Political Quotes

“I do not know--and I don't know if anyone knows--whether the Republican so-called healthcare legislation will pass tomorrow, whether the beginning of the debate will take place or whether it will not. I don't know that, but this I do know. The legislation being proposed--and by the way, we still don't know what that legislation is. In general, what we do know is that the legislation being proposed is the cruelest, most destructive, and irresponsible piece of legislation ever brought to the U.S. Senate in the modern history of our country. I know the media focuses on, do the Republicans have the votes, how is this Senator going to vote, how is that Senator going to vote? All of that is interesting to those of us inside the beltway. The far more important issue--which we don't discuss enough; the media doesn't cover enough--is what this legislation actually would do if it were implemented. Right now, unique among major countries on Earth, we do not guarantee healthcare to all people as a right. The result of that is that we now have today--before this disastrous legislation--28 million Americans who have no health insurance and even more who have high deductibles and high copayments, preventing them from getting to a doctor when they should. We have a bad situation now. It is better today than before the Affordable Care Act was passed, when we had over 50 million people without insurance, but no one suggested what we have today is where we should be.…”