Jim Inhofe: “a few weeks ago, the freshman class of the U.S. Senate made a trip around the United States to talk to different groups…”

“a few weeks ago, the freshman class of the U.S. Senate made a trip around the United States to talk to different groups, different gatherings. We went all the way from Philadelphia to Knoxville, to Minneapolis, to Cheyenne, WY. One of the things we talked about, probably more than anything else, was welfare reform, changing the system as we have come to know it since the 1960's. The Senator from Missouri, Senator Ashcroft, was with us during this. He came up with some evidence from the State of Missouri that I thought was quite remarkable. He was talking about the administration of the Medicaid program, how they have been able to file and get out from under the red-tape of the Federal Government. The year prior to their being able to administer the Medicaid Program with the amount of money that they had, they reached some 600,000 families throughout the State of Missouri. The next year, or the year following the year that they were able to take over the total jurisdiction and control and administration and come out from under the redtape of the Federal Government--and this was done, I might add, under a Democrat administration, a Democrat director of the department of human services for the State of Missouri--they were able to use that same amount of money and reach 900,000 families. In other words, 50 percent more services were given to families just by eliminating the unnecessary trip and expense and redtape of the Federal Government.”