Political Quotes

“Mr. President, at this hour, we still don't know what the House of Representatives is going to do. They are amending and changing and modifying the reform of one-sixth of America's economy under the cover of darkness, trying to secure the votes necessary to fulfill a political promise. We await their decision as to how much havoc they wreak. I wanted to come down to the floor today to address for a moment the exceptional process that is occurring right now, as we speak, in the House of Representatives and to talk about one of the reported changes they are considering before sending the product over to the Senate. Just to review for a minute, Speaker Ryan likes to talk about his approach to healthcare as a three-pronged approach. Well, the Congressional Budget Office, headed by a gentleman handpicked by the Republican House conference, agrees that it is a three-pronged approach; they just have a little bit different interpretation of those three prongs. First, they say higher costs--15 to 20 percent spikes in premiums for everybody right off the bat and then dramatically higher costs, especially for older people, sicker people, and poorer people. If you are young and if you are relatively affluent and healthy, you may make out a little bit better under this proposal, but if you are not in that category, you are going to pay a lot higher costs and get less care. This is the headline from the CBO report: 24 million people lose health coverage. That is catastrophic.…”