Political Quotes

“I understand what my friend from Wyoming is trying to do. We appreciate his work on this issue. This is a subject matter that was covered previously by the Snowe-Nelson-DeWine-Lincoln amendment on which we reached consensus on the floor a few hours ago. That amendment was specifically designed to strike the proper balance between protecting employers on the one hand and making sure we also protected the rights of employees. So this is an issue that has already been covered, about which there has already been great discussion, work, and compromise across party lines, Democrats and Republicans, and about which we are soon to have a vote. It is an issue about which we already have consensus. We have widespread support for that consensus. The reason for that widespread support is we have protected employers while at the same time kept alive the rights of employees and patients. We have struck in a very creative way a solution to that problem. This specific amendment has at least two major problems. No. 1, what it does is take away the rights of employees, patients, and families, to hold anybody accountable if one of two things occurs. The problem with that concept is that it is in violation of the President's principle, which we have talked about at great length on the floor of the Senate, which is that employers be protected but that somebody be held accountable if the employee, the patient, is injured as a result of a medically reviewable decision.”