"Nothing is more important, Mr. Secretary, to getting our economy back on track than gaining public confidence."
"There is such a large amount of money there in the Federal tax rules that you do free up a substantial amount for expanding coverage."
"I think as you get into this, there are really kind of three parts to this."
"The President made two pledges in his campaign that it seems to me in the health area bring Democrats and Republicans together."
"It is important to be cautious about the idea of going out in this health reform debate and spending vast sums of new money right out of the gate."
"We ran the numbers, Dr. Elmendorf, with the CBO figures. You all indicated that we are going to spend $2.5 trillion this year on health care."
"Market economics has always been about chicken-and-egg. You make investment decisions, and if they are the right ones, promising things happen."
"the Obama administration, to its credit--Senator Conrad and I have been hearing encouraging news on this point--wants to do that"
"CBO has correctly identified health care spending as the biggest driver in long-term Federal spending growth."
"none of that comes close to the kind of market-making, incentive-changing activity that you will see by reforming the Tax Code."
"It is absolutely key that it be changed because it rewards inefficiency and is regressive in nature."