Political Quotes

“We have heard a lot tonight. We have heard the call to action by Members. We have heard the relationship to poverty in health disparities, to the socioeconomic conditions of African Americans to health disparities. We have heard the relationship to death by guns to health disparities. We have heard the data and the statistics about the mortality rates from diseases like cardiovascular disease, the leading killer for women and African American women and men. We have heard about the effect of untreated diabetes and how that affects African Americans. The list goes on and on, Madam Speaker. I could tell you whether it is obesity, whether it is stroke--and certainly as a stroke survivor, I understand firsthand the value and the importance of quality, affordable health care--that there are some Federal programs that actually work and bridge the gap. I could say wonderful things about the United States Health and Human Services Office of Minority Affairs that provides data and research and services for us. But before I ask my colleague, Madam Speaker, to say a few words, I ran across something that was said, in my opinion, by one of the most powerful individuals that will go down in current history. And 20 years from now, Madam Speaker, if I were standing here talking about his legacy, health care would be one of them.…”