Political Quotes

“Mr. President, Senator Murphy is right. It is not just what is in the resolution that concerns a number of us, including funding for the Affordable Care Act. We remember debates here in this body--there are a whole lot of Members of Congress, who have insurance paid for by taxpayers, who are willing--by cuts in Medicaid and other repeals as far as the Affordable Care Act--who are willing to take insurance away from so many of our constituents. Constituents who make $8, $10, and $12 an hour aren't lucky enough to have the health insurance we have, but we have provided for it through this bill. I am a Democrat, and I stood for months with my Republican Governor, John Kasich, in fighting for that. As a number of people have pointed out, there is not what there ought to be for community health centers in this bill. I know that in North Carolina, as in my State, there are a number of rural hospitals. We have had two major hospitals announce their closure--one in Massillon and one in Dayton. The one in Massillon is a hospital that serves a town of slightly under 40,000 people. The closest hospital is 15, 20, 25 minutes away for emergency care in Canton. The hospital in the middle of Dayton has announced its closure, partly because of what this body has done--the unevenness and the attacks on health insurance, what was in the tax reform law and what that will mean for insurance prices. We know it has made our healthcare system less stable.…”