Steve Kagen: “I don't want anyone to mistake my position on this. I am not in favor of government-run health care. We don't need…”

“I don't want anyone to mistake my position on this. I am not in favor of government-run health care. We don't need socialized medicine in these United States. We do have a VA system that was in disarray until we got here. This class of 2006 helped to save our military veterans' health care. We helped to save our active military from a condition that was deplorable. Everything that the President has said he was, he is not. He was not conservative. He spent us into the drink. It is borrow and spend, and borrow and spend. But this discussion, really, is about our Nation's children. It is really about where we are going as a Nation and what kind of Nation we really, really are. From your report of the recent poll, the American people get it. And we are resonant to their message. And we have got the judgment. But, my friends, people of the country have to understand that Cassidy doesn't have a murmur of a prayer unless we get in the next several hours, by tomorrow when we vote on this bill, another 15 votes from our Republican side. We have got the Democratic votes. We need our Republican colleagues to come on over, to understand that this is not about partisanship. We cannot separate the politics and the policy. We have to put them together. They have to be in harmony for our children to get the health care that they so richly deserve.”