WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman of the Senate Budget Committee is voicing concerns about President Barack Obama's increased spending on health care, calling it an already "bloated system."
Sen. Kent Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat, also said he worries that Obama's policy proposals do little to lower deficits in the second half of the budget's 10-year projections.
Conrad on Thursday addressed Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who was testifying in defense of the administration's budget policies. The Obama budget would increase spending on health care by more than $600 billion over 10 years.
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What most Americans [and the citizens of North Dakota] clearly don't know about 'Federal spending' is that the state of North Dakota is one of those "bloated," fat-cat states that takes more Federal money than it sends to Washington. And, it is in the top 10 list of pig trough states. North Dakota gets back $1.65 for each dollar it sends to DC. That's a 165% return on the dollar; not bad, eh? North Dakota ranks #6 in Federal welfare.
Conrad hopes that this dirty little secret doesn't get told within the state so that his re-election chances do not diminish. Right now, his constituents think that he is a fiscal conservative- railing against 'government spending' when, in reality, his state is nothing more than a welfare state.
