Political Quotes

“This is really an amazing time on Capitol Hill. The Republican internal battles and inability to deliver a coherent, effective alternative to fulfill all their contradictory campaign promises on healthcare has done more than just expose their political and policy dysfunction. They are obviously flirting with a serious political backlash. They have managed to make the Affordable Care Act, ObamaCare, with all of its shortcomings, popular with the majority of the American public for the first time ever, including so many small business people. They made the public more aware and concerned about Medicaid, that has expanded and made such a difference in Kentucky, in Oregon, in States all across the country, providing care for people otherwise who had not had it. They have managed to accelerate the move towards single payer by more than a decade: Medicare for all, Medicaid for more. I don't know the exact form, but we are going to be moving in that direction, and the Republicans have helped raise the awareness and accelerate that progress, but I hope that we are going to be able to take steps to make progress sooner. In the meantime, I suspect that the Affordable Care Act, the core reforms and structure, are going to, in fact, stay in place. This is because there aren't the votes in the Senate to do anything more; and frankly, it doesn't look like there are votes to do much in the House, the so-called skinny bill notwithstanding.…”