Rick Santorum

I want to ask you, first on the Medicare+Choice plan. You say it has failed. Are you aware that the Senator from New York, Mr. Schumer, offered an amendment today? I encourage you to read his statement. He talked about how the…

If you are not paying anything for something, you value it less than if you had to pay even $2 or $5 or some sort of copay. That is important psychologically because you have better utilization, you have a better track record of people…

Yes, I do. I say that because there has been a lot of work that has been done since then. According to many legal scholars I have talked with, they still believe Canada has that ability to continue to steal licenses and give those patents…

If a drug is shipped from outside of Canada to Canada for resale in the United States, does that go through the same handling that the Senator from North Dakota has discussed?

I believe that this change would be an important tool for airports, which could benefit from the option of using the funds they receive more effectively. According to information provided to me, this change, if implemented at Pittsburgh…

Much has been made about deficits. I just want to know what the Senate has accomplished today--I should argue, what the Democrats have tried to accomplish. As you can see from these charts, this is a list of the Democratic amendments that…

I have not seen it. I know I voted against mandatory spending for IDEA, but I voted consistently for increases.

As the Senator knows, I have been one of the strongest advocates for increase in funding for the disabled. I was one of the people who worked on this side of the aisle to try to get a dramatic increase. When I came to the Senate, IDEA was…

I suggest to the Senator what we are doing is getting rid of a rogue procedure that has been demonstrably testified to that this is contraindicated. The AMA: Bad medicine. Their term, not mine. I am saying this is a rogue procedure that is…

I suspect most Americans understand when they hear health exception, they believe there is some imminent danger to the health of the mother. Of course, that is not what Doe v. Bolton says. Doe v. Bolton talks very broadly of health. I will…

To liken a ban on a brutal procedure such as partial-birth abortion to the forced abortion policies of China is a fairly substantial stretch, and I do not accept that as an analogy. I do not think it holds up under any scrutiny. With…

I, frankly, do not agree there should be a difference between children who are ``normal,'' in society's eyes--I do not know what that means anymore, what a society sees as normal--and those who happen to have birth defects, severe or not…

I guess my point in rebuttal is that if you want to create a separation in the law between those children who are perfect and those children who are not----

So you would suggest that something that is supported by--you are going to maintain your comment that something that is supported by 70 percent of the American public is extreme?

I thank the Senator. I gave her an opportunity to answer, and I have a couple more questions. No. 1, you suggested that this procedure was extreme. Does the Senator know the most recent Gallup polls--the polls consistently have shown that…

OK. I suggest that the Senator from New York examine the language. It is very clear that this is one particular kind of abortion we have addressed, and we have addressed the vagueness, as put forth by the U.S. Supreme Court. And there are…

So you believe if this legislation passes outlawing partial-birth abortion, no late-term abortions would be available?

Yes. The Senator from New York said that the women she had in her office who had late-term abortions--you characterized it that they would be ``forced to carry their children to term'' if this bill passed. Do you stand by that statement?

We are talking about major, complex, lengthy, pieces of legislation. The corporate responsibility bill was dramatically changed and a whole list of others that came to this floor. Members were justifiably concerned that these rather…

The Senator from Illinois just said the statute does not apply if the physician certifies it is not viable. So the statute does not apply if the license is not on the line. But your statute does not say that. You may want to say that, but…

I pay tribute to the Senator from Ohio who was in the Chamber until about this hour last night laying out very clearly, very succinctly, the legal, moral, ethical, and medical evidence as to why this procedure should be banned and why this…

Excuse me, there need not be an exception, but you are arguing these compelling cases and they are compelling because they are talking about women going through very difficult decisions, but there is no medical reason to do this procedure…

Look, this procedure is not done in hospitals. So all I suggest is there are other safer, peer-reviewed procedures that can and are used on a routine basis by a physician----

One, you make it sound like the doctor who diagnosed the fetal abnormality was the one who performed the abortion. In fact-- I am reading her story--the diagnosis was made by a perinatologist and the abortion was performed by an…

The fact that a child in utero is going through a crisis does not equate that the mother is going through a health crisis. There are lots of mothers of babies with multiple defects who carry that child to term or do things to try to help…