Mike Enzi: “I think we are elected to the Senate by the people in our States, but our obligation is to the people of the United…”

“I think we are elected to the Senate by the people in our States, but our obligation is to the people of the United States. And were my State grossly overpaid on an average, and I was still going to be grossly overpaid afterwards, and my State couldn't use the money each year that it received, I think I would have a terrible time trying to object to this bill. I hope we do not play that kind of numbers game, we don't get that parochial on bills around here. We must have run about 300 different programs trying to come up with something as equitable as possible. We even put in the 3 years hold harmless for people who were being grossly overpaid. I think we have come up with as reasonable a bill as we possibly can. We need to get it passed, and we need to get it passed by September 30 so the penalties don't kick into effect for those States that have a big penalty coming up and that are desperately in need of making sure they get enough money to take care of the cases they presently have.”