Political Quotes

“I now yield 45 seconds to a very senior member of our committee, Mr. McDermott of Washington. (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.) Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, there are times in history that action is demanded. In 1935, we needed Social Security and unemployment insurance. The Democrats answered. In 1965, we needed health care for senior citizens. The Democrats answered. In 2010, the country needs health care reform, and the Democrats will answer tonight. It was never in doubt. Business wanted a change, the medical profession wanted a change, and labor wanted a change. And the Republicans brought an economic collapse to make it clear to everybody that we all are in danger if we don't change the health care system in this country. For me and many of my colleagues, passing a national health care reform bill is the culmination of a long process. In the late 1950s and early '60s, when I was going to medical school in Chicago, Canada's Tommy Douglas was beginning a national health care plan in the province of Saskatchewan. As I came to the end of my medical training, doctors began to strike in Canada because they didn't want to practice medicine under any system that was not totally free enterprise in nature. But as a new physician at the time, it seemed to me that the benefits of extending health coverage to everyone in Canada far outweighed the benefits of a free enterprise system.…”