague from Kentucky about how much New Jersey or New York can afford. But I will tell you this, New Jersey, for each dollar that it sends down to the Federal Government, it gets barely half of it back. But not in Kentucky. In Kentucky, if they send in a dollar, they get $1.45 back. We cannot compare things. We cannot compare costs of living. The poverty level for a four-person family is $20,000. That means their income is about $5,000 a month. In New Jersey, after taxes, housing, and other costs, they're left with about $865. And yet their health care costs average above $2,000. As a consequence, with $2,000 a month for health care costs, every family is burdened up until almost the highest of incomes. So we ask fairness. Here we are trying to expand health care for children, and our colleague wants to take that away. This is not fair, it is not right, and I hope we will defeat this soundly.”