Political Quotes

“It is clear that tort reform should be a part of this legislation, but of course it is not. I have tried to outline here, I told you that I had many, many kinds of special deals, backroom deals, behind the scenes deals--``change you can believe in'' if you will--that I wanted to go through during this hour. I think we've been through five of them so far. You just mentioned Blue Cross Blue Shield. It turns out that Blue Cross Blue Shield does pretty well in this legislation because section 10905, if you want to look at it, of the Senate bill, the bill we will vote on here on the floor next week or the week after, without changing a comma has a special deal in it that exempts Blue Cross Blue Shield, but only Blue Cross Blue Shield of two States. It turns out it exempts Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan from having to pay a particular fee that will be imposed on all other insurance companies. Interestingly, Senator Ben Nelson represents Nebraska; Senator Debbie Stabenow represents Michigan. And, again, the source of this story, another news story, Boston Globe, December 22, 2009, title of the article, ``Concessions Lawmakers Won in the Health Care Bill.'' These Senators won a lot of concessions. Blue Cross Blue Shield of, I guess, Nebraska and Michigan are happy. Let's talk about the next one.…”