On the recordMarch 25, 2010
And on this historic occasion, I guess those of us who have served so long in the Congress hope and prayed that this day, this night will come. And, of course, a lot of us are concerned how we will be remembered. When you reach my age, that seems to be a little more important. And on this bill, when you just talk about health care and health reform, it seems to me that now is an opportunity even for those who fought this concept over the years and fought all the concepts such as Medicare and Social Security, to think about how they would like to be remembered. And I hope that that memory would be that even though the bill was not as perfect as they would want it to be, that they did vote for health reform, because that means Congresses that follow us, the same way we followed those that created Social Security, those that created Medicare, will have the opportunity to improve upon it. So we are not saying that this is the best legislation ever. We are saying this is the best and only opportunity that we have now. So I do hope that when the final vote is taken, that we will have it as a bipartisan vote.
