Political Quotes

“Madam President, I echo what the Senator from Arizona said about the CLASS Act. He was here, as was I and many others, debating this bill and saying this was a program destined to be bankrupt. In fact, if we look at the independent Actuary, he was saying the CLASS Act was unworkable. They said it would collapse in short order. Within the HHS Department, there was a nonpartisan career staff that called it a ``recipe for disaster.'' There was plenty of advance warning this wasn't going to work. The Senator from Arizona correctly pointed out it was used as a gimmick to make the overall cost look less and, therefore, bring it into balance. As we know now, the CLASS Act could not work. They have had to acknowledge that, and the amendment put on by Senator Gregg, which would have forced them to certify, made that abundantly clear. To the point of the Senator from Mississippi, the purpose of the exercise was that we have to do something about the cost of health care. In fact, the President of the United States, when he was running, said this: If you've got health insurance, we are going to work with you to lower your premiums by $2,500 per family per year. We will not wait 20 years from now to do it, or 10 years from now to do it; we will do it by the end of my first term as President of the United States. I am sure the Senator from Arizona probably remembers very well many of these statements. But the facts tell a different story.…”