Political Quotes

“if one travels across the States of Maryland or Illinois and stops at any business, large or small, and has a conversation about how the business is going, it won't take long for the conversation to move to the issue of health care. Virtually every business I have visited in Illinois in the last 10 or 20 years--or labor union, for that matter--wants to talk about health care. There is a growing concern that the cost of health insurance keeps going up and coverage keeps going down. It is affecting our competitive edge in America. It compromises the security many families want to feel when it comes to medical care necessary for their loved ones. Yesterday, I was visited by a spokesman for the Business Roundtable. They are infrequent visitors in the offices of Democratic Senators, but it was a good, positive meeting. We talked about a number of issues and started with their concern and our growing concern about the limited availability of health care and its cost. We now have some 47 million uninsured Americans and many who are underinsured and more and more who are vulnerable each year. There was a disturbing story in this morning's Washington Post about a young mother who lost her son because she had no way to pay for the extraction of a tooth. The child's tooth became decayed, abscessed, and led to a terrible condition which ultimately cost him his life. So for an $80 tooth extraction, this little boy gave up his life.”