Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for his service to the country and all of our veterans, men and women, who wear our uniform and deserve our undying appreciation and thanks. But it is astonishing, once again, it is appalling that these navigators apparently aren't serving our veterans. We have to come to the floor with amendments to Federal law to order them to take care of our veterans. What kind of program is this? We know it is expensive. We know some in the news media, some of the editorial writers in our country said it is open to fraud and--let me read it. An editorial paper out West said, ``In reality, the navigator scheme is a make-work government jobs program rife with corruption and highly susceptible to scam artists. It's a slush fund for progressive constituent groups.'' That is how one editorial came out. I am sure there are good people in there somewhere doing good work, but we know that according to CMS, 17 navigators enrolled less than 100 people at an average cost of $5,000 per enrollee. What kind of program is this? We know it is expensive. One grantee took in $200,000 and enrolled one person. The top ten most expensive collected $2.77 million and signed up 314 people. So it is inefficient, but at least it is really expensive. What a waste. I am sure they enroll people, but only 1 percent of those enrolled in the exchange are helped by navigators.…”