Political Quotes

“Madam President, it is no secret that last week's vote on repealing and replacing the provisions of ObamaCare proved a disappointment to many of us. I have found, though, in my time here in the Senate that so often we agree on the goal we want to achieve, but we disagree on the means to achieve that goal. Some people see the private sector and competition and markets as the best place to regulate economic activity. Other people look at the government as the source of actions that do things like provide access to healthcare. The truth is, in our complicated healthcare delivery system, everybody plays a role one way or the other. We know that government plays an outsized role already, because we have Medicare, Medicaid, veterans health programs, and the like--the Children's Health Insurance Program, which we will have to take up and reauthorize before the end of September. But there does exist a very important private marketplace for health insurance, and, frankly, many times I think the government makes it harder, not easier, for the private marketplace to offer people a variety of products that they actually like, want to buy, and can afford. But it is evident that there is a lot of passion about this issue, and that is not going to go away.…”