Political Quotes

“Thank you, Mr. President. To my great colleague and one of the nicest people here, Senator Udall, who always leads with his brain, we know that his heart isn't far behind, and he has been a tremendous leader, a tremendous advocate, and a tremendous collaborator on this all-important issue. I think first that we have to acknowledge how grateful and thankful we are that the Republican bill, known as Graham-Cassidy, will not be advanced this week. I don't think it is the last that we have heard of it, but it is critically important that now we have time to talk about the impacts and we have time to talk about why it is that we found this bill so objectionable, and we have an opportunity to raise the issues that may have been forgotten. I think one of those issues is the unique challenges that Native American people have in receiving and affording quality healthcare in America. All of the Tribes in my State have a treaty right to healthcare. It is kind of like when they say that, under the Affordable Care Act, you have access to care, but if the care is low quality, if the care is unavailable, if the care is not something you can afford or that will actually provide the kinds of services that you need, it is really not fulfillment of the treaty obligation. One of the things we know is that many of the programs within the Affordable Care Act have gone a long way toward meeting the Federal Government's treaty responsibility to provide healthcare to Native American people.…”