Frank Pallone: “This is nothing but a gag rule. I and so many of my colleagues on the Democratic side went up to the Rules Committee…”

“This is nothing but a gag rule. I and so many of my colleagues on the Democratic side went up to the Rules Committee yesterday and asked for amendments, and they were almost all excluded from this rule. The Republican chairman of the committee says there is transparency. He says that there is an opportunity for participation. He can say it as many times as he wants, but it is simply not true. He also said that this was a commitment to the American people. There is no commitment to the American people here. The only commitment is to the insurance companies. They are the only ones that are going to gain from repeal of this very important legislation, because they want to increase premiums, and they want to institute discriminatory practices again against women, a woman perhaps who has breast cancer and a preexisting condition and can't get insurance, or bring back those lifetime caps, or bring back those annual caps where people lose their insurance if they have had a serious operation and they try to go back again and they don't have insurance, or perhaps the child who is up to 26 and who also will not be able to get on their parents' insurance policy again. Let me tell you here, the only one who benefits is the insurance company, not the American people.”