Griffin: 'I'm Serious About Ending Budgetary Gimmicks'

Statement

Congressman Tim Griffin (AR-02) issued the following statement after House passage of the Fiscal Responsibility and Retirement Security Act (H.R. 1173), which repeals the wasteful Community Living Assistance Services and Support (CLASS) program:

"President Obama claimed that the CLASS program would generate savings of $80 billion over ten years to help pay for his expensive health care law. In reality, these projected savings were the product of a budgetary gimmick. As the Administration finally admitted last fall, the CLASS program was financially unsustainable. I co-sponsored H.R. 1173 and voted for it today because I'm serious about ending budgetary gimmicks and fully support the repeal of the President's flawed health care law."

The President's health care law created the CLASS program, which was intended to be a national, voluntary insurance program for long‐term care living assistance and related services. The Administration claimed the CLASS program would account for nearly 40 percent of the savings the health care law was supposed to generate. During debate of the health care bill, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) referred to the CLASS program as "a Ponzi scheme of the first order." In October 2011, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that the Administration was ending its effort to implement the program because it was not financially viable. H.R. 1173 would permanently eliminate the CLASS program.

Source