Political Quotes

“Mr. President, just to respond briefly to the chairman, the chairman, I think, said about eight times that what really ought to be the focus here is working together. I so share that view. As we start voting today, I would just like for the public to understand that this side was never given the chance on this tax bill to work together--never once. The majority leader announced, right at the outset, that the most partisan process would be used. It is called reconciliation. It means that it is our way or the highway, that we have the votes, and that is the end of it. I appreciate what the chairman has said about emphasizing our working together, but that was taken off the table by the majority leader when we started, when it was declared that we would use the reconciliation process. There are other areas that I will just touch on. The chairman made mention of the fact that everyone over here is for socialized medicine. Right now, what we are trying to do is to ensure that we don't have upheaval in the private insurance marketplace because of the majority's effort to unravel the Affordable Care Act. The Affordable Care Act is not socialism. It focuses on private sector choices through the exchange. What the challenge is going to be is, if you further hammer this effort to increase choices in the private sector marketplace, you are just going to cause more problems for our people and make it more difficult for us to hold down the costs of medicine.…”