Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I am on the floor to speak to the debate that is happening now on reconciliation, specifically, the fact that we are here for the 16th time in the Senate debating the repeal of all or significant parts of the Affordable Care Act, and stack that on top of the 50 to 60 times this has been debated--the repeal of all or major parts of the Affordable Care Act--in the House of Representatives. As many of us have said over and over, we think the debate over repeal is over and that we should, A, accept the success of the Affordable Care Act and, B, to the extent that there need to be changes made, do it on a bipartisan basis--find the ways we can work together to try to perfect a law that is by and large working. The data only tells one story. I want to review it for a moment because if you hear many of my Republican colleagues talk, they act in the absence and in the denial of the overwhelming evidence that tells you the Affordable Care Act is working. There are 17 million Americans who have insurance today who didn't have it before the Affordable Care Act. They have gotten it either through these exchanges, these private health care exchanges with a tax credit from the Federal Government or they have gotten it through Medicaid expansion. We have reduced the number of people without health care insurance in this country by 30 percent in the few first few years of implementation. That is with many States doing everything they can to undermine the act.…”