Frank Pallone: “I'd be very pleased to do that. And if I could, maybe I'll talk; first of all, let me thank you for doing this hour…”

“I'd be very pleased to do that. And if I could, maybe I'll talk; first of all, let me thank you for doing this hour tonight and for everyone who's joining you, because it is really important. And maybe I'll talk about three things, and then I'll turn it back; and that is, one, how we came about with the SCHIP program because I think that relates to the whole bipartisan nature of it, which is what you stressed and is so important. And then maybe I can talk a little bit about the preventative nature of it because you talked about the emergency room and the President's comments about using the emergency room. And then I'll give you my one story. I'm glad you're here, in part because last week we had some of my Republican colleagues, including some on the Health Subcommittee that I chair, who were talking about this program as if it was an entitlement, as if it was almost socialism, you know, sort of raising the specter that we wanted the government to run the health care system. And nothing could be further from the truth. I mean, first of all, you know they neglected to mention that this was bipartisan. And remember, when we're talking 10 years ago, this was the Gingrich Congress. This was the Republican majority that hadn't been the majority for very long. I mean, they were on the crest of this conservative right wing wave and in the midst of that were willing to adopt this bipartisan measure.…”