Ron Wyden

I very much appreciate how this hearing has been handled by you. You have made it clear that Senators get to ask the questions that are important, and that is the best bipartisan tradition of the Finance Committee.

These were not 'gotcha' questions. These were questions that were appropriate given the fact that, if confirmed, you are going to head an agency that is involved with a trillion dollars of spending and the health care of 100 million people…

How is the government going to go about doing it?

And what about the whole question of nominal risk?

And on virtual groups, what is your take on, let us say, the most important thing to make them work?

I am just trying to get a sense of how you would approach some of these things.

I still have the welts on my back to show for it.

Yesterday was good for insurance companies, and it was bad for patients.

What troubles me about yesterday is, once again insurance companies are coming first and patients come later.

The first rule to come out of the agency... meant less coverage, higher premiums, and more out-of-pocket costs for working families.

Unfortunately, what I have seen since the beginning of the year has been basically about rolling back coverage.

We need tax reform, which is what our colleagues, including Dan Coats most recently, now the Director of National Intelligence, agreed to.

We will not get bipartisan tax reform when the Secretary of Treasury walks back a pledge to have no absolute tax cut for the wealthy.

I think my colleagues especially on the Finance Committee know that I have a special commitment to bipartisan tax reform.

Yesterday you walked that back in the House Appropriations Committee.

You made a commitment that there would be no absolute tax cut for the wealthy.

The American public heard a lot of promises about health care from the new administration.

Medicare needs to remain with its benefits, at the very least, intact.

It is important that Congressman Price respond to the questions he has been asked by the HELP Committee.

I am going to oppose it. I am very troubled by what we have heard today.

But the Affordable Care Act had many, many good features, and one of them was, it made clear all across this country we were not going to go back to the days when health care was for the healthy and wealthy.

Ever since I was director of the Gray Panthers, the Oregon Gray Panthers--I did it for almost 7 years--I was interested in one thing: changing a system that was largely for the healthy and the wealthy.

Women all across the country are going to lose the choice of providers that they want.

I think some of your biggest critics are going to be Republican Governors on this.

I respect your willingness to serve.