Lloyd Bentsen: “I voted for this budget agreement and a number of Members from 13 of the 50 States voted for this budget agreement, but…”

“I voted for this budget agreement and a number of Members from 13 of the 50 States voted for this budget agreement, but I do not think they voted to agree that their States would be cut disproportionately under the Medicaid program, under the Disproportionate Share Program that is in this bill. This bill before us today, the spending bill, will treat States like Texas, Colorado, Connecticut, Louisiana, Tennessee, that the gentleman just spoke from, and several others twice as badly as all the other States and 100 times as badly as some of the other States. This bill says that those 13 States will have their disproportionate share of funding cut by 40 percent by the year 2002. That is not the budget agreement that this Member voted for and I do not see how any Member from any of those States could vote for this rule. Now, if we defeat the previous question, included in the amendments that the gentleman from Massachusetts intends to offer is to correct this. We are not talking about dollars, we are talking about equity among the States.”