U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-9) today voted to repeal the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act, an unfunded entitlement included in President Obama’s health-care law that would, if formally implemented, explode the nation’s already growing budget deficit.

“The administration has admitted that the savings projected from the CLASS Act would never materialize and would actually increase health-care spending in the long run. These kinds of budgetary gimmicks are simply unacceptable,” Luetkemeyer said. “The administration could not even get this one program right, and the bungling of the CLASS Act confirms our suspicions that they will never be able to effectively implement the $2.6 trillion health-care law. This is yet another reason why we should repeal the president’s entire misguided health-care law, and repealing the CLASS Act is a good step forward in that effort.”

Luetkemeyer is a cosponsor of the Fiscal Responsibility and Retirement Security Act of 2011, passed today by the House of Representatives.

An amendment in the health-care law required the Department of Health and Human Services to demonstrate that the CLASS Act is solvent for 75 years before implementing the program. After the administration admitted there would be no savings, the Department of Health and Human Services closed the CLASS Act office and ceased all CLASS-related implementation activities.

In a congressional hearing on the CLASS Act, HHS Assistant Secretary Greenlee testified that HHS had spent $5 million in taxpayer dollars in 2010 and 2011 in attempting to implement the program.  Experts have been predicting the program’s failure for years and, yet, the administration persisted in moving forward with an $86 billion program that most agreed was unworkable and not financially solvent.

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