Political Quotes

“When I was chairman or when Senator Kennedy was chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, we switched from doing hearings to doing roundtables. That was an interesting experience too. Instead of having all of the witnesses except one picked by the majority and the other one picked by the minority and then everybody coming up to beat up on the person who was in the opposite field, we went to roundtables. What you do with a roundtable is you pick 2 or 6 or 8 or 10 people who are actually knowledgeable in that field, who have actually done something, who have had their hands on what we were talking about. I remember the first one. One of the questions at the end was by Senator Kennedy, and he asked the witnesses that he and I had selected. This wasn't me selecting; this was a joint effort selecting them. He said: What do you think about single-payer insurance? As they went around, there was only one out of 10 people who said: Well, it might be a good idea, but we probably ought to take a look at it. The rest of them said: It won't work in America. We are already used to something different. When the hearing was over, Senator Kennedy said to me: You know, I think these roundtables are a good idea. I think it is a good thing to kind of hear about what the people are actually experiencing out there before we write the bill. Well, we did a lot of healthcare roundtables. One of the witnesses was from Safeway.…”