Political Quotes

“I spent many years of my life in Navy airplanes. I am a retired Navy captain. Senator Alexander said something the other day about the fact that a pilot doesn't start up and take off in an airplane unless he or she knows what the destination is. I thought that was pretty interesting. It is true. With respect to healthcare in this country, we have actually known for a long time what the destination is, and the destination is a combination of three things: better healthcare coverage for less money--and cover everyone. That is really our destination. It is not just the destination this year in this Congress; it has been our destination really since Harry Truman was President. For some years, we have argued and disagreed about how to get to the destination. I don't think anyone would argue about the need to get to that destination, but the question is how. In 1993--I mentioned yesterday in my remarks on the floor--Hillary Clinton was a brandnew First Lady and worked on something called HillaryCare. In response, Republicans came up with something that really has its roots and origin from the Heritage Foundation. They had more of a market-based approach, which called for every State having their own exchange, where people without coverage could get healthcare coverage. There would be a sliding scale tax credit that would help buy down the cost of premiums for folks who got the coverage in their State's exchange. Low-income people got a bigger tax credit.…”