Jay Rockefeller: “as we move closer than ever to enacting legislation that delivers on the promise of secure and affordable health care…”

“as we move closer than ever to enacting legislation that delivers on the promise of secure and affordable health care across America, it is important to remember what is at stake and whom we are fighting for. Over the last year, I have told many of my colleagues about the Bord family of West Virginia and their son Samuel who suffered from leukemia. Stories like the Bords' are a reminder that our work in Congress has a profound and personal impact on millions of lives every day. Each of us brings to this critical work the shared tragic and trying personal experiences of our friends and neighbors back home. They are real: These stories are a picture of people's lives and their pain. And we have an obligation to honor those struggles and sacrifices by working to make things better for everyone. Yet recently, radio host Rush Limbaugh sneered at the Bords' experience, describing it and other stories highlighted during last week's bipartisan health care summit as 'sob stories.' Always the cynic, he dismissed them entirely, 'Can you believe these stories happen in America?' These stories do happen in America--every day.”