Richard Gephardt

Mr. Gingrich, you mentioned in your opening statement your daughter, who had to wait a year to get health insurance, and that is precisely the kind of problem that we think the Clinton plan solves. The plan you support, the Republican…

Let me say again, Mr. Gingrich, something is better than nothing. What you are offering the American people is nothing. You do not have a described benefit. You are buying pig in a poke if you buy the Republican plan. At least with the…

We are not talking about the Canadian plan. We are talking about the Clinton plan, and what we are saying is that we get rid of preexisting conditions. The plan you support does not. It would not help your daughter. Our plan does.

I think his problem today is that the plan we are operating under today, and what you would persist under your plan, simply leaves people who do not provide it out there to do it. They are getting by with something that others are not…

I would rather have mammograms between 40 and 47 than not at all, which is most of your plans. You do not have any benefit package that is described. You do not. There is nothing in the Michel plan that you all endorse, there is absolutely…

You say, yes, you can all have health insurance like you can have it today, if you can afford it, if you can continue it.

Mrs. Johnson, why don't you want to do something about costs? Eighty percent of the American people are covered, have health insurance. Their problem is they are not going to be able to afford it. Nothing in your plan does anything to hold…

I want to thank the Republican leadership for their help in bringing this debate about, and I want to thank all of my colleagues who have worked so hard to make this evening happen. I hope this is the first of many Oxford-style debates. I…

I want to start my closing with a story tonight. Twenty-one years ago, almost this month, my son was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and I remember talking to the doctors in the hall that night when he was diagnosed and thinking that we…

That's the same thing they have today. If you're in Medicare, and I know you hate the word government----

You're for government. You say you're for our Government. Medicare is a Government single payer system, and that's what it is, and people like it, and you're for it, and you say you're going to appeal it----

Mr. Gingrich, I have said many times that what we have got to look at here are goals. There are certain things we have got to try to get done. What we need to talk about more honestly, I think, with one another is how it is best to do…

I just think your characterization of what the bill calls for is completely wrong. Medicare recipients gain under the Clinton plan. Medicare recipients today can choose the doctor they want, they can choose the plan they want. If a State…

Mr. Gingrich, are you for compulsory auto insurance, do you think those are good laws?

Let's go a little further because I think this gets to the heart of the matter. We are here tonight to talk about goals and elements of the plan that we think are very important. I know you want us to defend every word on every page of the…

You use scare words like coercion. Nobody is coercing anybody to do anything, plus we're trying to help people have prescription drugs paid for by the plan, something that none of the Republican plans do. We enhance Medicare. We increase…

Mr. Gingrich, two of your colleagues who are debating here tonight are for a plan that I do not think you endorse, but it is a plan that at least tries to see that everybody gets covered. They have a family mandate to see that everybody is…

I rise today in strong opposition to the Kasich substitute to the House budget resolution. I believe it would be a painful step backward--at a time when we must keep moving forward. One year ago, in this very Chamber, when we passed…

We feel it is much more likely to be a success in this body than in the other body.

Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I rise with great respect of the author of this amendment and the argument he has made. On many occasions I have voted with him on issues like this because of my belief that we have had to cut our…

Mr. Chairman, I urge Members to vote against this amendment, and I say that with an understanding of the gravity and importance of this problem. The first duty of Government is to protect the safety of its citizens, and probably right…

I urge Members to vote against this amendment, and I say that with an understanding of the gravity and importance of this problem. The first duty of Government is to protect the safety of its citizens, and probably right along with that is…

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the majority leader's resolution. It affirms the efforts of the ethics committee to carry out its responsibilities to the American people, the House, and to Members as it always…

Mr. Speaker, the subject matter of this resolution is familiar to the House. It is, as we all know, the object of a criminal investigation within the office of the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. I would have preferred not to…

I called my wife this afternoon. We were planning to leave yet this evening. I told her, when she asked me when we were leaving, I said I did not know. She said, ``Well, that is just about the ten-thousandth time that I have heard that…