Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I come to the floor to express my opposition to the nomination of Alex Azar to be the next Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Let me admit to the Chamber that this, for me, was certainly not as easy a call as was the first vote on the nomination for this position when Congressman Price was up for the job. I want to talk about the reasons for my vote in opposition, but I first want to begin by giving the nominee some credit for, I think, a very important series of exchanges that he had before the committee. One of the biggest potential disasters that would have been visited upon this country by 4 years of Secretary Price would have been the reversal of 8 years of transformation in the way that we pay for healthcare through Medicare, primarily. In 2011, Medicare made almost no payments to providers through what we call alternative payment models. I know this sounds a little weedy, but this is really the way that we drive down healthcare costs in this country, and it is something that Republicans and Democrats should be focused on together.…”