Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I just listened to the Senator from Arizona, who is my friend and whom I respect. I cannot remember how many pages were in the McCain-Feingold bill. I voted for it. I believed in it. I did not count the pages. I thought he was on the right track to change campaign financing in America. It was a bipartisan bill, and I supported it. Has that now become the measure in the Senate--we will count the pages, and if it goes over 1,000 pages, we are not going to pass the bill? I hope not because this bill, the underlying bill on health care reform, to make it more affordable and more accountable, took on one of the major industries in America, where the cost of health insurance has gone up 10, 15, 20 percent a year. We know the health insurance industry and the companies behind it are not going to go down without a fight. They are going to hire the lawyers and the lobbyists--and they did--to fight the passage of the bill and to fight its implementation in court and everyplace you turn because what is at stake is their money, their profit. What is at stake is the way they do business, and they know it. So when this administration writes the rules and regulations to make sure that when we are challenged in court, this is going to stand up under the law, it is the reasonable thing to do, and I think even the Senator from Arizona would acknowledge it.…”