Political Quotes

“I thank the distinguished chair of the Health Subcommittee. Mr. Speaker, here we are at the very end of when the doc fix expires, March 31. That is next week. We have tried in a very responsible way for many months to try and resolve this issue, and I commend my friend Mr. Waxman and others for passing our bill out of committee last summer at 51-0. I think it was Speaker Boehner who said he didn't think we could honor Mother Teresa for sainthood with a vote like that. I commend my good friend Mr. Camp from Michigan and Sandy Levin, the gentleman from Michigan, who is on the floor now, as we worked together and worked with the Senate as well to actually lock in place a bill on literally the last day that Chairman Baucus was in the United States Senate in order to try and resolve this, and we knew all along that we were going to have to have a pay-for. Here in the House a couple weeks ago, we passed a bill, somewhat on partisan lines, I know--it was not 100 percent on either side--but we passed a 10-year fix with a pay-for. Now, I had a great ninth grade civics teacher, Mr. Denekas, who is no longer with us. He is with the Lord. I will tell you, as I sit down with my students as I did this week--a lot of them are here in town, my Close Up groups and others--and as I speak to my high schools and colleges, they know there is never such a thing, maybe, as a perfect bill.…”