Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I am pleased to follow the Senator from Minnesota, as because of him I had the chance to be on the HELP Committee during all of those hearings--all of those dozens and dozens of Republican amendments that took place during the vibrant, robust, bipartisan process in the HELP Committee. Senator Franken was still in litigation over his election so his seat on the HELP Committee was vacant, and Harry Reid asked if I would take that seat. My senior Senator Jack Reed and I, both of Rhode Island, were there in the room day after day, week after week, while this exhaustive, public, bipartisan process went forward. I can even remember working with Senator Isakson, of Georgia, and supporting his amendment that would allow a doctor to be paid for having a conversation with a very ill patient about what his desires were if his condition did not get better. What type of end-of-life care did he want? Did he want every possible intervention or did he want dignified time at home with his family? What were his desires? That is a conversation that is important for doctors to have with those patients. In the environment of the time, that became the death panel phony story. So I was there. I saw it happen. Thanks to Senator Franken's delay in getting here, Jack Reed and I were in the room. Why does this matter?…”