Political Quotes

“I rise tonight to speak about the healthcare legislation. I am grateful for the remarks of our colleague from Illinois, the great leader that he is, talking not only about the impact on his home State but on our country. I think a lot of us, especially in the last couple of weeks, have had an opportunity both to debate healthcare and, probably more importantly, when we go home to be on the road, to go to places where folks are thinking about it very intensively. Many people I had a chance to interact with and, really, to listen to on the road were folks in small towns and rural areas, especially, who probably didn't ever imagine they would have to engage in this kind of a discussion or debate. Coming into a conference room to have a discussion or a roundtable about healthcare is not what they do every day. They don't necessarily sit around to talk about a public policy issue. They usually have so much in their lives that keeps them busy and so many concerns and so many challenges that are weighing them down that they don't have any opportunity to have these kinds of conversations. Many of them felt obligated to have these conversations. Many of them were motivated to speak out because of what would happen in their lives and usually in the life of someone in their family.…”