Pete Stark: “This bill is like a bad April Fool's Day joke. You know there is a purse that is laying out on the street with a string…”

“This bill is like a bad April Fool's Day joke. You know there is a purse that is laying out on the street with a string on it. And the person comes along and pulls the string and the people keep reaching for it and they cannot quite get it. The Republican bill has no guaranteed premium in it. It has no guaranteed costs reduction in it. I do not care what figures they throw around out here, 25 percent to 39 percent reduction, it is not in the bill. There is no assurance of two choices. One Republican Member let the cat out of the bag, it may be enough just to introduce a bill, but if we don't even have a bill, we are open to charges that we didn't do anything. That tells us where they really are, and it also tells us what their consultant told them. He said, it is more important to communicate that you have a plan as it is to communicate what is in the plan. The reason this was done at night, the reason they will not allow us to make an alternative, the reason they do not want any open debate is because they do not want to communicate to anybody until they put out those commercials in the election.”