Frank Pallone: “I yield myself the balance of the time. Madam Chair, I just want to stress again, you know, I hear from the other side…”

“I yield myself the balance of the time. Madam Chair, I just want to stress again, you know, I hear from the other side of the aisle over the years how people should take personal responsibility. The idea of the CLASS Act is that people pay into the trust fund, and then when they become disabled, they take the money out to pay for services so that they can stay in their home and don't have to go to a nursing home. Now, when they do that, they save the government money because this is their own money that is being spent to keep them in their home, to keep them in the community so they don't have to spend down and then eventually become a ward of the State, essentially, because Medicaid ends up paying for their nursing home care. So this is a solution to a long-term care problem. Not a complete solution, but certainly a partial solution. I agree with Mr. Pascrell, which is that when I listen to the other side of the aisle, the gentleman from Texas was quite clear: Let's repeal the entire Affordable Care Act. If we can't repeal the whole thing, then we'll repeal it piecemeal piece by piece, which is what's going on here today. Well, again, it's not a very responsible position unless you come up with an alternative. We're in the Energy and Commerce Committee. We've had hearings on this. I've yet to hear anyone come up on the Republican side with an alternative. All they keep saying is let's just repeal this and we'll figure something out down the line.…”