Political Quotes

“Thank you, Mr. Pallone. Mr. Speaker, I cannot express my disappointment with the proposed additional temporary patch to the sustainable growth rate, or the SGR-- the ``doc fix.'' This was a contrived solution from the very beginning, and it has morphed into a shameful annual ritual, disrupting the provision of medical services in this country, as the parade of medical professionals come to Washington, D.C., to plead with us to not do something crazy. It is simply, today, an accounting sleight of hand. It is a power play and a fundraising tool, to be sure, that disrupts the practice of medicine. We have absolutely no intention of ever having the SGR cut occur, but we are not going to allow a reduction on that order of magnitude. We will find some sort of adjustment, as we always have, that will not be satisfactory and will continue the uncertainty and the indignity that is inflicted on people in the health care space and, more important, on the people that they serve. If you want to actually cut health care spending, we could do so. And if we would stop this charade of meaningless gestures of repealing the Affordable Care Act and actually get down to cases, fine-tuning, and moving forward, we could be there. There are a range of potential savings within the health care space that is acknowledged by virtually everybody in the industry and every expert that has looked at it.…”