[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 4782]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        KANSAS ECONOMY NOT GOOD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Moran) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MORAN of Kansas. The news on the Kansas economy is not good. Our 
State's unemployment rate rose to 7.1 percent in January. In February, 
State revenues fell a whopping $71 million more than expected. We need 
$500 million to balance our budget in Kansas in 2010 and 2011. These 
million-dollar numbers don't mean much up here in Washington, where 
this Congress continues to rack up trillions in debt obligations as if 
there are no consequences and money magically appears out of thin air. 
However, the effects of this thoughtlessness are indeed terrible.
  In Kansas, the overwhelming majority of our State budget is comprised 
of health care and education responsibilities. Many of these 
responsibilities have been handed down to the States from the Federal 
Government. Our education system is teetering on the breaking point, 
with schools facing closure or consolidation and with educators and 
staff being laid off.

                              {time}  1730

  Services for our State's developmentally disabled and support for our 
sick and elderly have been cut. Folks in Kansas are hurting. I see 
their pain when I return from Washington, D.C., every weekend home to 
Kansas.
  In our State, we think differently than they do up here in 
Washington. We don't spend what we can't afford, we don't sacrifice 
long-term prosperity for short-term gratification, we don't sidestep 
our personal responsibility, and we don't tell other people how to live 
their lives. It pains me to reflect on all of the bad ideas of this 
Congress: the stimulus packages, the bailouts, Cash for Clunkers, cap-
and-trade, because I know these mistakes are digging us deeper and 
deeper into a hole. I was one of only 17 members out of 435 to oppose 
all of these measures, not because I want to obstruct legislation, but 
because our personal freedom and economic liberty are restricted each 
time we create obligations we can't pay for.
  Kansas, like many States, is constitutionally prohibited from running 
in the red. When Congress irresponsibly shoulders States with mandates 
and expenses, it's the States and their taxpayers that suffer because 
they can't evade fiscal responsibilities like the Federal Government 
often does.
  Last Sunday is the latest and most glaring example of this elitist, 
Washington-knows-best attitude. On Sunday night, this Congress passed 
the Obama-Pelosi health care plan along a narrow partisan line against 
my staunch opposition. This plan, which became law on Monday, is the 
wrong direction for America for a long, long list of reasons. With our 
national debt already at more than $12 trillion, this new plan will 
drive us further in the hole. The total cost of this health care plan 
is more than $1.33 trillion. While this estimate is staggering, it 
doesn't take into account the almost $400 billion needed to fix the 
Medicare payments to physicians--payments that Kansas doctors must 
receive to avoid a 21-percent cut and keep their doors open.
  Furthermore, this cost estimate doesn't account for the $20 billion 
that States must expend to implement the Medicaid expansion contained 
in the health care plan. Kansans can't afford these billions of new 
costs, but they are required to carry out so-called reforms. Since 
Kansans can't afford the requirements of this unfunded mandate, we may 
be forced to take deeper cuts out of our education system and close and 
consolidate more schools, dimming the light of opportunity for many 
Kansans.
  Washington needs to open its eyes to this gathering storm. Kansans 
understand that we can't create an entirely new government entitlement 
program without exploding spending and increasing our national debt. 
Our history doesn't support the President's list of campaign-style, 
promise-the-world pledges. This bill will not only seriously injure our 
health care system, but its tax increases, mandates, and increased 
bureaucracy will ruin the Kansas economy and jobs.
  I will continue the battle in Washington against this attitude that 
we know best. It threatens the future prosperity of our future State 
and Nation. On Monday, I introduced H.R. 4901, legislation to repeal 
the health care plan we just passed. Only with a total repeal of this 
budget-busting mistake can we then institute true reforms that will 
lower health care costs for families and businesses. My legislation 
will undo what has been done and replace it with something much more 
based upon common sense and the will of the American people. Only then 
can we have a health care system that is truly improved. We and other 
States demand this change for purposes of making sure that prosperity 
returns to our State.
  And Madam Speaker, that's just the way it should be.

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