Political Quotes

“Mr. President, before the Senator leaves the floor, I just want everyone to note that what the Senate just heard was Senator Hassan--vintage Senator Hassan--saying repeatedly: Let us find a way to move forward in a bipartisan way. And through example after example, she cited the progress. It has always been that, even before the Affordable Care Act. I was the author of the Healthy Americans Act, the first bipartisan universal coverage bill in the history of the Senate--14 Senators, 7 Democrats and 7 Republicans--because we learned the lesson Senator Hassan has described and took it into the Affordable Care Act. So I thank my colleague for her wonderful remarks. And for people who are paying attention, this is what we get in the Senate Finance Committee every single time Senator Hassan is in the house. Mr. President, the landscape of American healthcare is shifting dramatically in the 13 years since the Affordable Care Act was signed into law. I believe many find it hard to even recall the day when an American could be denied health insurance because of preexisting medical conditions, but we ought to remember the history. Those were the days when healthcare was for the healthy and the wealthy. The insurance companies, under the law, could just clobber--clobber--somebody with a preexisting condition. You were basically on your own. And, apropos of the implications to the economy, I have talked to the President of the Senate often about encouraging innovation enterprise.…”