Political Quotes

“My colleague from New Mexico obviously got a hold of him and straightened him out. I appreciate that. But come on, what else do you rely on, when you get up on a national news program and you say, ``I'll tell you how I'd do it. This is how I'd do it''? Immediately the phones were ringing off the hook. What a foolish thing to say. So immediately they start to backtrack. But if you wonder why the American people get suspicious about what the priorities are, it is statements like that. What are your real intentions? So when we hear statements about Medicare, and we say, ``We will let it wither on the vine,'' or, ``I'm proud I voted against it 35 years ago,'' then everyone gets upset. You can understand the average person in this country gets a little nervous when they hear that. If they are relying on Medicare, relying on Medicaid, in order to meet basic health care costs, they are wondering, which side do we chose here? Who is going to watch out for me? They have one person saying, ``Look, I think it ought to die or we get rid of it. I never thought it worked very well.'' And others say, ``Look, we're going to have to make it work better and make tough decisions so it's there.'' Then you begin to understand the suspicions, the worries, the fears, the insecurities that many people feel. This is not an abstraction to them. We have a good health care program as Members of the U.S. Congress. Thank God for it. We have a good health care program.”