Political Quotes

“I thank the Senator from New Jersey, who has been a real leader on this issue too. The bill would have come to the floor before the clock started because it would have come to the floor in September, likely, before it even expired. Think about it. We talk a lot about issues and talk a lot about numbers in this body, but think about this for a moment. You are a parent in the State of Virginia, 10 miles from here, and you are making $9 an hour and your wife is making $11 an hour and you qualify for CHIP because neither you nor your spouse has insurance. You qualify for CHIP--209,000 in my State, 100-and-some thousand in Virginia. Do you know what happened to you in the last month? You got a letter from the State of Virginia probably around Christmas. I am not sure when the letters were sent. You got a letter saying: Sorry, your health insurance is about to expire for your children. Imagine. You go out to the mailbox, you pick up the mail, you tear an envelope open, you open this letter, and you see you are going to lose your health insurance. Why? Because the people in this body, who get government insurance, insurance paid by taxpayers--the 100 privileged Senators, the 435 privileged House Members. We have insurance, but we don't care enough to do this? Again, we had September, October, November, December, January. Now it is in this bill as a political thing instead of really genuinely caring about CHIP.…”