This was a week of passionate debate both on the Senate floor and in committee hearings on the need to reform our nation's K-12 education system and the future of No Child Left Behind. On Wednesday and Thursday, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee began its markup of the Education Reform Bill. As we continue work on the bill, I am committed to giving states and local communities the flexibility essential to meeting the unique and varied educational needs of their students.
The federal government should not dictate how funds for individual school districts are allocated. Those most familiar with the needs of a particular community should determine how to design programs and initiatives to provide an education that is in the best interest of their students. Providing our students with a quality education is essential to their future success and to the continued competitiveness of our nation in the global economy, so we must ensure that big government is not standing in the way of educational reform.
Last Friday, the American taxpayer won a significant victory when the Administration finally acknowledged that the CLASS Act, a long-term care entitlement program included in the new health care law, could not be financially sustainable and decided to shelve implementation of the program.
While I am pleased that the Administration has finally started to acknowledge the lack of sustainability of the new law, relying on the Administration to stop implementation of the unsustainable CLASS Act is not sufficient. We must go further and replace Obamacare with reform that actually lowers the cost of health care and gives businesses the confidence that they need to keep the employees they have and hopefully hire new ones. Read more about this on my blog.
On Monday, I joined a bipartisan group of Senators in introducing the Strengthening Medicare and Repaying Taxpayers (SMART) Act to make the Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) Program more efficient and cost effective to taxpayers. The lack of transparency and inefficiencies with the current Medicare Secondary Payer process illustrates how Washington's red-tape and regulatory uncertainty can adversely impact seniors and businesses.
In order to get our economy back on track, we simply cannot afford to continue to waste taxpayer dollars by perpetuating the inefficiencies of the current Medicare Secondary Payer system. We can and must do a better job for the seniors and stakeholders depending upon this program to be as transparent and efficient as possible. Read more about the SMART Act in this press release.
On Saturday, October 22, I will deliver the Republican response to President Obama's weekly address to the nation. Unlike the President, I do not believe that another round of the same failed stimulus that we tried in 2009 will do anything to foster job growth or improve our current economic situation. Senate Republicans have a proposal that will simplify our tax code, decrease over-regulation at the federal level, reduce federal spending, and work towards a balanced budget. I will post the transcript and video of this address as soon as it becomes available, so stay tuned to my website and Facebook page.
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