John Thune: “I am not prepared to yield at this time. I will allow you to speak on your own time. But the important point is that…”

“I am not prepared to yield at this time. I will allow you to speak on your own time. But the important point is that this particular legislation has not had an opportunity to be voted on in the Senate, legislation that would help small businesses in this country that currently cannot cover their employees, that currently have families of those employees without coverage. In fact, if you ask small businesses today--and about 22.5 million of the 45 million uninsured in this country are employees of small businesses or are their families, and about another 15 million are self-employed in small businesses--the reason they cannot cover their employees is the cost. What this legislation attempts to do is address the issue of cost, to make health insurance more affordable to more Americans, to small businesses, to their employees, to their families, to self-employed people in this country who currently do not have coverage because of the cost. It is a very simple concept. It is a concept that has been passed eight times by the House of Representatives but never voted on in the Senate because of obstruction on the other side. They will not allow it to come to a vote. That is unfortunate because this is an issue the American people expect us to address.…”