Political Quotes

“What we are trying to do is actually provide people with the care they need, the doctors they want, at a cost they can afford. Yet, when we look at this health care law that--remember, it was written behind closed doors in spite of the promises. That is why people were so offended and are still opposed to this. We had votes in the middle of the night, and there were all those special deals cut for Senators to get that 60th vote. What I hear most about as I travel my State are the proposed cuts to Medicare. As the Senator mentioned, it was $500 billion. You talked about the President having a commission to look at the debt. What that commission said is that if you are going to take money from Medicare, which this law does--$500 billion--it doesn't do it to help strengthen Medicare or lengthen the life or the vitality of Medicare; it does it to start a whole new government program. It takes $155 billion from hospitals, $202 billion from the 11 million seniors on Medicare Advantage, $15 billion from nursing homes, $40 billion from home health agencies, and $7 billion from hospices. As my colleague from Arizona said--he mentioned the CLASS Act, which has been called a Ponzi scheme that Bernie Madoff would be proud of. The President's own debt commission says repeal that because, with the way that is set up in terms of taking the money in first so they can count that as coming in, the obligations 10 years and beyond will bankrupt this country.”