Political Quotes

“The underlying conference bill addresses many issues which go well beyond the amendment being introduced today. By voting for the Daschle amendment today, we are basically saying these issues, which are in the original Senate bill and are being discussed in conference today, are not important: Access; provisions such as the above-the-line deduction for health care insurance costs; accelerating the 100-percent self-employed health insurance deduction; expansion of medical savings accounts; a new above-the-line deduction for long-term care insurance; a new additional personal exemption for caretakers, all of which make those 44 million people more likely to have insurance in the future. Genetic discrimination: The prohibition of having genetic testing be used against you when you apply for insurance, it is not in the Daschle-Kennedy bill today. It is in the conference bill, the underlying bill passed by the Senate. We have heard over the last several months that 80,000 people a year die because of medical errors or lack of patient safety concerns. That is going to be in the conference bill because it was in the underlying Senate bill which did pass this body. A vote for the amendment today is a vote that these issues should not be part of the basic Patients' Bill of Rights. Let us not play politics.…”