"But if that had not happened, the State would have gotten zero and the State could not have afforded to bring the case in the first place."
"I want to congratulate you on another Congress as Chairman of this Subcommittee."
"I am confident we will approach these debates with goodwill and mutual respect."
"At its core, the purpose of the tort system is to apportion responsibility and to allocate costs based on how each of us observes or fails to observe our legal duties to one another."
"So as of now, this touted $250 billion cost is a number that means nothing, because it is just one side of the equation."
"In terms of its costs, but it says nothing about its net benefits or net costs."
"So in other words, even the cost figure is not a real cost figure, because it includes transfers."
"Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let me begin by thanking all concerned for holding this hearing."
"It is a fair question, and one we have debated for years."
"This is not a cost to society, but, rather, a transfer to the injured party."
"Is there sufficient investment capacity to keep up with that?"
"That figure that I couldn't remember a moment ago is an 88-percent increase in demand by 2035."