Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I appreciate the comments of the Senator from Hawaii tonight. They are certainly very relevant to the issue of healthcare here in America because each of us hopes that if a loved one gets ill, they will have the peace of mind that they know they will be able to get the healthcare they need and they will not go bankrupt in the process. Yet here we are tonight debating a bill titled ``Better Care Act.'' Better Care, has ever there been a bill in the history of the United States of America so more perversely named than this Better Care Act which strips care from 22 million Americans? I was very struck by one equation of this bill; that is, that it provides to the richest 400 Americans $33 billion over a 10-year period. That is enough to pay for healthcare under Medicaid for 700,000 individuals--700,000 individuals. It rips the healthcare away from them to give $33 billion to the richest 400 families. That is obscene. That is certainly not better care. It is hard for me to imagine that a single Member of this body would vote to proceed to this bill, but here we are. Until we get agreement that we are not going to proceed, we have to continue to carry on this fight. We know that 15 million people, CBO estimates, will lose healthcare in the next 12 months. That is even worse than the House bill. Last week, I came to this floor to call the Senate draft mean and meaner. The House bill was mean. The Senate's is meaner.…”