Political Quotes

“Again, the debate here is how much can we do? What can we afford to do? What is the best way to do it? Mr. Pallone is working on all those details. I know we bug him and give our him suggestions about how to make this easier and streamline the bureaucracy and make it work for both providers and for children and for the States. So we are learning from that. I think that is pretty exciting. But that is not the discussion that some are in. We were in that discussion since January, actually. This is certainly something that the President proposed. We wanted to push much further. But I just say that is unfortunate. I think that is why we are so deeply disturbed. I will say that the President is consistent here. I will add just a note that when he was Governor, he was very reluctant to participate in the Children's Health Insurance Program and actually worked quite actively not to be engaged, not to have his State do it, and then tried to keep the level of the family to be as poor as possible.”