Political Quotes

“Well, first of all, let me thank you, my colleague from California, and each of the other speakers here for the contribution they have made tonight, and particularly when I listened to my colleague from Tennessee talk about those particular cases of individuals that were impacted, because that's really what this is all about. Again, it is amazing to me that the first act of this new Republican majority is to try to repeal a bill, health care reform, that really is making a difference for people on a personal level, particularly with the patient protections. You know, I thought to myself when I was coming down here: Who benefits from repeal? Who could possibly benefit from repeal? Because, as many of you talked about, all the people who are going to be harmed by it, who would benefit from it? And the only group I could think of that would benefit from the repeal are the big insurance companies because, if you think about it, what do they want to do? They want to keep increasing premiums. I read that in your State--I don't know, you may have already mentioned it--Blue Cross/Blue Shield, whatever, is talking about a 50-something percent increase. I cannot fathom these double-digit increases. And, of course, as this health care reform kicks in, it's going to be more and more difficult for the types of increases that we've seen in premiums that these big health insurance companies have put forward.…”