An elaborate charade. Trickery. If the American people think we are engaged in trickery, why not engage in trickery.

I think the health insurance industry in America has cut a fat hog. I think, quite frankly, they have failed the American people.

It's a third-party pay system that exists right now. It does not work when your employer controls your health care plan. It will not work when the government controls your health care plan. It makes all the sense in the world to let people…

That's what we call defensive medicine, which means a doctor defending himself in advance or practicing defensive medicine because he is afraid he's going to get sued and has to be able to respond to that suit.

I believe most people across America know that we have been debating health care reform for almost a year now--actually, quite frankly, a little over a year now. And I think most Americans agree with me and probably with almost everybody…

Your idea is we should empower patients to be able to pick their plans and to be able to pick their doctors, which we could do by, number one, letting those Americans who can afford it but who don't get employer-provided care buy health…

I think you make a fascinating point. Clearly, the American people get it. They believe the health care system delivers quality care, but a lot of people are left out. Indeed, many of my friends in Arizona point out, way too many people…

As I understand it, we first talked about a Republican idea of saying let everyone buy health insurance tax free. Republican idea. That would take care of the little guy who's paying an outrageous after-tax price for his health care. One…

In the system today, your employer picks the plan, and the plan picks the doctor. You don't get to pick the plan, and you don't get to pick the doctor. If the plan or the doctor abuses you, you can't fire them.

A health care decision ought to be made by the patient, the family, and the physician.

I presume that makes those Senators who got these deals into the bill that aren't going to be stripped very happy.

Wait, wait. So you are suggesting that they find the bill a bad idea, so they had to find a special deal, or a sweetener, to get their vote? Shocking.

You just used the number of 12 million. Two professors at the University of Minnesota, which is not exactly a conservative university, said, if you just enacted cross-State-line purchases, then that would enable 12 million additional…

As the Governor of a State that is bleeding red ink, I am imploring our congressional delegation to vote against your proposal to expand government health care and to help vote it down. The reason for my position is simple: we cannot…

But wait. But wait. Without a 2,700-page bill, you couldn't hide the Cornhusker Kickback. You couldn't hide the Gator Aid. You couldn't hide the Louisiana Purchase. I haven't even gotten to all of them yet, but go ahead.

I think they have failed to provide economic coverage to the American people. I think they have failed to hold down costs. I think that the health insurance industry is largely to blame for a system that wastes a ton of money; yet it's the…

Pretty stunning when you discover that, for example, lots of people can't find a doctor that will take them as a Medicare patient. And even more so, unfortunately America's poorest, who do get Medicaid, a program that some would advocate…

I think it is important to understand the burden that this legislation does place on our economy at a time when we ought to be focused on jobs. I know when I go home on the weekends, I encounter many of my constituents. I get to see them…

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…

If that bill solved that one thing, if it just said to the average American who doesn't get employer-provided insurance, we will let you buy it tax free, like the people who get it from their employer, we would solve a huge amount of the…

There is a frustration in America right now. And I think that frustration stems from the fact that the president is pursuing policies quite different from what he campaigned on.

The Republican alternative is to give every single American family, every single one, the ability to buy a health care plan of their choice, not just the rich, not just the poor, but even those who don't respond to a government request…

I think we are under tremendous, quite frankly, from the White House and from the American people, because Secretary Paulson created a fear -- kind of an atmosphere of fear in America.

I think we are under tremendous pressure quite frankly from the White House and from the American people because Secretary Paulson created a fear or kind of an atmosphere of fear in America.

I am going to go through a description that I think will help people understand what we mean by earmarks and by the kind of a simple earmark that you might think about, and then the more complex, the more subterfuge, the more hidden ones…