Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for that. It strikes me that perhaps we need to bring in a facilitator, given the spirit of the Democratic leaders, and perhaps we could see if Monty Hall--I don't know if he's still alive or not; if he is, perhaps the old game show host from ``Let's Make a Deal''--because that seems to be, as I follow this, and obviously it's what's reported in the media and what the Democratic Caucus reports, there's a lot of dealmaking, whether it's a hospital I believe in Connecticut, one hospital being purchased, helped to secure votes; whether it's Nebraska getting an exemption on any future medical assistance increase. Even the Democratic Governor of Tennessee, I love what he called that. I've never met the man, but I have a lot of respect for how candid he is. He called that ``the mother of all unfunded mandates,'' what it does with medical assistance. I know in Pennsylvania our medical assistance bill, over 10 years, medical assistance is expected to go up, under these Democratic leadership health care bills, $2.4 billion. We were in a financial meltdown as a State this past year. We went 6 months without a budget because those folks who were serving in the State legislature, the Governor, they couldn't balance the books. They couldn't get the revenue to match expenses. And now we've got this unfunded mandate coming out of $2.4 billion for the Keystone State. Now that was before, I think, the Nebraska sweetheart deal was made.”