Political Quotes

“before my friend from Alabama leaves the floor--just to highlight where we are--I think he knows how strongly I feel about always trying to tackle these issues in a bipartisan fashion. I would just assure the Senator from Alabama, the reason we took as our underlying repeal-and-replace bill the good work that was done by Senator Hatch and Chairman Camp and Chairman Upton is I felt that extended the olive branch in trying to bring the parties together. I intend to do that consistently on the Finance Committee--pretty much just the way I did when I supported George W. Bush on Part D of Medicare. The challenge, of course, here is that this would be the 51st attempt to essentially try to make changes in the ACA that would end up particularly shifting costs to so many vulnerable people. It seems to me, particularly today as we have thousands and thousands of people still trying to sign up--I noticed the Wall Street Journal, Saturday, stated that the CBO said the original target for the Affordable Care Act had been met. I think it would be particularly unfortunate to go forward with what would be the 51st effort to try the same kind of approach that particularly would cause so much cost shifting in American health care onto the books of a lot of folks who are already walking an economic tightrope. I know a number of my colleagues want to speak.…”