Political Quotes

“I have great respect for my two committee colleagues, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Kind) and the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Andrews), and their thoughtful approach to bringing their substitute to the floor. As the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Kind) pointed out, there are some similarities here. We both create large pools of small employers in order to increase their purchasing power so that they can go into the marketplace like a large company or union and get as good a quality plan at a competitive price. But once you get beyond the big picture, that we are creating large pools in both the substitute and the underlying bill, there are a few differences. The first difference I would say is that the underlying bill allows the private sector to create those large pools. Whether they be State associations, national associations, whatever, they will in fact create their own pools, while the substitute offered by the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Kind) and the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Andrews) has the government creating this large pool. Now, we all know when the government gets involved, it is just a matter of time before the government begins to believe, well, we have this large pool, we have got employers signed up in it, maybe we ought to require them to do X or Y or Z. I do not think anyone wants to take that risk.”