Thomas Daschle: “I am flabbergasted. I am absolutely flabbergasted that the Senator from New York would say, since we have not seen…”

“I am flabbergasted. I am absolutely flabbergasted that the Senator from New York would say, since we have not seen action on our bill, we should take up his bill. And why are we taking up his bill under these circumstances? Because the Finance Committee has not acted. That is the reason. We are going to go around the Finance Committee to go straight to the floor, and he is saying we shouldn't go around the Labor Committee to go straight to the floor for the Patient Protection Act. So let there not be any confusion here as to what is going on. Everyone ought to know this. This is as glaring as the lights themselves. Our Republican colleagues, for whatever reason, are denying the opportunity to consider a Patient Protection Act, today, tomorrow or any other day. And they are hiding behind the mastectomy bill to do it. Well, let's not hide behind any legislation. Let's strip away all the rhetoric. They do not want to do it. They simply do not want to do it. I don't know why they don't want to do it, given that about 80 or 90 percent of the American people are demanding we do it, but they can explain it. No one should be misled here. The problem is not that we are combining the two bills. I have just released them. There isn't any connection anymore. We will take up the Feinstein-D'Amato bill today and take up the Patient Protection Act in the next couple of months.”