Political Quotes

“Mr. President, while our colleagues from Tennessee and Missouri are here, I just want to tell you that along with Lisa Murkowski and Tom Harkin, I worked on this issue when we were debating the Affordable Care Act. As I recall, a provision on menu labeling was included not just in the Finance Committee version of the bill but also in the version that came through the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. That was adopted out when we did the Affordable Care Act--I want to say around 2009, 2010, 2011--and it has taken a long time for the FDA and other regulatory bodies to figure out how to actually implement our legislation. The reason we adopted legislation is that we spend a whole lot more money on healthcare in this country than many other developed nations. In the United States, we spend 18 percent of our GDP--18 percent. In Japan, they spend 8 percent of their GDP. If you look at people in Japan--I have lived there and worked there as a naval flight officer. When you look at the people in Japan, compared to us, they are less obese. We have a huge problem. One out of three people in our country are overweight or obese, including kids.…”