Ron Wyden: “let me begin by saying that Senator Bennett and I are thrilled to be able to welcome Senator Stabenow to this bipartisan…”

“let me begin by saying that Senator Bennett and I are thrilled to be able to welcome Senator Stabenow to this bipartisan coalition, the first bipartisan coalition in 13 years that has been designed to try to finally fix American health care and ensure that all of our citizens have good quality affordable coverage. Four Senators joined us this week. I want to say just a little bit about each one of them. First, Senator Stabenow has put decades into this cause of improving health care. Again and again, she has spoken for seniors, for kids, for holding down costs, for prevention. We sit right next to each other in the Senate Finance Committee. And to have Senator Stabenow and Senator Grassley who have pulled out all of the stops once again to try to bring together a bipartisan coalition for our children, when I think about having Senator Stabenow and Senator Grassley join those of us in this coalition and to have their support in the Senate Finance Committee, this is an enormously important day. As Senator Stabenow said, she represents constituents facing one of the great challenges in American health care; that is, how to make the transition for so many of our key workers and companies in basic industries. When you open a business today in the State of Michigan or Montana or Oregon or anywhere else, you spot your foreign competition about 18 percentage points the day you open your doors.”