Excuse me just for a moment. I noticed in our gallery two gentlemen, soldiers, who are here, both of them wounded in the wars. This is part of a group that comes in here every day when we're in session to watch what we're doing. They just…

Thank you very much for joining us, and thank you for bringing that perspective. Twice, now, our Republican colleagues have voted for a full repeal of the law, and you very correctly and, I think, almost totally pointed out the things that…

Let me take that a little further. I wish I'd had this law when I was insurance commissioner because I used to see this all the time when I'd get complaints. We had a consumer hotline, and we would take several thousand calls a week. We'd…

Before we start on our dialogue--I expect to have my colleague from New York here in a few minutes--I want to thank my colleague from North Carolina, Walter Jones. Mr. Jones, every day and every week you speak on this floor about the…

Mr. Tonko, before we carry further with the American Jobs Act, I know that the two veterans who were here in the gallery were headed out the door when I recognized them, I saw them leave and I wanted to thank them for their service. I…

You are absolutely correct. We really need to get to jobs. I notice some of our Republican colleagues are here. They'll be taking the next hour, and I suspect they are going to pick up something that was said over and over again over the…

Let me just take up the Patient's Bill of Rights very, very quickly. I was the insurance commissioner in California for 8 years. The insurance industry puts people behind profits. Profits before people. And they're concerned about making…

Our colleague, Marcy Kaptur, reminded me of a personal story, personal things. My sister-in-law was a juvenile diabetic, and I think of what would her circumstances be if she had had this law when she was alive. The last 20 years of her…

Mr. Tonko, thank you so very much. And thank you for beginning this discussion by going back into the history of the United States back to the development of Social Security and the extraordinary benefit that that has brought to not only…

I thank you, and I suspect we're going to hear once again this is a government takeover. That's not true. It's not true at all. This is built upon the private delivery system that we presently have. Talk about the government designing or…

I thank the Members of this House for what is an extraordinary debate--a debate of which there is a lot of false information. I was the insurance commissioner in California, and I can talk about these insurance issues forever. But what I…

Let me just take up some of those numbers because they're very, very exciting. Thirteen million Americans will receive $1.1 billion in rebates because the insurance companies have overcharged them. That didn't happen before this bill. I…