Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise also to speak to the issue of the health care reform bill, which my colleague from Arizona has pointed out is now seeing its 1-year anniversary. I think it is good to put in perspective the issues most Americans care about. As I travel my State of South Dakota and elsewhere in this country, I hear repeatedly what most Americans think we ought to be focused on right now in Washington, DC; that is, the economy, job creation, spending, and debt. They believe those are the issues that are most important. I think the public opinion polls reflect that. If we look at any public opinion poll today, generally, they are in that order: It will be jobs, the economy, spending, and debt. As I look at what this health care bill has done--and use the metric of jobs and the economy and spending and debt and look at it on the 1- year anniversary--I think we would have to say this has been a major failure in terms of speaking to or addressing the issues the American people care the most about. On the issue of jobs and the economy, there were lots of statements made about this when it was passed; that it was going to create lots of jobs. The former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, said, in its life, the health care bill will create 4 million jobs; 400,000 jobs almost immediately. Yet we have the CBO Director recently testifying that the new law will reduce employment over the next decade by 800,000 jobs.…”