We Can't Afford it

From the desk of 3rd District Georgia congressman Lynn Westmoreland

Georgia's seven Republican U.S. House members have written a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressing their concern about a proposed expansion of Medicaid under a government takeover of health care.

The letter, joined by Lynn, states that Georgia's state budget cannot bear the burden of huge new entitlement spending mandated by Washington:

“Georgia has estimated that the cost of the House-passed unfunded mandates, for just new enrollees, would cost a staggering $2.64 billion under the House version. … Georgia currently cannot afford the cost of expanding Medicaid under the House and Senate bills. Due to the crippled economy, Georgia is facing significant budget problems and has been forced to make cuts to current services including K-12 education, public assistance, corrections, transportation and others."

Lynn pointed out that the state is already facing tough choices on spending.

“Perhaps Speaker Pelosi, who believes a government program is the answer to every problem, can tell us which Georgia teachers she would like to fire, which state employees she’d like to lay off, how many prisoners we should release or how much we should jack up college tuition so that Georgia can find the money to pay for this Medicaid increase,” Lynn said. “We can’t print money for the state budget. We’re facing tough choices – and the choices are not between which expensive entitlement we want to expand.”

Lynn was my congressman for years, before the gerrymandering of Georgia congressional districts aimed at creating the illusions of egalitarian fairness.

Georgia's republican delegation is absolutely right, we can't print money and we cannot afford the further meddling of the socialists Pelosi and Reid and their scams to further burden the American people with socialist heresy.