Pete Stark: “I am pleased to be here tonight to explain the goals of the President's plan. What is America about? It is about being a…”

“I am pleased to be here tonight to explain the goals of the President's plan. What is America about? It is about being a family and taking care of each other in troubled times. Our goals are: permanent health insurance for everyone, affordable, quality, and individual choice. Our plan builds on our country's history. We have social security, and it is the time, gentlemen, for health security. It builds on the Old and New Testaments. We are called upon to help the sick. On the day of judgment we will be judged for our service to the sick. I ask any of you who contest the question: Who in our Nation would you leave uninsured, afraid, and unable to seek care in their hour of sickness? Who, might I ask, gentlemen, in our Nation would you deny the same quality and choice and level of care that you yourselves as Members of Congress enjoy today? And since the big insurance companies and drug companies and for-profit hospitals have brought us to this present dismal state, why, why would you question the need for the Federal Government to demand fairness and price restraint so that health care can be affordable to every American? I do not have to defend the question. The Republican Members must defend caring so little about their fellow citizens that none of their proposals and none of their bills provide universal coverage, choice, or affordability.”