Thursday we marked up 269 pages of legislation containing $170 billion in spending. Will this package of legislation waste money? Will it abuse people? Will it raise a dust cloud of unintended and unhappy consequences? Will we be embarrassed by some of what we approve here today? The answer is yes, yes, yes and yes. But Speaker Pelosi gave us no time for hearings — not even one — and a single day to write a bill. We started at 10 a.m. and ended at 10 p.m. (Click here to watch my speech to the committee)
In talking about proposals to increase federal payments to state and local governments, Congressional Budget Office Director Dr. Peter Orszag told us last year that “if federal assistance merely provides fiscal relief by paying for spending that would have occurred anyway and does not affect state and local revenues in the short run, then it provides no economic stimulus.” Clearly, the Democrats’ proposal to simply shift more of the costs of the Medicaid program onto the federal government is “paying for spending that would have occurred anyway.” Adding billions of dollars to the deficit and swelling the number of people addicted to welfare is hazardous to the health of the American economy and toxic to the dignity and prospects of poor people.
It seems the new Congress is bringing us back to the days of throwing money at problems. It may not be the best solution, but it sure is the easiest. So we’re going to give more money to states but not ask for improvements in the administration of their program, despite all the known problems. According to investigative reporting by The New York Times, more than 10 percent of the Medicaid spending in the state of New York goes to pay claims that are simply criminally fraudulent and an additional 30 percent of the state’s Medicaid spending is going to pay for items and services that are considered to be “questionable.” While the Democrats in Congress want to add more than $40 billion to our federal deficit in order to increase the federal Medicaid reimbursement rate by 8 percent, states might be far better off if Congress would simply help them address the 40 percent of their Medicaid expenditures that are either criminally fraudulent or simply unnecessary.
When Virginia Gov. Mark Warner was in charge of the National Governors Association, he said that the unsustainable growth of Medicaid spending has every state and the federal government “on the road to a meltdown.” His solution was to update the severely outdated rules and regulations and allow state governments the flexibility to run their programs with a hint of innovation, efficiency and accountability. Today’s proposal to simply increase the federal taxpayers’ share of Medicaid spending does nothing but accelerate the car on the road to meltdown.
The American people don’t seem to be asking us for more welfare, but they expect more freedom. They also want more innovation, more efficiency, and more accountability in welfare programs like Medicaid. The public hates waste in their government, but the Democratic leadership wants us to spend now and reform later.
This was a blog that Congressman Barton wrote for the Washginton, DC newpaper - The Hill. It originally appeared online on Friday, January 23rd.
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