Political Quotes

“I am objecting, and I will use leader time to make a statement. It is obvious that everybody can see there were 59 votes in favor of this. We needed 60. They have played this game before, going only to 59, and they are going to try to wiggle out of it some way. The only way to wiggle out of this is to accept this legislation. My friend, the Republican leader, said he wants Ranking Member Grassley to lead us to a bipartisan agreement. We have a leader. He is called the chairman of the committee. He is the chairman of the Finance Committee, Max Baucus, one of the most experienced Members of this body. And he also has some experience in the other body. He led us to what is the right thing to do. The majority of the Senate--in fact, 59 Senators--approved what we are trying to do today. I say to all my friends, even if this request were granted and I laid this out in some detail, the House would not be able to pass it. I wish I could use a better term, but I did not graduate from Harvard, Yale, or Princeton. This is a phony excuse, this is a phony exercise and leads us only down one path--no help for patients and cuts for doctors. By the way, I don't mean to disparage those schools. They are OK. If my Republican friends truly wanted to prevent the physician fee cut from taking effect, they would have supported passage of this bill. In the record that is now before this body are more than 200 organizations that are begging that this legislation pass.”