Political Quotes

“I believe we can have a rational debate about this bill. The Senator from Texas said it is hard to be rational when you debate health care, but I think Senator Kassebaum is a very rational woman, and I think Senator Kennedy is a very rational Senator. I think the two of them have come together. They have brought us a bill that I am very proud to support. In 1993, I authored a bill that would make it unlawful to cancel or reduce an employee's benefits because the employee suffered from a particular disease or illness, and it made it unlawful for employers to impose different benefit caps for different diseases. What happened, as we all know, is we got off track with health care reform. It was derailed, and it took us some time to mend some frayed feelings, and now we are back here in a bipartisan effort. We are on the brink of a bipartisan success to bring some fairness to this world of health insurance coverage. Clearly, millions and millions of Americans are going to be better off as a result of the Kassebaum-Kennedy bill, because we know we will have portability now of health care coverage. Many Americans who are locked in jobs because they fear losing their insurance--and I know so many myself who are in that situation--will no longer be fearful of that. We think that will impact 25 million Americans.”