Political Quotes

“First of all, I thank the Senator for his kind comments. He mentioned that Speaker Pelosi famously stated we needed to pass this bill in order to figure out what is in it. I know the Senator from Alabama and I are dedicated to making sure the Obama administration doesn't make sure this law is fully implemented before we understand the true cost of the bill. We simply cannot afford to have the American people and Members of Congress not understand the true cost of the health care law. I remind everybody that, back in 1965, when they passed the Medicare bill, first of all, the entire bill was less than 300 pages. That is interesting. The provision that applied to Medicare alone was about 124 pages. That compares, of course, with the 2,600- or 2,700-page bill that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was. There are 10,000 pages of regulations just to try to implement this bill. When they passed Medicare, they estimated it out 25 years and said that in 1990, Medicare would cost $12 billion. In fact, in 1990, Medicare cost $110 billion, which is more than nine times the original cost estimate. I am new here, but I have been watching this town pretty carefully over the last few decades. I don't believe Washington has gotten any better at projecting and estimating figures--particularly on new entitlements that people want around here.…”