Political Quotes

“I thank Chairman Camp for yielding time to me. Mr. Speaker, before I came to Congress, I was a practicing cardiovascular surgeon with many years of experience, and it was not unusual to get called out in the middle of the night or on a holiday to an emergency. Just like doctors all over this country, we're there 24/7 to deal with problems. Now, I remember distinctly one night--Christmas Eve, in fact. I was getting ready to sit down for dinner with my family when I got called to see an 85-year-old Cajun gentleman, with a very large family, who had a ruptured aneurysm, and he was in shock. I spent the entire night operating on this man. We saved his life, long story short. We have a duty, an obligation, to our patients. By God, to put physicians in a position of seeing a 27, 28 percent cut in reimbursement is just untenable. Why? It's not because of the physicians. It's because of patients who are going to lose access. Medicare beneficiaries, seniors, those with disabilities will lose access to care during a situation in which we're already seeing eroding access. We have an obligation to act because the consequences are not good with regard to all of these provisions we're trying to extend. This House passed a bill last week. It was a very responsible bill with good reforms, and it gave a 2-year stability period for physicians and for those patients who desperately need this care. And what did the Senate do? The Senate capitulated. The Senate caved.…”