Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, there is no greater responsibility that we have than the health and well-being of America's children. The Children's Health Insurance Program has been a huge success. In just a few weeks, funding for this program will run out in my home State of Rhode Island. This is a program that has provided health insurance to 9 million children from working families in this country, 27,000 children and pregnant women in my home State of Rhode Island. It has always been a bipartisan issue. This program has been a huge success. It brought the rate of uninsured children down from almost 14 percent when the program began to 4\1/2\ percent today. And why haven't we reauthorized this program yet that ensures the health and well-being of America's children? We just passed--or the Republicans just passed--a $1.5 trillion tax cut for the richest people in this country, the biggest corporations, unpaid for. But we can't manage to find money to reauthorize the Children's Health Insurance Program? I urge the Republican leadership in this Chamber to bring a clean reauthorization bill to the floor so we can reauthorize this effective and important program and take care of America's children. ____________________”