:D

SEN. AL FRANKEN (D-MN): Make no mistake, the Older Americans Act saves money. It allows seniors to stay in their homes, who wouldn’t otherwise be able to stay in their homes.

SEN RAND PAUL (R-KY): It’s curious that only in Washington DC can you spend two billion dollars and claim that you’re saving money. Here’s a thought. Perhaps the two billion dollars we spend on OAA, if we subsumed that into another program and didn’t spend it, that might be saving money.

[…]

SEN BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): Senator Paul has suggested that only in Washington can people believe that spending money actually saves money. And I think that is the kind of philosophy which results in us spending almost twice as much per person on health care as any other country on earth, because we have millions and millions of Americans who can’t get to a doctor on time. Some of them die, some of them become very, very ill. They end up in the emergency room, they end up in the hospital at great cost rather than making sure they have access to a doctor. Maybe it’s the same reason why we have more people in jail than any other country on earth including China, tied to the fact that we have the highest poverty rate among children than any other major country on earth.

So the point is, and I think we have a bit of a difference here, I believe — I think Senator Franken has spoken to the fact — that prevention, keeping people healthy, taking care of their needs at home does actually save money. And that if you deny those resources, if you leave a senior citizen home today, alone, isolated, confused about medicine, not getting the nutrition they need, you know what happens to that person? That person collapses, that person ends up in an emergency room, that person ends up in a nursing home, at much greater cost to the system.

SEN AL FRANKEN (D-MN): Here’s my very precise question. Does the Older Americans Act save taxpayers money by allowing seniors to stay in their homes as opposed to going to nursing homes?

MS. GREENLEE: Yes, Senator.

SEN AL FRANKEN (D-MN): Thank you.

SEN BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): Senator Paul wanted to make another comment.

SEN RAND PAUL (R-KY): I appreciate the great and I think very collegial discussion, and we do have different opinions. Some of us believe more in the ability of government to cure problems and some of us believe more in the ability of private charity to cure these problems. I guess what I still find curious though is that if we are saving money with the two billion dollars we spend, perhaps we should give you 20 billion. Is there a limit? Where would we get to, how much money should we give you to save money? So if we spend federal money to save money where is the limit? I think we could reach a point of absurdity. Thank you.

SEN AL FRANKEN (D-MN): I think you just did.

- Awesomely hilarious transcript from a Senate hearing on the Older Americans Act.