Frank Pallone: “I thank the gentleman from California. I have a great deal of respect for my former chairman and colleague from Texas…”

“I thank the gentleman from California. I have a great deal of respect for my former chairman and colleague from Texas, but as I listen to him, the problem is that it's always the same: It's my way or the highway. And it's just very unfortunate, because there have been many opportunities in the committee where we could have worked together to come up with legislation on things like malpractice reform and IPAB, but that's not what we get from the Republican side of the aisle. They just constantly want to do their own thing. And as he said, the President may be for malpractice reform, but if he's not for this malpractice reform, then he's a bad guy. And that's the point: We need to get together. If we're ever going to accomplish anything, we need to work together; and I don't see that happening on the Republican side of the aisle today. I am very disappointed in the process of considering H.R. 5. I am disappointed and frustrated that my Republican colleagues had an opportunity to bring to the floor a bill that I and some of my Democratic colleagues supported, but what they decided to do instead is to simply play political games, political games over and over again. All sectors of the health care industry agree that the Independent Payment Advisory Board, IPAB, should be repealed. I am the first one to tell you how much I am opposed to IPAB. In fact, during the Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Health markup, I voted in favor of its repeal.…”