Health Care
Floor Speech
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Mrs. LUMMIS. I thank the gentleman for yielding and for holding this discussion about health care costs.
What we do know about the bill, and the gentleman's chart shows some of the problems with it, Medicare cuts are going to be bearing a huge brunt of the expense of this new mandate.
There are $350 billion worth of Federal tax hikes, but those that combined are not enough. The Senate Finance Committee's bill imposes a $33 billion unfunded Medicaid mandate on the States. Now, what that means, an unfunded mandate is when the Federal Government tells the States you will pay for part of this, and it will come out of your pocket.
Mr. CASSIDY. What we see on this previous slide is there is $81 billion, these are in billions, so there is $81 billion in savings. That's how much it cuts the Federal deficit. The $33 billion you speak of is from the Congressional Budget Office estimate, the independent arm of Congress. We would have to at least subtract $33 billion from that $81 billion if we are talking about total health care spending by a government entity. Fair statement?
Mrs. LUMMIS. Indeed. Furthermore, 33 States could see an over-30 percent increase in their Medicaid enrollment. Those kinds of increases, including my State of Wyoming, will hit States whose budgets are suffering now without these additional costs.
In my State of Wyoming, our Governor has asked his State agencies to propose budgets that are 10 percent lower than the last budget, and that includes cutting Medicaid options.
Mr. CASSIDY. That's 10 percent now without the imposition of the unfunded Medicaid mandate; is that correct?
Mrs. LUMMIS. The gentleman from Louisiana is correct. This is not just coming from States like mine in Wyoming. The Governor of Pennsylvania, the Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania, has said, I think it's an unfunded mandate. We just don't have the wherewithal to absorb that without some new revenue source. Now, that would be a new revenue source in Pennsylvania in addition to the new revenue sources that the Federal Government imposes.
Mr. CASSIDY. New revenue source means State tax.
Mrs. LUMMIS. It does indeed. The gentleman from Louisiana is once again correct. The Governor of Tennessee, also a Democrat, has said he fears Congress is about to bestow the mother of all unfunded mandates. Unfunded mandates are orders from Washington that States will spend money that they don't have.
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Mrs. LUMMIS. You know, one of the most exasperating things about this whole health care debate in the last several months that's been unfolding is that the bills we've seen from the Democratic Party, from the majority party, will make matters worse than the status quo. But we don't have, as a minority party, the opportunity to show people how we can make matters better than the status quo.
And I would yield to our leader this evening to discuss some of those 40 bills that members in the minority party have sponsored that would make matters better.
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