Political Quotes

“if I may, the legislation is ours. I serve on the Subcommittee on Health of the Committee on Commerce, and it was the gentleman who came to me and said this is a real problem in my area; this is a real serious matter, and we put our heads together and we wrote that legislation. The fact of the matter is, and I do not think the gentleman is even aware of this, but it is my expectation that on Tuesday of next week, yours and mine, will be taken up by the Committee on Commerce, by the full committee, will be part of a comprehensive bill to try to restore a variety of payments, probably $21 billion into the Medicare program to help our hospitals, to help our nursing care facilities, to provide better benefits for home health care, as well as to expand the likelihood that these HMOs will be able to stay in place and continue to offer that benefit. So I am cautiously optimistic. I am actually very optimistic that, as the gentleman says, we will do that. We recognize the problem in your area and in mine and throughout the country, and we will hopefully report that legislation from committee on Tuesday. It will pass this House of Representatives, it will be signed by the President, and we will have made a real difference.”