Political Quotes

“Let me just finish, get the facts out, and then we will talk about the policy. So I showed them this chart. They pointed out what was obvious which was that this chart only shows half, in fact less than half of the equation. It shows the additional costs to the States that will come incident to their picking up some of the prescription drug costs. What it does not show is that the States are going to be relieved of a substantial amount of their current costs. The Senator from Oklahoma mentioned one of these costs. But, in addition to that, there are other costs from which the States will receive relief. For example, there are 31 States that provide State pharmacy assistance for low-income senior citizens, the States which have received Medicaid waivers in order to allow them to cover additional groups of seniors. As the Federal Government has dawdled on the subject of providing prescription drugs for senior Americans, many States have stepped forward and have done so. So within the Medicaid Program as well as in areas where the States have tried to fill the void that the Federal Government has left behind, there are substantial savings to the States--thus the report of the Congressional Budget Office that there is no increased cost to the States. But there is no column or figures on this chart which reflect the fact that there are these offsetting savings to the States.”