Political Quotes

“Thank you very much. I am honored that the Senator from Oklahoma would join me as a cosponsor. In speaking to this amendment, this morning's Washington Post had a front-page story that should startle and trouble all of us. It is a story about the status of emergency rooms in hospitals across America. The organization that represents the emergency rooms and their physicians across America has issued a troubling report which suggests that many of those emergency rooms are not really adequately staffed or prepared to deal with emergencies. Too often, the men and women who are brought there in terrible medical situations can't find the help they need. As a result, they are shipped off to other hospitals or they wait sometimes up to 2 days before they are admitted to a bed in the regular hospital. It is a serious problem. You might ask: What does that have to do with the Department of Defense authorization bill? Part of the problem facing the emergency rooms is also facing hospitals and clinics across America, and the problem is this: We don't have enough health care professionals; in particular, we don't have enough nurses in America. We know this is a fact. Just last week, an administrator of a major hospital in Chicago came to see me. She is a wonderful woman. She is a Catholic nun who runs a hospital in one of the toughest parts of Chicago--Inglewood--and she has kept that hospital open. I don't know how she has done it. It has been nothing short of a miracle.…”