Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I thank my friend from Montana, the chairman of the Finance Committee. I thank him for all of his great leadership, and also Senator Dodd, who just spoke. If I might just add a little historical footnote. Senator Baucus, chairman of the Finance Committee; Senator Dodd, who led the effort through the HELP Committee; myself, as now chairman of the HELP Committee; Chairman Miller on the House side, chairman of the Education and Labor Committee; and Chairman Waxman, the chairman of the House Commerce Committee--all of whom had big parts of the whole health care bill to develop--a historical footnote: We were all sworn in on the same day in January of 1975. It was a great class, and our classmates, as history would have it, survived to be able to put together this great health care bill. I again want to thank my longtime friend and colleague from Montana, Senator Baucus, for his extreme patience and his endurance in getting us to this point. Mr. President, we are in the midst of a historic week in this Nation's Capital. Health care reform is no longer a bill; it is the law of the land. It has been signed. Just as the history books remember 1935 as the year FDR signed Social Security into law, and 1965 as the year when Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare into law, they will now remember the year 2010 as the year President Barack Obama signed comprehensive health reform into law. Each of these three bills marked a giant step forward for the American people.…”