Political Quotes

“Madam President, we are on the floor, and I will be joined by colleagues to talk about the program we know as Medicaid--a program that I think we are beginning to appreciate more, especially in the last couple of years--and the impact it has on the American people. Unfortunately, the debates on healthcare have resulted in Medicaid becoming a target. Too often, both in the Senate and in the other body--the other body, the House--the Medicaid Program has been the subject of attempts to do at least one of three things, if not all three. One is attempts to decimate the program by way of funding cuts over the next 10 years. We know the President's budget has proposed cutting Medicaid by $1.5 trillion over 10 years--that is with a ``t''--roughly, $150 billion each and every year for 10 years. That is a bad idea, and we are going to fight that with all we have. Other attempts to slash Medicaid have been perpetuated over time, either to cut it over 10 years or to cut it in a particular year. The third thing we have seen is sabotage efforts by the administration when it comes to the exchanges resulting from the Affordable Care Act but also attempts to sabotage the Medicaid Program itself. I will develop that in a moment in terms of the attempts by the administration. Medicaid is a program that, I think, tells us who we are as a nation. We are a great nation for a number of reasons. We all know we have the strongest military and the strongest economy.…”