Political Quotes

“Before I turn it over to the gentleman from California, I just want to say I'm new to Washington and I understand that it's a city where a lot of things are gray rather than black and white, but this is a bill that really seems to me like it's a clear situation of black and white. A two-page bill, 24 lines long that does one thing: removes the monopoly protection of the health insurance companies. There are no carve-outs. There are no exceptions. There are no loopholes. It is a clean bill. And it's interesting to go back as voters have rightly been frustrated at all of the special deals that have been cut on the other side of this building to understand this is not a new thing. Sixty-five years ago the reason we were stuck with this problem was the insurance lobby came in in 1945 and was able to get this carve-out of monopoly protections that no other industry enjoyed. And it was supposed to be a 3-year phaseout. And what happened at the last second? A special deal was cut that removed that 3-year phaseout. Since then, the insurance industry has spent billions and billions of dollars buying their monopoly protection in this town of Washington. They spent $400 million last year while they were jacking up rates, premium rates, and out-of-pocket expenses for consumers, for patients around this country. They spent $400 million lobbying to protect their monopoly protections. Sometimes there's a very clear choice.…”