Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, H.R. 4626, the Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act, unfortunately doesn't do much. In fact, it has all the substance of a soup made by boiling the shadow of a chicken. In his State of the Union address on January 27, President Obama challenged Congress to create a plan that ``will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors, and stop insurance company abuses.'' The administration's health care plan does just the opposite. It increases premiums, increases taxes, and reduces Medicare benefits for seniors. Will today's McCarran-Ferguson repeal bring down insurance premiums? No. The Congressional Budget Office says that ``whether premiums would increase or decrease as a result of this legislation is difficult to determine, but in either case the magnitude of the effects is likely to be quite small.'' {time} 1245 So what's the point of the bill? The CBO goes on to say that premium reductions from this bill are likely to be small because ``State laws already bar the activities that would be prohibited under Federal law if this bill was enacted.'' So what's the point of the bill? The National Association of Insurance Commissioners pointed out that bid-rigging, price-fixing, and market allocation ``are not permitted under the McCarran-Ferguson Act, and are not tolerated under State law.…”