Political Quotes

“Mr. President, last night, I met the mayor of Kankakee, IL. She told me about a problem she has. Kankakee has 28,000 residents. The economy has hurt them. They have lost sales tax revenues. They do not have the income they had just last year. Their annual budget is $20 million for the city of Kankakee. That is for all the services they provide. Ten percent of that budget--$2 million--goes for the health insurance of the workers in that town; about 200 of them--10 percent, $2 million. So they went to their insurance company and said: What will the insurance cost us this year? The health insurance company said: Your rates are going up 83 percent--83 percent. What had cost them $2 million last year will cost them almost $4 million this year. When I listened to the speech from the minority leader, the Republican leader, who says: Start over, go slow, baby steps, we do not want to do anything that is big or addresses this problem in any kind of comprehensive way, I think to myself: Does he understand the reality of what businesses, families, small towns, and large cities are facing across America? The Kankakee example is not unique. Just a couple weeks ago, in California, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield announced a 39-percent increase in health insurance premiums next year. If you look at what the average family paid for health insurance 10 years ago, it was about $6,000 a year--$500 a month. It is a lot of money.…”