Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, this bill ought to be defeated. We should be considering a clean version of the Kennedy-Kassebaum-Roukema health reform bill, and I would say that the reason we are not considering a clean version of the Kennedy-Kassebaum-Roukema health reform bill is because the Republican leadership really does not want to see health care reform come into law. They really want to see it defeated. But, quite frankly, they do not have the guts to say it. So they are weighing this bill down with all kinds of extraneous things that do not belong in the bill, knowing full well that this will kill the bill. The Senate is going to pass a clean version. The President has said he will sign a clean version, and yet what we are doing today is a political charade. We are not passing a clean version, we are deliberately not passing the version the Senate is passing, and we know that the President will not agree. So it is a charade. And, again, the Republican leadership does not have the guts to say the truth.”