Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding to me. Mr. Speaker, today, Congress will vote on yet another patch to the Medicare physician payment system. But it should not be that way. We need a permanent fix. Earlier this year, we seemed on track for a permanent fix. We reached a bipartisan agreement on what a permanent fix should look like. That bill was introduced by both Republican and Democratic leaders: Mr. Camp, Mr. Upton, Dr. Burgess, Mr. Levin, myself, Mr. Pallone, Senator Baucus, and Senator Hatch. That bipartisan bill is broadly supported by physician and patient groups. That bill would not cut providers or beneficiaries to fix payments to physicians, and that bill would fix this problem permanently. The bill before us today is not a permanent fix. It is a short-term fix. Two weeks ago, Republicans brought up a bipartisan bill with a poison pill offset for the permanent fix that undermines reform for low-income families. That was 2 weeks wasted, where we could have worked towards a permanent solution. I have heard my Republican colleagues say it is too hard to find offsets or we don't have enough time to come up with the offsets to get a permanent bill done. Let's not forget, Republicans do not insist on offsets for things they really care about. Trillions in tax cuts for the wealthy? No need to offset that. A Medicare prescription drug bill that costs far more than this permanent fix to the SGR? No need to offset that.…”