Political Quotes

“I think one of the most important points to make tonight is the national media is acting like there are only two plans out there, the President's plan and Congressman Cooper's plan. The gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. Cooper] is from my home State, and I have great respect for him, but Senator Gramm described his plan as socialism with a smile. It is so similar to the President's plan that there really is very little difference. In fact, the gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. Cooper] said the President's plan will add big bucks to the deficit and greatly increase costs to the consumer. He later said in the Tennessee press that his plan was a first cousin to the President's plan, and he thought they would have a family reunion at the White House. There are other better plans out there. You mentioned the medical savings plan, the medical IRA's, and that certainly would do the most to give people the most, the medical consumer the most control over their medical dollars and would do more to bring down the cost of medical care than any plan out there. Frankly, it had over 200 cosponsors in the last Congress, more than any other plan has been able to achieve. Syndicated columnist Paul Craig Roberts, one of our most respected economists, said this in a column recently: President Clinton's health plan will fail, because it will drive up demand but not supply. The result will be price increases or rationing.”